Robert Salisbury
It is difficult to look beyond three biographies this year: Jung Chang and Jon Halliday’s Mao (Cape, £25), William Hague’s Pitt the Younger (HarperCollins, £8.99) and Max Egremont’s Siegfried Sassoon (Picador, £25).
Mao is a standing indictment not only of Mao himself but also of the self-hating Left of the Sixties and Seventies who bought his Little Red Book and worshipped at his feet. William Hague on Pitt is elegant, readable and, with admirable clarity and concision, brings a politician’s understanding of the world of Whitehall and Westminster to the service of his scholarship. His return to the Conservative front bench is long overdue. It is risky to puff the work of one’s close relations. However, Max Egremont, ever the stylist, is discerning and elegant about Sassoon. His reviews are richly deserved.
The most overrated book is difficult to pick from a crowded field, but 1776: America and Britain at War by David McCullough (Allen Lane, £25) stands at least a good chance of finishing among the first three.
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