Lord Reading

Lord Reading's was the sort of career that sounds wonderful on a dustjacket. To quote this one: 'Rufus Isaacs was the first commoner to rise to the rank of marquess since the Duke of Wellington'. (This actually forgets Curzon, but let that pass). 'Born into a lively Jewish family engaged in the London fruit trade, he went on to become a brilliant QC, Lord Chief Justice ... Ambassador to the United States, Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary ... Trusted by Asquith and at the same time very close to the controversial Lloyd George.'

To rise from such a background to the heart of politics, and to such a variety of glittering offices – taking in an early hammering on the Stock Exchange, the Bar (lots of gripping courtroom dramas) and a major corruption scandal on the way – here surely is a biographer's dream. One can see why Denis Judd should have felt that Reading, despite previous biographies by his son and by Montogmery Hyde, had the makings of an attractive addition to his already impressive bag of subjects.