Neville Chamberlain

'This book is of major importance and will fill the last significant gap in modern British political biography. At last, there will be a life of Neville Chamberlain which is complete, authoritative and based on the most extensive research in government and private archives. Dr Self's lucid study gives a balanced examination of Chamberlain's personal and political life, and a crucial reassessment of this most critical and controversial of 20th century Prime Ministers.' Dr Stuart Ball, Reader in History, University of Leicester 'The author, after immersing himself in the diaries of Neville Chamberlain, has made an authoritative reassessment of a Prime Minister much derided because of his policy of appeasement of the dictators of the 1930s. Self reveals his constructive contribution to public life, in Birmingham's local government, as a social reformer and as a key supporter of Churchill against Halifax in stopping Britain's capitulation to Hitler in May 1940.' George Jones, Emeritus Professor of Government, LSE '... Robert Self's study is by far the most scholarly and well-argued. It provides us with an often incisive and highly detailed account of inter-war Conservative politics with Chamberlain at its centre... Self has done his best to defend and explain Chamberlain. His impressive biography is a substantial contribution to modern political history.' The Tribune 'Self's effort to see Chamberlain as the great talent he was is both useful and necessary.' London Review of Books 'The book is well researched and very readable... Much to be recommended.' Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society '... (a) highly detailed and engrossing account ... Neville Chamberlain has at last been blessed with the biography he deserves.' History Today '...Chamberlain was always going to need a very good historian to be his biographer; but, in Robert Self, he has assuredly found one. It is not the least of Self's achievements that he covers all areas of Chamber