Lloyd George

John Grigg's four volume life of Lloyd George is one of the great political biographies. This, the final volume, opens with Lloyd George's succession to the Premiership in December 1916, when Britain faced starvation and defeat through the German U-boat campaign, its allies France, Russia and Italy were tottering, the Liberal Party was bitterly divided and unrest in Ireland was growing. Worst of all, military chiefs regarded themselves as at least the equals of the government. To resolve these crises required ruthlessness, political genius and leadership of the highest order. In this thrilling book we see one of Britain's most resourceful Prime Ministers in brilliant action, steering his country to victory.

It is a tragedy John Grigg didn't live to complete his magnum opus but what exists is a masterpiece. Faber Finds is reissuing the four volumes: The Young Lloyd George, Lloyd George: The People's Champion 1902-1911, Lloyd George: From Peace to War 1912-1916, Lloyd George: War Leader 1916-1918.

'With the volume, Grigg crowns the edifice of one of the great biographies of our time.'
Anthony Howard - Sunday Times

'A fitting climax to a path-breaking study.'
John Campbell, Independent, Books of the Year

'Superb... the fullest account we shall ever have of Lloyd George's career as a wartime Prime Minister. It is a fascinating story and is told with panache, vigour, clarity and impartiality by a great biographer... brings out as never before the brilliance of Lloyd George's finest hour.'
Robert Blake, Evening Standard

'A major publishing event... Grigg mingles factual precision, high-interest value and judgements which are mostly as wise as they are forthright.'
Roy Jenkins, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year

'Gripping... essential... This wonderful biography, clear and authoritative, every page a lesson in how to write narrative history, well up to its preceding volumes, recreates both a time of acute national danger and an extraordinary man.'
Max Egremont, Financial Times

Auteur
John Grigg was born in 1924. He read history at New College, Oxford, winning the Gladstone Memorial Prize. As a journalist he wrote a column for the Guardian for ten years, and was also a political correspondent for the Spectator and a staff writer for The Times. He won the Whitbread Award for Lloyd George: The People's Champion 1902-1911 and the Wolfson Prize for Lloyd George: From Peace to War 1912-1916. He was Chairman of the London Library from 1985 to 1991, and its President until his death on 31 December 2001.