William Hague (Updated ed)

At the close of the last Conservative government William Hague was a little known junior cabinet minister.

Within weeks the 36-year-old had been elected leader of the Conservative Party, with a mission to rebuild its fortunes after a devastating defeat.

He failed, and resigned as party leader after the 2001 general election following a landslide defeat to the Labour Party.

This paperback edition of journalist Jo-anne Nadler's biography of Hague illustrates his swift and determined rise through the party's ranks and analyzes the influence which drove him to take up politics with a passion in the first place.

Fully updated, Nadler considers Hague's time away from the front bench as a highly successful author, and his return to the Tory high command as Shadow Foreign Secretary under David Cameron.