Eminent Elizabethans - Piers Brendon

Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger - four figures who have illuminated our age.

Margaret Thatcher - the first female Prime Minister, who dedicated herself with messianic zeal to breaking the mould of post-war British politics

Rupert Murdoch - the billionaire media mogul whose empire, built on an ethical void, has polluted the channels of communication from London to Sydney, from New York to New Guinea

Prince Charles - the royal dilettante whose erratic exploits shook the throne and put his own succession to it at risk

Mick Jagger - lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who embodied the sixties counter-culture of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll yet aspired to be a gentleman and accepted a knighthood at the behest of Tony Blair.

A sequel to Brendon's bestselling Eminent Edwardians, Eminent Elizabethans is written in the same witty, ironic and irreverent style and reveals how each one played out a major theme in the new Elizabethan medley. Each is vividly and vitally depicted through pungent anecdote, piquant quotation and mordant commentary. In short, these brilliant miniatures are as entertaining as they are illuminating.

Piers Brendon is the author of more than a dozen books, including biographies of Churchill and Eisenhower, the best-selling Eminent Edwardians; The Windsors; The Dark Valley; The Hawker of Morwenstow; the highly acclaimed The Decline and Fall of the British Empire and, most recently, Eminent Elizabethans. He also writes for television and contributes frequently to the national press. Formerly Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, he is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

A delight for connoisseurs of irreverence
(4 stars)
Daily Express - Christopher Silvester

The book abounds with funny stories…there are three or four juicy details on every page (4 stars)
Mail on Sunday - Craig Brown

Excellent… By bringing a real historian's discipline to the task, Brendon has unearthed lots of new material, including the first logged double entendre by Margaret "will this gun jerk me off?" Thatcher -
Guardian - Simon Hoggart

He possesses a sharp eye for illuminating detail and for his subjects' contradictions… Often he is as funny as he is viperfish... If there is plenty of acidity here, there is also fairness
Sunday Telegraph - John Preston

Entirely refreshing… Steers well clear of reverence… It's all merrily contentious stuff - and Brendon wears his mask of criticism well
Daily Mail - Bel Mooney