Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had?

Description

Richard Austen 'Rab' Butler is frequently described as 'the best Prime Minister that Britain never had'. The description reflects his popularity with the electorate, credit that accrued to him from the revolutionary 1944 Education Act that generally bears his name, and his tenure of the three great offices of state. In this full-length biography, Jago examines Butler's steady rise, his banishment from the inner councils of the War Cabinet, his remarkable revival as the progressive face of the post-war Tory Party, his four years at the Treasury, and the gradual but relentless eclipse of his career after Anthony Eden's accession.

Michael Jago read Ancient History and Philosophy at University College, Oxford before settling in the USA in 1980. For fifteen years he ran an educational travel business, focusing on the battlefields of Western Europe. Previously a publisher and editor of a number of journals, he now specialises in biography. Previous publications include The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of George Bingham and Clement Attlee: The Inevitable Prime Minister (shortlisted for the 2015 Paddy Power Political Biography of the Year Award), published by Biteback in 2013 and 2014 respectively. He lives in both Chicago and south-west France.

"[An] excellent political biography ... well worth reading." - The Spectator; "[An] excellent, insightful biography of Rab Butler, ... a thoughtful, liberal Conservative whose time never seemed to come."- Choice