Harold Macmillan: a Life in Pictures

From his birth at the height of the Victorian Empire, Harold Macmillan has been involved in the great events of the century, playing an increasingly important role. For the first time the unrivalled compass of his career is celebrated in a pictorial record.

The book describes his childhood; his youth at Eton and Oxford; his distinguished service in the Grenadier Guards in the First World War; and his election to Parliament in 1924 as member for Stockton-on-Tees.

Harold Macmillan’s great contribution as Churchill’s Minister Resident in North Africa and the Mediterranean in the Second World War, and his successes and failures as a Cabinet minister until he finally became Prime Minister in 1957, are also chronicled in this book. So too are his relations with parliamentary colleagues such as Churchill, Eden, Butler and Home, and his dealings with world leaders like Eisenhower, Kennedy, Khrushchev and De Gaulle.

However, that is to a large extent merely the public face. This book also unveils the private face, for the photographs represent a personal selection from his own archives. It is as if the reader were leafing through a family album.

Harold Macmillan: a Life in Pictures published by Macmillan, 192pp, Hardback £12.50. Available on Amazon US.

Reviews:

Contemporary review — Frank Longford

The Economist