No comments about Margaret Thatcher: Wife, Mother, Politician.

No comments about The Gladstone Diaries: Volumes III & IV: 1840-1847 & 1848-1854 (The Gladstone Diaries).

No comments about THATCHER'S GOLD: LIFE AND TIMES OF MARK THATCHER.

No comments about The Major Effect: An Overview of John Major's Premiership.

No comments about Mary Gladstone: A Gentle Rebel.

1 comments about Young Disraeli 1804 - 1846.

1. Jane Ridley really gets to grips with most of the complex and exotic early life of the great Victorian novelist, "outsider politician" and remarkable statesman who became Prime Minister of the largest empire the world has ever seen. Dizzy's critical relationships with his father and sister are fully explored (material about his mother is much harder to find). His reckless financial speculations, debt and near bankrupcy are used to explain his unlikely switch from literature to politics (MPs couldn't be imprisoned for debt). His romance and marriage to Mary Ann is given sympathetic and illuminating treatment. Jane Ridley spent several years extensively researching this book (witnessed by the hundreds of footnotes and references)but it reads well - not only a respectable academic biography but also a very good read. Disraeli himself would have been pleased.

No comments about John Major: The Making of the Prime Minister.

No comments about Disraeli and Gladstone: A Duo Biographical Sketch.

No comments about Winston and Clemintine: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Churchills.

4 comments about Churchill's Generals.

1. This collection of essays, edited by Keegan, provides a good introduction to most of the generals who made it to the top of the British Army in WW2. The essays are of varying standard and some require a knowledge of the subject and their place in the world. Each article has a bibliography and a career time line. Keegan provides an introduction as to each generals place in the scheme of things and his relationship with Curchill. Generally a good book with some outstanding essays.



2. Churchill's Generals proves to be just that, basic introduction to the British generals who fought under Winston Churchill during the Second World War. Its an interesting collection of soldiers, some which every students of military history knows while others were folks no one never heard off until they read this book. These biographical essays proves to be a mixed bunch. Some are better then others. Some essays proves to be quite insightful and able to give an personal understanding of their subject. Others seem to be written by a clerk copying off some dossier file.
   
   The book is a companion to its sister volumes, Hitler's Generals and Stalin's Generals. I would put this book above Stalin's Generals but its definitely inferior to Hitler's Generals. I haven't seen titles for Roosevelt's Generals or Hirohito's Generals so I guess we are stuck with these three books.
   
   Overall, a pretty basic introduction essays. It should be enough to arouse your curiousity and hopefully you will read more on the subject. Some of the British generals like Slim really do need greater attention.



3. This is another of the biography collections covering World War II generals that was done in the early 90s by a British publisher. In this book we get an introductory essay by editor John Keegan that puts the rest of the book in context, describing how Churchill dealt with generals, what he thought of them, and how he related to them, briefly. After that, we have a series of short (each about 20-30 pages) biographies of various commanders from the British Army in World War II. The editor chose to restrict himself to officers from Britain itself, so no Guy Simonds or Bernard Freyburg. He chose commanders who had some influence on the outcome of the war, or who were somehow outstanding or memorable, so no Miles Dempsey. Instead, the editor chose those soldiers who stood out in some way, or were somehow instrumental in the victory in a fashion that can't be ignored.
   
   Within this, as is usually the case in such a volume, the individual biographies are somewhat uneven. Some are written as if you know everything already about World War II, and others are written in a very elementary style, as if you know nothing. Some are also more editorial or review of the individual's character and actions (the essay on Montgomery is the most obvious one in this category) while other seek merely to inform you about the person involved. There are two combination biographies, one covering the "Desert Generals" (Cunningham, Ritchie, and Leese) and another covering two generals who were more involved in diplomacy during the war, Adrian Carton de Wiart and Edward Spears. These tend to do little more than recount the facts of these men's careers: there's no space for anything else.
   
   I think the general researcher who's looking for a reference work covering this topic will find this book useful, if only in a limited fashion. Since the coverage is rather limited, you're going to be disappointed if a particular soldier isn't covered here and he's the one you're trying to research. On the other hand, if you are looking for information on someone who *is* here, then you're going to get more data here than you would from the Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, for instance. So it depends on whom you're researching.



4. This book is an interesting and exceptionally well-done introduction to the British perspective of World War II. Each of the seventeen chapter is a biography of a key British general during this conflict. Some are well-known (Montgomery), while others have largely been forgotten (Sir Henry Wilson). Five generals end up having to share two chapters. Each and every one, though, gets a good biography. There are differences in focus, emphasis, and interpretation, which is to be expected, but none of these entries is weak. This fact in and of itself makes this book unique among in its genre.
   
   The authors come from a number of backgrounds: academia, journalism, and the military, including a general and a field marshal. One of the contributors is Australian, another is American and the rest are British. The reader is getting a good cross sampling of the British perspective.
   
   The main theme that emerges from these essays is the importance of interpersonal relationships with both Churchill but also other generals. The chapters also do a good job of introducing the reader to issues in the literature without getting bogged down in the details. Each chapter concludes with a chronology of the general's life and career.
   
   A reader unfamiliar with British military culture will stumble on some issues: the acronyms are completely different: GOC and KCB to give only two examples. (General Officer Commanding and Knight Commander of the Bath---a knighthood that gives the individual the title of "Sir.") The practice of keeping generals on half-pay is another practice that is often referenced but never explained. (A general without an assignment received only half his pay. If he did not receive an assignment after two years, he was retired.)
   
   Nonetheless, this book is easy to read and is recommended without reservation.