Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan

About this book

Packed with new revelations about Macmillans private life as well as key events including the Tolstoy controversy the Suez Crisis Youve Never Had It So Good the Winds of Change and the Profumo Scandal The culmination of 35 years of research by a respected historian this magisterial biography provides an unforgettable portrait of a turbulent age.Great-grandson of a crofter and son-in-law of a Duke Harold Macmillan (18941986) was complex as a person and influential as a politician. Marked by terrible experiences in the trenches in World War I and by his work as an MP during the Depression he was a Tory rebelan outspoken backbencher opposing the economic policies of the 1930s and the appeasement policies of his own government. Churchill gave him responsibility during World War II with executive command as "Viceroy of the Mediterrranean." After the war in opposition Macmillan overhauled the Conservatives on progressive and radical lines; after 1951 in government he served as Minister of Housing Defence Secretary Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He became Prime Minister after the Suez Crisis and between 1957 and 1963 presided over Great Britains transition from the age of austerity to that of affluence. He also proved himself one of the great publishers of his generation.