Brief Lives from Washington to Trump

Gimson's Presidents

An illuminating account of the lives of each President of the United States, illustrated by Martin Rowson.

This is history at its liveliest and most enjoyable. Most presidential biographies are abominably long-winded and reverential. With miniaturist wit and precision, Gimson manages to compress all the salient facts about each president into five or six pages, while offering beautifully crafted insights into their characters and temperaments ... There is something fascinating or funny on every page

Witty and succinct with splendid caricatures

Andrew Gimson’s hugely enjoyable collection of biographies of the 44 US Presidents (not 45, I have learned) is rendered all the more fun, as his books ever are, by Martin Rowson’s cartoons.

Brief Lives from Walpole to Johnson

Gimson's Prime Ministers

An illuminating account of the lives of Britain’s Prime Ministers, illustrated by Martin Rowson.

Gimson's Prime Ministers is a crisp and stylish account of every one of them

Hugely enjoyable... has the added bonus of glorious illustrations

Andrew Gimson's Prime Ministers is the best general book on British politics I've ever come across. Learned, witty and wise, and splendidly illustrated by Martin Rowson, with great snippets for dinner parties. Take Henry Pelham, prime minister from 1743 to 54: "He lived without abusing his power and died poor."

The secret of prime ministers is that they are weak. This is a conclusion of Andrew Gimson’s wonderful portraits in his new book

If you associate Lord Salisbury more with a pub than with politics, here is Andrew Gimson to the rescue... This spirited blend of politics and anecdote is wonderfully complemented by Martin Rowson's Georgian-style caricatures. Tony Blair's tombstone teeth embedded in Iraq are unforgettable

Pacy and entertaining. It is a perfect refresher of British political history, deserving of a place in the discerning reader’s downstairs loo alongside Gimson’s excellent earlier volume on Kings and Queens, which was, like this one, beautifully illustrated by the cartoonist Martin Rowson.

A gem of a book...a constant delight

It could hardly be done better. His pen portraits of our 54 prime ministers are lucid, pithy and perceptive... a galloping good read

The most engaging and insightful account of PMs to have been published

Andrew Gimson is the author of Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson, published by Simon &amp; Schuster in 2006 and described as ‘brilliant’, ‘scintillating’ and ‘an effervescent delight’. He writes for a wide range of newspapers and magazines, and is a contributing editor to ConservativeHome.com. He lives in London.

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
A concise, sharp-witted and illuminating account of the lives of Britain’s prime ministers from Walpole to May, illustrated by Martin Rowson. 
 
For the reader who has heard of such giants as Gladstone and Disraeli, and has drunk in a pub called the Palmerston, but has only the haziest idea of who these people were, Gimson’s Prime Ministers offers a short account of them all which can be read for pleasure, and not just for edification. With Gimson’s wonderful prose once again complemented by Martin Rowson’s inimitable illustrations, this lively and entertaining aide-memoire and work of satirical genius brings our parliamentary history to life as never before. 
 
PRAISE FOR GIMSON'S PRIME MINISTERS: 
 
'The most engaging and insightful account of PMs to have been published' Arthur Seldon, Standpoint 
'Learned witty and wise, and splendidly illustrated' Tibor Fischer 
'Hugely enjoyable' Tom Holland 
 
Gimson's Kings and Queens is also available.

Andrew Gimson

Brief Lives of the Forty Monarchs since 1066

THE NEWLY REVISED EDITION 
 
Gimson&rsquo;s Kings and Queens is the most entertaining and instructive book on the English monarchy you will ever read. 
 
For lovers of history, the experienced and the novice, the serious and the silly. 
 
Gimson&rsquo;s Kings and Queens whirls us through the lives of our monarchs &ndash; from 1066 and William the Conqueror right up to Queen Elizabeth II and the present-day &ndash; to tell a tale of bastardy, courage, conquest, brutality, vanity, vulgarity, corruption, anarchy, absenteeism, piety, nobility, divorce, execution, civil war, madness, magnificence, profligacy, frugality, philately, abdication, dutifulness, family breakdown and family recovery. 
 
Written in Andrew Gimson&rsquo;s inimitable style, and illustrated by Martin Rowson, Gimson&rsquo;s Kings and Queens is both a primer and a refresher for anyone who can't quite remember which were the good and bad Edwards or Henrys, or why so-and-so succeeded to the throne rather than his second cousin.

Andrew Gimson

Books by Andrew Gimson

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