Dick Leonard is an historian, journalist and author and a former Labour MP. For many years he was Assistant Editor of The Economist, and headed their office in Brussels, where he was later also correspondent of The Observer. He also worked for the BBC, and contributed regularly to leading newspapers across the world. His publications include The Economist Guide to the European Union, Elections in Britain, A Century of Premiers: Salisbury to Blair; Nineteenth Century British Premiers: Pitt to Rosebery and Eighteenth Century British Premiers: Walpole to the Younger Pitt.

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• Introduction: The Road to the Prime Ministership Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford – 'all these men have their price' Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington – 'George II's favourite nonentity' Henry Pelham – Pragmatic Heir to Walpole Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle – Mighty Panjamdrum, Feeble Premier William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire – 'I have no motive but the King's service' John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute – the King's 'dearest friend' George Grenville – Able Premier, Undermined by his own Prolixity Charles Wentworth-Watson, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham – the Conscience of the Whigs William Pitt, the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham – 'I am sure that I can save this country, and that nobody else can' Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Gracfton – Well-intentioned Dilettante Frederick North, styled Lord North – Outstanding Parliamentarian, Pity about the Colonies… William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne – Too Clever by Half William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland – Twice a Figurehead William Pitt, the Younger – Peacetime Prodigy, Less Successful in War Epilogue Appendix Index