John Grigg''s four volume life of Lloyd George is one of the great political biographies. This, the third volume, in the author''s own words ''will cover the five-year period from the beginning of 1912 until the end of 1916, when he replaced Asquith in the premiership. It will attempt to describe his last efforts as a reforming minister in a peacetime party government, and then his transformation into a dynamic war minister as the country faced an ordeal more profoundly disturbing than the civil wars of the seventeenth century, and probably more so than anything it had experienced since the Black Death.''
This volume won the Wolfson Prize in 1985.
It is a tragedy John Grigg didn''t live to complete his magnum opus but what exists is a masterpiece. Faber Finds is reissuing the four volumes: The Young Lloyd George, Lloyd George: The People''s Champion 1902-1911, Lloyd George: From Peace to War 1912-1916, Lloyd George: War Leader 1916-1918.
''The forcefulness of Grigg''s writing makes this biography one of the very few books that are worth reading from cover to cover.'' Norman Stone, Sunday Times
''This is the biography. The research is thorough, the writing is lively, and above all, the stance is right.'' Asa Briggs, Guardian
''Lloyd George is extraordinarily lucky in his latest biographer. It is the measure of his rehabilitation that he can be weighed in the balance by such an exacting critic, found wanting in several important respects, and yet emerge with his human and political stature only enhanced.'' John Campbell, The Times
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