When he died in 1999, Cardinal Basil Hune was mourned not only by the Catholic Church but also by secular Britain. Irrespective of their religious beliefs, people recognised that a great leader had been lost. A leader whose 23 year reign as Archbishop of Westminster brought about a state of harmony within his church and society that hadn`t been enjoyed for four centuries. Granted unique access to Cardinal Basil Hume`s private papers and the people who knew him best, Anthony Howard`s biography is the only authorised study of this truly inspirational man. Not always flattering but consistently honest, it is the story of a humble man who achieved great things simply by following his beliefs.

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Occasionally a meteor streaks across the normally dingy skies of British politics. Richard Crossman was just such a light in the political firmament - a man whose brilliant intellectual gifts often shone too brightly for his own good.

In this first biography of Crossman, Anthony Howard has had full access to his subject's private papers. The result is an unusually candid book which examines all the quirks of Crossman's character with the same tough scrutiny which he customarily applied to his Cabinet colleagues when writing about them in his Diaries.

But this is very much a personal as well as political biography. Crossman's private life was often as stormy as his political career was turbulent - and many aspects of its surface here for the first time, including the true story of the matrimonial entanglement which forced him to abandon his original career as an Oxford don.

Anthony Howard knew Crossman well and this biography displays the same mixture of judgement that characterised his RAB; The life of R. A. Butler. It brings back to life one of the most colourful figures of modern British politics - a compulsive communicator who achieved national fame as a broadcaster and journalist. An instinctive patrician who all his life aspired to be a democrat, and a rebel against the capitalist system who ended up a substantial Man of Property.

This book provides the ideal compliment to Crossman's Diaries and may go some way to explaining why the man who wrote them never attained the reward in politics to which he talents entitled him.