This is a personal selection by editor Hugo Young of mini-biographies taken from the "Dictionary of National Biography" of some of the most important figures in British political life in the 20th century. The selection has been based not only on the subject of the biography but also on the biographer, as Hugo Young explains in his introduction. Approximately 100 articles have been chosen, each written by men and women well known in the political field in their own right. They include noted civil servants as well as MPs, members of the House of Lords, and local politicians. Notable examples of some of the entries include: Edward Heath on William Armstrong, Maurice Shock on Clement Attlee, J. Enoch Powell on Nigel Birch, Ian Gilmour on R.A. Butler, Thomas Jones on Bonar Law, Roy Jenkins on Richard Crosland, Michael Foot on Jennie Lee, Jonathan Aitken on Selwyn Lloyd, Richard Griffiths on Oswald Mosley, John Cole on George Woodcock and Harold Macmillan on John Wyndham.

Introduction. A-Z Biographies