The Lion and the Unicorn - Tapa dura

Gladstone and Disraeli were the fiercest political rivals of the modern age. Their intense hatred was ideological and deeply personal. Victorian Britain ruled the oceans and vast territories 'on which the sun never set'. The vitriolic duel between Gladstone and Disraeli was nothing less than a battle to lead the richest and most powerful nation on earth. To Disraeli, his antagonist was an 'unprincipled maniac' characterised by an 'extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition'. For Gladstone, his rival was 'The Grand Corrupter' whose destruction he plotted 'day and night, week by week, and month by month'. Victorians were electrified by the confrontation. No wonder that when Alice through the looking glass appeared in 1871, everyone recognised the great adversaries as the warring lion and unicorn 'fighting for the crown'. Richard Aldous gives us the first modern telling of this dramatic story of an intense and momentous rivalry. His vivid narrative style - at turns powerful, witty, stirring and theatrical - breathes new life into a familiar, half-remembered tale that is pivotal in Britain's island history. "The Lion and the Unicorn" is a brilliant rethinking of the Gladstone and Disraeli story for a new generation. Richard Aldous confirms a perennial truth: in politics, everything is personal.

Richard Aldous is in his thirties and is Head of History & Archives at University College, Dublin. Born in Suffolk and educated at Cambridge, he was awarded his doctorate at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1993. In addition to his brilliantly reviewed life of Malcolm Sargent, Tunes of Glory he has written widely on political history, including two studies of Harold Macmillan: The Last Summiteer and Harold Macmillan and Britain's World Role. He reviews for the Irish Times and is a political analyst for RTE Television. He is married to a musician and they live with their young daughter in County Dublin.