Beaverbrook

by Anne Chisholm

"I am the victim of the Furies. On the rock-bound coast of New Brunswick the waves break incessantly. Every now and then comes a particularly dangerous wave smashing viciously into the rock. It is called 'The Rage.' That's me." "When Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, wrote these words to Winston Churchill at the height of World War II he was sixty-two, the second most powerful man in the kingdom and (at least in his own eyes) a potential prime minister himself. As Fleet Street's most dynamic and inventive press baron, as cabinet minister, as compulsive behind-the-scenes manipulator, he had already been playing a central role in British public life for three decades, and would continue to do so until his death in 1964. Describing himself as a force of nature was pure Beaverbrook; but no one who knew him would be likely to deny the accuracy of the description." "In this ground-breaking biography, the first to deal objectively with its subject, Anne Chisholm and Michael Davie succeed brillian