Each of these essays evokes a personality or illuminates a problem: the mysteries of class distinctions, the recent travails of the British monarchy, the difficulties and dangers of being the Prince (or the Princess) of Wales, the malevolence of Lord Beaverbrook, the varied motives for imperial expansion, and the unhappiness of Harold Macmillan. They discuss (and sometimes dismiss) many of the most important -- and notorious -- works of history and biography to have been published during the last decade on both sides of the Atlantic. And directly and indirectly they explicate the premierships of Margaret Thatcher and John Major and the presidencies of George Bush and Bill Clinton and the ways in which contemporary events have helped to shape and change our perspectives on the past. The book not only provides entertainment and enjoyment of the highest order but also sheds new and sometimes unexpected light on that unending dialogue between the past and the present that is both the essence and the excitement of history.