Tony Blair: Prime Minister

John Rentoul's first biography of Tony Blair appeared in 1995, not long after the politician's election as leader of the Labour Party - the culmination of a meteoric rise.

Two years later Blair presided over the party's landslide election victory: a tremendous affirmation of his popularity and a great vindication for the modernizers he led.

But as New Labour's first real test looms - the battle to win an unprecedented second term - is that popularity still there?

Have Blair and the party he helped reinvent delivered on their promises?

What sort of government does he lead, and is Britain anything like the country he claimed he could create?

These are the questions at the heart of John Rentoul's searching new biography.Not just an updated version of the earlier work, but a fresh approach to his subject, the book includes much new material in its account of a man whose potential has now been put to the biggest test of all: power.