'a thoroughly impressive piece of work ù authoritative, reliable and perceptive...This is rightly billed as a "political biography" and in the realm of politics it is remarkably sure-footed'-Anthony Howard<BR><BR>'Very interesting and well researched. The reader gets a real sense of Attlee's life and politics, and the portrait of him is well-rounded and nuanced. This biography will be very useful for students seeking to gain a clear understanding of Attlee and marks a useful addition to the canon of Labour history'-Matthew Worley, Lecturer in History, University of Reading<BR><BR>Clement Attlee ù the man who created the welfare state and decolonised vast swathes of the British Empire, including India ù has been acclaimed by many as Britain's greatest twentieth-century Prime Minister. Yet somehow Attlee the man remains elusive and little known. How did such a moderate, modest man bring about so many enduring changes? What were the secrets of his leadership style? And how did his personal attributes account for both his spectacular successes and his apparent failures?<BR><BR>When Attlee became Prime Minister in July 1945 he was the leader of a Labour party that had won a landslide victory. With almost 50 per cent of the popular vote, Attlee seemed to have achieved the platform for Labour to dominate post-war British politics. Yet just 6 years and 3 months after the 1945 victory, and despite all Attlee's governments had appeared to achieve, Labour was out of office, condemned to opposition for a further 13 years. This presents one of the great paradoxes of twentieth-century British history: how Attlee's governments achieved so much, but lost power so quickly. But perhaps the greatest paradox was Attlee himself.<BR><BR>Attlee's affluent, Victorian background was far from the traditional breeding ground for a Labour Prime Minister. However, perversely, it was arguably only because of his private income that he was able to work as a volunteer at the Stepney Boys' Club in the East End of London, where he underwent a formative political conversion in the years before World War I. This full and wide-ranging biography examines what drove Attlee throughout his life: as a practising barrister; during service in the army during World War I ù when he kept up a warm correspondence with his brother, a conscientious objector; and above all, as a politician.<BR><BR>A powerful political player from his election as MP for the constituency of Limehouse in Stepney in 1922, Attlee helped to determine Britain's course during the twentieth century. Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds analyses his sometimes tense relations with other politicians, especially within his own party, as well as his responses to contentious political issues, such as the Partition of India, American war reparations and his own controversial decision to instigate an atomic weapons programme.<BR><BR>Attlee's obituary in The Times in 1967 stated that 'much of what he did was memorable; very little that he said'. This new biography, based on extensive research into Attlee's papers and first-hand interviews, examines the myths that have arisen around this key figure of British political life and provides a vivid portrait of the man and his politics.