Customer Reviews

Lloyd George

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This biography of the Welsh politician David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945) by the civil servant Thomas Jones (1870 - 1955) is lucky to have seen the light of day, for the author suffered many setbacks in writing it. Jones was in his seventies when he wrote it and faced the opposition of Lloyd George's second wife Frances Stevenson, who denied him access to Lloyd George's Parliamentary and political private papers. Lord Beaverbrook refused him permission to quote from Lloyd George's War Memoirs and the American publishers demanded that Jones drastically cut down the size of the book. It is therefore remarkable that sixty years after it was published, Jones' biography should still be cited as the best one volume biography of Lloyd George. Perhaps the only one that could surpass it is Peter Rowland's more recent effort.

Inevitably in such a short biography of so long a career (he sat in the House of Commons for 55 years), many important moments in Lloyd George's life are briefly sketched. However Jones has managed to compress the great events and controversies into understandable summaries: this is the perfect biography for someone beginning to study Lloyd George.

One of the downsides is the reticence Jones seems to have on revealing his closeness to Lloyd George. Jones was Lloyd George's friend since before the Great War and so it is surprising to find so few personal references of their relationship. For example when Lloyd George visited Hitler in September 1936, Jones accompanied him but he does not mention this in the book, he merely lists everyone else who went there with him. Had Jones been more unrestrained it would certainly have added to our understanding of the Welsh Wizard.

Because of the problems (noted above) that Jones had in writing this book, this is not the definitive study of Lloyd George. But for anyone looking for a competent, highly readable short biography of The Man Who Won the War, this is it.

Writing not long after the great man's death, Tom Jones, who knew him well and worked with him at two periods, gives us a fine portrait of Lloyd George. Every book has its weaknesses. There is no mention of LG's marital infidelities, and Jones is also rather brief on the financial scandals and LG's visit to Nazi Germany. Generally Jones is just a bit too short with each episode to dig deep enough for the critical reader or historian. However it is a most lucid and flowing narrative--every page is a pleasure to read. One can read it without losing the thread, and re-read it and learn more the second time round.
So strongly recommended.

Thomas Jones' biography of David Lloyd George is acknowledged by many critics today to be the best biography of Britain's greatest war leader [with Churchill].

Some critics acclaim Roy Hattersley's recent effort to be better than most... but non-Welsh biographers labour under a great disadvantage in their lack of understanding of Welsh society and can not therefore be expected to do justice to Lloyd George whose career owed so much to the influences he experienced during his up-bringing and early manhood in north Wales.

After reading Thomas Jones' effort I can quite understand why critics claim it to be the best .... a thoroughly good read ...