Harold Macmillan

Harold Macmillan was Conservation Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963. Beneath the studied Edwardian manner he cultivated lay a subtle and acute intelligence and his reputation for unflappability, which he was careful to foster, concealed a surprising sensitivity.

Personified as ‘Supermac’ in Vicky’s famous cartoons, he was an early master of the now widely used sound bite and his phrase-making still appears in quotation dictionaries; for example, ‘a little local difficulty’, ‘a wind of change’ and ‘selling off the family silver’.

Charles Williams explores the life of one of the great political chameleons of the 20th century.