Attlee: A Life in Politics, Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (I. B. Taurus & Co., London and New York, 2012, first published in hardback 2010) xviii, 329pp., paperback, £12.99, ISBN 978 1 78076 215 9

Attlee gave the impression of being shy yet he is often thought of as the greatest prime minister of Britain in the twentieth century; outstripping Winston Churchill.  He is credited, not entirely fairly, with creating the welfare state and he certainly presided over the decolonisation of India and other vast areas of the British Empire.  Labour gained a landslide victory in 1945 - and lost the election six years later, despite its achievements meanwhile.  The Times obituary of 1967 commented that much of what he did was memorable but little of what he said.

Thomas-Symonds, lecturer in Politics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, provides a thought-provoking account of Attlee's life.  Attlee was born in 1883 to a professional middle class family and led the party from 1935 t0 1955, always allowing talented colleagues freedom of action.  A graduate of Oxford, Attlee had not been to school until he was nine for unexplained reasons.  He became a socialist before World War I and was much influenced by the horrors of Gallipoli.

The book is very readable and nicely illustrated from a great variety of sources including the well-known photograph of Attlee with papers and pipe.