Buy used £17.69

FREE delivery March 9 - 18. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Like New | Details

Sold by Owls Books

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the author

David Adams Richards

Lord Beaverbrook (Extraordinary Canadians) Hardcover – 14 Dec. 2011

by David Adams Richards (Author), John Ralston Saul (Introduction)

10 ratings

See all formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

£9.49

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

£17.69

—

£17.69

Kindle Edition
£9.49 Read with Our Free App
Hardcover
£17.69

1 Used from £17.69

Press baron, entrepreneur, art collector, and wartime minister in Churchill's cabinet, Max Aitken was a colonial Canadian extraordinaire. Rising from a hardscrabble childhood in New Brunswick, he became a millionaire at age 25, earned the title of Lord Beaverbrook at 38, and by age 40 was the most influential newspaperman in the world. Fiercely loyal to the British Empire, he was nonetheless patronized by London's upper class, whose country he worked tirelessly to protect during World War II. David Adams Richards, one of Canada's preeminent novelists, celebrates Beaverbrook's heroic achievements in this perceptive interpretive biography.

Print length

177 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Global
Publication date

14 Dec. 2011
Dimensions

13.97 x 1.91 x 20.57 cm
ISBN-10

0670066141
ISBN-13

978-0670066148
See all details

Charles Williams
9
Hardcover
8 offers from £4.36

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Global (14 Dec. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 177 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670066141
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670066148
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 1.91 x 20.57 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 2,871,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 932 in Canadian Historical Biographies
- 12,595 in Business Biographies & Memoirs (Books)

Customer reviews:
10 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

David Adams Richards

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5

10 global ratings

5 star		40%
4 star		14%
3 star		25%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		21%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Mr. Philip Masters

A very accessible biography, chatty if slightly lightweight. Good bedtime reading. Sloghtly pricey, I thought for its length.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 1 December 2016

Very readable

the gray eminence in british politics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 July 2013

Verified Purchase

Maxwell Aitkens was a ambitious and in many way rude politician, who used all means to reach his goals. This book should be read as intro to the mam - the official and unofficial biographies are much heavier to deal with.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 7 May 2015

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 10 October 2008

He wasn't physically large, but his physical presence was never in question. His horizons were endless, but he had the drive and ambition to strive to reach them all. Max Aitken's story reads like a modern fairy tale, but the people and circumstances are real. From a Newcastle, New Brunswick childhood, during which his ability to maneuver people for his own ends was manifested early on, Max rose to become a Peer of the Realm, much to the distress of several of the other peers. At the same time he had become the most influential newspaperman in the world. All this before the age of forty!

David Adams Richards was the ideal choice to portray Max. As a novelist, his approach to Aitken's life bears an intimacy few historians possess. A native of Beaverbrook's home town, he has a fine writer's touch for bringing Max Aitken to life. The author's style is well-tuned to the personality of his subject. Aitken's career seems to have left him little time for reflection, there was always something else to accomplish.

Aitken's drive for success emerged early - he started a newspaper at 13. After a short term as an office boy in a law office, he moved to Halifax, where he came under the tutelage of John Stairs, who taught him financial matters. A somewhat shady business affair led him to leave Canada for Britain. There, he moved upward with amazing speed to earn a Knighthood in 1911. The outbreak of WWI prompted the Canadian government to put him in charge of an archive of Canadian activities in the conflict. Not a record-keeper, Max used the role to promote Canada's role in the war. Before the Armistice was signed, Max Aitken had become Lord Beaverbrook - title taken from the region near his home.

In the interwar years Aitken had his foot in two, related realms. Intelligence and propaganda were closely related in those days. But his other interest lay with the newspaper business, and his takeover of the 'Express" papers rejuvenated the chain. Among other causes it promoted was Free Trade among the members of the British Empire. As a Canadian, Max had suffered a good many snubs and sneers for being a "Colonial", but his wish for equal status really was based on economic issues. The culmination of all these activities, of course, was the appointment of newspaper baron Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, to being in charge of aircraft production shortly after the breakout of WWII. How incongruous - a publisher doing manufacturing? On reflection, the answer is dead easy. Aircraft production requires organisation and management skills. Max Aitken had demonstrated such abilities from an early age. This is a little giant of a book about a little giant of a man. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	AbeBooks Books, art & collectables	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Download Audiobooks	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	DPReview Digital Photography	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations

Amazon Home Services Experienced pros Happiness Guarantee	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands

Amazon Warehouse Deep Discounts Open-Box Products	Amazon Business Service for business customers	Whole Foods Market We Believe in Real Food

Follow the author

Lord Beaverbrook (Extraordinary Canadians) Hardcover – 14 Dec. 2011

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

About the author

David Adams Richards

Customer reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.