Description
Book SynopsisWhether you want to explore how our Prime Ministers came to reside in No.10 Downing Street, read about the official mice-catching cats also dwelling there, learn about the rarely seen soft side of the Iron Lady, or discover how Sir Robert Peel invented the police, there is something for every enthusiast to dip into.
Table of ContentsContents Introduction 9 Man of the Forest - Disraeli's passion for trees Idle Jim - James Callaghan's first days in the job Speak as You Think... And Cherish Freedom - The mottoes of prime ministers Long Odds at Number Ten - The huge unlikelihood of anyone ever becoming prime minister The Inventor of Spin - David Lloyd George and the uses of the press `I am murdered, murdered...' - The strange assassination of Spencer Perceval Churchillian, but not Churchill - Five things Churchill is said to have said, but didn't Whips and Wicked Women - The peccadilloes of William Ewart Gladstone You Probably Could Make It Up - Five fictional prime ministers Terms of Office - The revolving door of Number Ten Great and Small - The diminutive Lord John Russell Born to Rule - Where do our prime ministers come from? Speaking in Tongues - The Gladstones' private language Words with Bite - Churchill's rhetorical false teeth The Great Helmsman - Heath on the crest of the wave A Quick Bath - William Poultney's quite brief turn of office Dear Prime Minister - The growing postbag at Number Ten Behind the Big Black Door - The power that resides at Number Ten Downing Street Inside Chequers - The country home of the ruling prime minister Unknown to Fame - Benjamin Disraeli, the London dandy Horses for Courses - Lord Rosebery and the Epsom Derby Dizzy's Wit - Words of wisdom from the works of Benjamin Disraeli Born for the Job - Robert Peel's pushy father Top of the Greasy Pole - Prime ministers' reaction to getting the job Sleepless in Mayfair - Lord Rosebery's cure for insomnia Boardroom Bullies - Questionable behaviour in Cabinet Premier League - The 20th-century prime ministers ranked in order of greatness Be a Butcher and Know the Joints - Prime ministers on the cut and thrust of politics Cat, Cop, Club... - Ten things named after Mrs Thatcher Who's your Uncle - How a helping hand can make all the difference Dictator or Democrat? - The two political faces of William Pitt Constabulary Work to be Done - Sir Robert Peel and the invention of the police Thatcher the Compassionate - The soft side of the Iron Lady Out the Door - Becoming an ex-PM Lend me your Ear - Wellington's unlikely brush with an untimely death Speak Easy - Asquith's gift of the gab Pam's Scandals - Digging the dirt on Lord Palmerston The Pursuit of Idleness - The slothful philosophy of Arthur Balfour Like Father... - Political dynasties in the House of Commons Ugly Rumours - Lord North, his wife and his daughter More Ugly Rumours - Tony Blair's mercifully brief Mick Jagger phase Beware the Iron Lady - The Russians' accidental compliment to Mrs Thatcher Brothers in Office - The premiership of Pelham and Newcastle Sex and the City of Westminster - Unparliamentary liaisons Before a Fall - Prime ministers and their bumps, hurts and scrapes An Unknown PM - The unjust eclipse of Andrew Bonar Law A Kingly Likeness - Prime ministers and the royal blood No Higher than a Policeman - Prime ministers' descriptions of the job Beamish Boy - The unequalled brilliance of Pitt the Younger Unseated - Life after Leadership Last Resting Place - The funerals of prime ministers Blair Play - Acting out politics `The Goat-Footed Bard...' - Maynard Keynes' assessment of Lloyd George William Pitt and the Credit Crunch - How one prime minister tackled an economic crisis The Actors who have Played Churchill - Portrayals on television and in the cinema Clever Clogs - The immense brains of Gladstone and Disraeli Bullingdon Boy - David Cameron's Time with Oxford's Posh Elite One of Bellamy's Veal Pies - Last Words of the Prime Ministers Robert Cecil's School Days - Lord Salisbury's hellish time at Eton John, Paul, George, and Harold - Wilson's desperate pursuit of popularity Cry, Baby, Cry - The politics of tearfulness Portrait of a Lady - The moulding of Mrs Thatcher Pistols at Dawn - Prime-ministerial duellists Herbert Henry, Henry Herbert - The changing forenames of prime minister Asquith A Train of One's Own - Lord Salisbury's Commute PMs and their Pets - Four-legged creatures in Downing Street Cycling Dave - The two-wheeler politician Clement Attlee, the Comic Poet - The prime ministerial letter in verse Clem, Pee-Em - Another Attleean verse Roses are Red, Tories are Blue - The PM who Loved to Arrange Flowers Evil Likenesses - PMs in cartoons and satires Wilson, a Russian Spy? - Cloak-and-dagger stuff at Number Ten A Period of Silence - The man-of-few-words style of Attlee After Anthony - Choosing the successor to Eden Allure of the Handbag - The feminine charms of Margaret Thatcher `Crisis? What Crisis?' - The damaging quote that never was A Melancholy Pacifist - The Unhappy life and premiership of the Earl of Aberdeen Bute on the Back Foot - Britain's most unpopular prime minister Four Things Named after Prime Ministers - Eponymous prime-ministerial paraphernalia The Iron Teddybear - The Duke of Wellington's soft spot for children Four More Things Named after PMs - A tea, a tow, a faithful promise and an item of footwear Trouble with Gladstone - The most insufferable prime minister of them all Destruction of a Masterpiece - The lost last portrait of Winston Churchill `Give it to Brown...' - Salisbury's inability to put a name to a face Hamish and the Sorceress - Ramsay MacDonald's love for Lady Londonderry A Home for Alec - A man between two houses The Complete Roll Call - All the prime ministers from Walpole to May Index
