Selwyn Lloyd who was a member of the Conservative party died in 1978. In this biography, the author has aimed to combine the immediacy of personal recollections with a study of both the government records and the relevant private archives. D.R.Thorpe tries to show the many unusual facets of this man who was one of the most significant post-war political figures - Foreign Secretary who survived Suez, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Commons. His relationships with Churchill, Eden, Eisenhower, Home, Macmillan and others are examined and events such as Macmillan's night of the long knives which ousted him as Chancellor, the negotiations with the French and Israelis at Sevres in 1956, the Conservative leadership contests of 1963 and 1965 and the identification of Himmler's corpse by Lloyd are some of the events portrayed.