Hugh Dalton

Intellectual, crusader, patriot, bon viveur, bully, conspirator -- there were many sides to Hugh Dalton, one of the most effective, and strangest of modern political leaders.The Torie called him a class traitor and they were right. Son of a tutor to royal princes, Dalton was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he was taught by Maynard Keynes, fell under the spell of Rupert Brooke, and learnt about socialism from Keir Hardie and Beatrice Webb.Hardened by war and the tragic death of a young daughter, Dalton entered Parliament in 1924. For the next three decades his impact on government policy and on the leadership, organization and philosophy of the Labour Party was immense.In 1940 Churchill put him in charge of the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), issuing the famous Europe Ablaze!' In 1945 Dalton became the most socialist Chancellor of the Exchequer ever, making possible the setting up of the welfare state.Richard Crossman admired Dalton for his 'sheer intellectual and physical power'. Michael Foot described how the song in Dalton's heart 'swelled to a socialist anthem'.In this immensely readable biography of Dalton, the first to have been written, the author not only makes use of official records, interviews and private papers, but also of the hitherto unpublished Dalton Diaries.