Lord Hailsham

This is the official life of one of the most brilliant, powerful and controversial Tory politicians of the post-war ear, a man whose career has spanned British politics and law from the 1930s to the present and whose vivid and often combative personality has brought the values of and earlier age into the political life of today. As Quinten Hogg, Hailsham started his public career in the famous Oxford by-elcetion of 1938. He joined the government just before the Suez crisis in 1956 and remained a strong presence in every Tory goverment until his retirement, holding a varitety of important posts, including Party Chairman when he famously rang the bell to toll the death of the Labour Party.

The extraordinary drama of the 1963 succession to Macmillan is comprehensively revealed in this book, as Hailsham`s highly influential career in the law, where he was Lord Chancellor for twelve years after 1970.