This is the first volume of a major two-volume biography of Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), written because the opening of official papers under the Thirty Years Rule makes it possible for the first time to match his ample collection private papers against the public records, and to bring in from other collections of papers letters written to or by Chamberlain.

This first volume tells the story of the first sixty years of Chamberlain's life: his upbringing as a shy boy and the household of a loving but formidable father; his unexpected initiation, when barely out of his teens, in planning and running a plantation in the Bahamas, from the profits of which Joseph Chamberlain believed he would revive the family's fortunes; the failure of that enterprise and the loss of £50,000 (perhaps £1,000,000 in today's money). There follow sections which show Chamberlain's determination to redeem this failure and prove himself in a different sphere by building up his business concerns in Birmingham, and through service to the city.

The second part of the book dwells on different themes: Chamberlain's belated and reluctant entry into national politics; his rapid rise to high office; his knowledge and reforming zeal which made his tenure of the Ministry of Health the most fruitful of this century; and especially the meticulously planned and deeply informed way in which he refashioned the relations between the Central Government and local administration, and contributed more than any British minister this century to the tradition of national politics locally administered which still underlies much of British government.

Chamberlain's family letters and diaries are freely drawn upon. There is much material about Chamberlain's personal relations with his half-brother Austen, Lloyd George, Baldwin and Churchill. Chamberlain is revealed as a figure of wide culture, many international connections, and much reserve in his personal dealings, but with astonishing energy and resourcefulness in administration and boldness in policy.