Never before has the House of Lords been more threatened. The hereditary principle certainly hangs in the balance, but nobody can know precisely what the future holds. What is beyond doubt, though, is that hundreds of years of tradition are at stake. That history and tradition are here related by a peer. A complete history from the Norman conquest to the present day, the volume charts the waxing and waning over many years of the institution's importance. It begins with a peer's-eye view of developments introduced by the modernizing Blair administration and concludes with an examination of the nature and working of an unelected House of Lords in an age of democracy. Combining history, anecdote, comment and wit, Lord Longford's account offers profound insights.