A splendid biography, which deals justly and fairly with all the controversies of Gladstone's life ... It is a notable achievement and will not be easily superseded. * The Times *
Roy Jenkins has written many good books. This is his best. It is beyond praise. -- Vernon Bogdanor * Evening Standard *
Inspired by affection for his tremendous subject, the author has scaled the heights with panache ... [Jenkins's] evident delight in the man and his story carry the reader along as though on the crest of a wave. -- Claire Tomalin * Independent on Sunday *
Jenkins is a master of irony ... This helps to make the book enormous fun to read, while it is also enlightening in any number of ways. -- John Grigg * Sunday Telegraph *
Deliciously spiced with mordant wit,
Gladstone can be read for sheer pleasure. But it is the wisdom as well as the wit that ensures this biography will live on. * Guardian *
This biography matches one of Gladstone's own towering performances.
* Sunday Times *
The combination of author and subject makes Roy Jenkins's
Gladstone irrestistible ... His biography is all you need to know about Gladstone including the things you never dared ask. * Independent *
Roy Jenkins has written the definitive biography of William Ewart Gladstone, the 'Grand Old Man' of Victorian politics. Jenkins is a consummate biographer ...
Gladstone is his
chef-d'oeuvre. * Daily Express *
As befits the heroic grandeur of its subject, this is an admirable proportioned and beautifully written book, by turns enthralling, moving and (sometimes) very funny . . . It is the best single volume biography of a Victorian statesman since Robert Blake's like of Disraeli. What higher praise can there be? -- David Cannadine * Observer *
