Century of Premiers

Dick Leonard is a political journalist and former Labour MP. Previously Assistant Editor of The Economist, he has also worked for the BBC and The Observer. He is the author, or co-author of some 20 books, including Elections in Britain, The Pro-European Reader, Crosland and New Labour and The Economist Guide to the European Union.

'Dick Leonard's insightful, fair-minded and marvellously readable study of the twenty British prime ministers of the twentieth century fills a glaring gap in the literature on modern British history and politics. It will be a 'must' for sixth-form and University reading lists; and no one interested in the role of the individual in politics should be without it.' - Professor David Marquand, former Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, and Biographer of Ramsay MacDonald 'A very great achievement.' - David Owen 'Immensely informative, beautifully written...both instructive and entertaining.' - Roy Hattersley 'An excellent book,' - Michael Heseltine 'A brilliantly balanced, and lasting, view.' - Clive Bradley, former Chief Executive of the Publishers Association 'Leonard has produced a reliable work, which will prove particularly useful to students of British History. We can only hope that he finds the time to finish the next two volumes as quickly as possible.' - Humanities - Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte

• Introduction Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquis of Salisbury - The Man Who Stayed Too Long Arthur James Balfour - Bob's Your Uncle Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman - "A Good, Honest Scotchman" Herbert Henry Asquith - Not Quite in the Gladstone Mould David Lloyd George - "A Dynamic Force" Andrew Bonar Law - Tory Puritan Stanley Baldwin - "A Man of the Most Utter Insignificance"? James Ramsay MacDonald - An 'Aristocrat' Among Plain Men? Neville Chamberlain - A Family Affair Winston Churchill - His Finest Hour Clement Attlee - Quiet Revolutionary Sir Anthony Eden - Self-Destruction of a Prince Charming Harold Macmillan - Idealist into Manipulator Sir Alec Douglas-Home - Right Man, Wrong Century? Harold Wilson - Master - or Victim - of the Short Term Edward Heath - Cheerleader for Europe James Callaghan - Labour's Conservative Margaret Thatcher - Grocer's Daughter to Iron Lady John Major - "Thatcherism with a Human Face" Tony Blair - Governing Against his Party Appendix: Prime Ministers of the 20th Century Index