Universally acclaimed as one of the great political lives, Alistair Horne offers a vivid portrait of one of the twentieth-century's most complex political figures: the crofter's grandson and the duke's son-in-law, the soldier and the scholar, the bon viveur and the devout high churchman. Using extensive interviews and exclusive access to unpublished diaries, letter and private papers, Horne explores the Macmillan hiding behind the showman and reveals the insecure and unhappy man remembered as Britain's most 'unflappable' statesman, one of the most consummate politicians of British history.

'Alistair Horne has done Harold Macmillan proud ... a superb biography and a major contribution to history' Robert Skidelsky, Sunday Times

'Macmillan was essentially an artist in politics, and in Alistair Horne he has found an artist in biography. The result is the most completely satisfying life yet written on any twentieth-century British statesman' David Cannadine, Washington Post

Sir Alistair Horne was born in London in 1925. His many books include Back into Power; Small Earthquake in Chile; The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 ; and The Seven Ages of Paris. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-62 won both the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize and the Wolfson History Award in 1978, and he is the official biographer of Harold Macmillan. In 1970, he founded a research Fellowship for young historians at St Antony's College, Oxford. In 1992 he was awarded the CBE; in 1993 he received the French Légion d'Honneur for his work on French history and a Litt.D. from Cambridge University.