De Gaulle

To an extent which nobody but the man himself could have believed possible, General de Gaulle imposed his vision upon a country - and even perhaps upon a continent.

Again and again, standing virtually alone, he changed the course of history. One may admire his grandeur, his courage, his tenacity; one may detest his arrogance, his conceit, his wilful blindness. But one can never ignore him.

By the time Aidan Crawley published this classic biography of his subject, De Gaulle had been a legend for almost thirty years, and around him there had accumulated a literature of staggering size.

A few of the books were intelligent and informative; the rest were either gossip, vituperative criticism or blatant propaganda. Almost all reflected some private point of view and illuminated only a small corner of their great subject. A major biography covering his whole career and written without prejudice and preconception was curiously lacking before Crawley’s opus.

A former politician and minister, a Francophile, a convinced though temperate European, a journalist and author of distinction, he was well qualified to understand, to assess and, where necessary, to judge, every aspect of de Gaulle’s monumental career.

Scrupulous research, lucidity of style and a sense of history combine to provide a biography worthy of its subject, Charles de Gaulle.