Bøger af Douglas Hurd

Sir James Percival, a cool, world-weary veteran of Tory politics, finds himself with a small but workable majority after 7 years of Labour rule and might be forgiven for looking forward to a quiet life. But life, especially in politics, isn't like that. His 2nd wife Helena & disreputable son Antony don't get on & the move to No.10 leads to flare-ups that can't be kept private. The Cabinet are soon at odds over Ireland where a new wave of violence has crested out of a calm sea. Popular, brilliant Jeremy Cornwall, young rogue elephant of the Toryies, exploits the opportunity with a crusade to Bring the Boys Home. The Government's attempt to counter-attack is disastrously betrayed by someone inside No.10. Suddenly in a matter of weeks the government is fighting for its life & the PM has sinister information that his own may be at short call. How these events themselves with the personal relationships of the PM's immediate circle, how people in a tight corner discover qualities they were never suspected of, how the sheer pace of events takes charge, how politics is the most addictive of all drugs, Douglas Hurd shows with all the deceptively easy mastery of the real professional.

In September 2015 Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain's longest-reigning monarch. During her long lifetime Britain and the world have changed beyond recognition, yet throughout she has stood steadfast as a lasting emblem of stability, continuity and public service.Historian and senior politician Douglas Hurd has seen the Queen at close quarters, as Home Secretary and then on overseas expeditions as Foreign Secretary. Here he considers the life and role of Britain's most greatly admired monarch, who, inheriting a deep sense of duty from her father George VI, has weathered national and family crises, seen the end of an Empire and heard voices raised in favour of the break-up of the United Kingdom.Hurd creates an arresting portrait of a woman deeply conservative by nature yet possessing a ready acceptance of modern life and the awareness that, for things to stay the same, they must change.With a preface by HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

A 'gripping, succinct and lethal' (Matthew Parris, THE TIMES) reappraisal of the life of Benjamin Disraeli, the most celebrated and colourful politician of the nineteenth century.

'A page-turning book about the history of British foreign policy' INDEPENDENT

Life of one of the greatest British Prime Ministers - by an author who knows the scene from his years as a senior Minister in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet.

* Popular history of 200 years of international diplomacy by distinguished former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd.

** An uncommonly well-written political memoir by a man who has been at the heart of government for a generation. ** '... in a different league from those (memoirs) written by his accomplices in the Thatcher & Major administrations' Simon Heffer, LITERARY REVIEW