Product Description

From August 1950 until 1966, Harold Macmillan kept one of the fullest and most entertaining political diaries of the 20th century. This first volume starts in the last full year of the post-war Labour government, follows his rise through the Churchill and Eden governments via a succession of high offices, and culminates with his becoming Prime Minister in 1957. Macmillan was an acute observer of events and people, not just in his own country or party but on the wider international and political scene. His diary provides wry portraits of many of the leading political figures of the period and records his personal take on the great issues and events of the day. In the process, Macmillan's wider activities and inner concerns are also revealed, casting light beyond the famously "unflappable" exterior onto the character of one of the most enigmatic figures in modern British political history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #411367 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Customer Reviews

Plus ca change
I wish more journalists would read these diaries. They might see modern events in greater perspective. The Blair/Brown nexus pales into insignificance when you read about Churchill and Eden. The golden age of politics never really existed. In 1955 Macmillan refers to "machines for both sides are in control and any struggle is within parties, rather than between them." In May 1956 he refers to a paper on reform of the house of Lords. The lead up to the Suez business, particularly the role of the UN is a preview of Iraq. These are not dry, self justifying diaries. They are written with a waspish wit and in a wonderful style fuelled by Macmillan's prodigous reading. I cannot recommend them too highly.

Machiavelli's student
Harold Macmillan is a curious figure, a self-conciously Edwardian grandee who led Britain into the modern era. In many ways he was an anachronism, a Prime Minister increasingly out of touch with the ways of modern life and regularly pilloried by the satirists for his complacency, his patrician outlook and his aristocratic, doddering mannerisms.

Yet at the time he wrote these diaries all this was in the future. Churchill was sliding into his dotage, his remaining energies spent on depriving Eden of the supreme office, apparently for his own mischievous amusement. When the old man finally left the stage, helped on his way by Cabinet dissent and a push from Macmillan himself, Eden soon wrecked himself on the rocks of Suez. Macmillan, clambering up the greasy pole with startling agility, witnessed it all from within the inner circle and faithfully recorded his thoughts. As Catteral states, one increasingly gets the impression that by 1955, with the Premiership conceivably within his grasp, Macmillan was writing for posterity.

He was right to be worried for his reputation. The Macmillan who emerges in these pages is a somewhat unattractive figure, slithering around Whitehall and Westminster in a manner that would have done Machiavelli proud. Alternately self-pitying and full of bravado, Macmillan passes the most scathing comments on his colleagues. Churchill is effectively senile, Eden little better than an hysterical schoolgirl. The lesser members of the Cabinet fare even worse. These diaries do not, at least in the earlier pages, suffer from discretion. Mingled with slashing personal judgements are acute political observations and the occassional revealing comment about his tortured family life.

In this volume is Macmillan in his own words. Only occassionally does the tortured bon viveur descends to banalities. But this is an accurate reflection of the man; a rather ordinary individual with a streak of brilliance and a remarkable talent for flashy self-promotion. Buy this book if you even remotely interested in this seminal period of British history.