Rosebery - Tapa blanda

'Judicious, well-researched and engrossing' -- Sunday Times 'Stunning ... As well as being meticulously researched, it is beautifully written and has tremendous pace' -- Literary Review 'Absorbing ... McKinstry has here proved himself to be a first-class historical biographer' -- Mail on Sunday 20050529 'With masterly skill and sympathy, Leo McKinstry resurrects him as the Hamlet of late Victorian England' -- Daily Mail 20050529 An authoritative and original biography which is also a riveting read' -- Spectator 20050529 'Superbly well-researched and well-written ... A truly first-class addition to the genre of Prime Ministerial biography' -- Sunday Telegraph 20050529 'An absolutely wonderful biography ... gripping and entertaining' -- Evening Standard 20050529 'A first class biography, scholarly, judicious and always interesting' -- Glasgow Herald 20050529 'Remarkable' -- Country Life 20050529 'It does a wonderful job of conjuring up the lost world of late Victorian politics' -- Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph 20051203 'Admirable biography of a paradoxical figure whose tenure at No 10 was a disaster' -- Jeremy Lewis, Sunday Times 20051204 'Written with such genuine and obvious enthusiasm that what would have been stodgy (let's face it, 500 pages on Victorian politicos is no guarantee of riotous fun) becomes engaging, enlightening and entertaining' -- Marcus Keane, Irish Times 20060429

The Fifth Earl of Rosebery was the most glamorous Liberal politician of the late Victorian age. Charismatic, enlightened, wealthy and intellectually brilliant, he once said that he had three ambitions: to marry an heiress, win the Derby and become Prime Minister. By his mid-forties, he had achieved all three. But his political career was clouded by his mercurial character. Self-centred, impulsive and neurotic, he shrouded himself in mystery and was caught up in many of the greatest scandals of his era. Now, using a wealth of archival material, award-winning author Leo McKinstry reveals the dramatic, compelling story behind this paradoxical figure.