F. E. Smith - First Earl of Birkenhead

''The most fully researched and fully revealing life of this particular Lord Chancellor that we are ever likely to get.'' David Cannadine, London Review of Books

F.E. Smith was the most brilliant political personality of the Edwardian era: ''the cleverest man in the kingdom'', said Beaverbrook. The youngest Lord Chancellor since Judge Jeffreys, he engaged in some of the most bitter political battles of the age: Ulster, trade union reform, the House of Lords. He emerges from this masterly biography as a massively compelling figure.

''A triumph of scholarship, judgement, lucidity and art... Like its subject John Campbell''s book is leisurely, feline, and very, very clever.'' Roy Foster, Guardian

''A model biography.'' A.J.P. Taylor, Observer

''A joy... 800 pages of trenchant and often vivid prose.'' The Times