The Prime Minister

Churchill once likened the Britich prime minister to a sun from which all other luminaries in public life derived their radiance, although the old warriors postwar record dimmed memories of his former brilliance. The achievements of Churchill's 'Indian summer' premiership mingle, however, with more bizarre recollections by contemporaries about the habits of his companions at NO 10: not least Toby the budgerigar prone to opening his bowels on the Chancellor's bald head. This shamelessly personal style of heading a government - and how the role had changed since Churchill had first occupied it - are at the heart of Hennessy's examination of this institution. It is an office that remains unique, a metaphor for Britains's puzzling 'silent construction', shaped by its incumbent and hence a reflection of his or her strengths and shortcomings. The political historian's guided tour takes the reader into the minds if the 11 individuals who have occupied the office since 1945. In doing so, he develops a unique audit of performance: Attlee and Thatcher score highly as 'weathermakers' transforming the British agenda, while the hapless Eden and Major languish in catastrophic and overwhelmed categories of their own. Hennessy's aim is to examine an issue clearly troubling him: the temptation to carve from such a fluid office a presidential style of rule at the expesnse of Cabinet and Parliment. Much of this book would, indeed, appear to be a preface to his examination of Tony Blair's prime ministership, one dogged by criticism of his Napoleonic command and control style - a style which Hennessy himself warned in 1997 usually 'ended in tears'. This authoritative history is by far Hennessy's most significant, yet it is delivered with his characteristic ablility to feed us fascinating titbits that bring wihtin our reach otherwise remote historical subjects. (Kirkus UK)