1797 Halifax: The Life of Lord Halifax, by The Earl of Birkenhead (read 25 Sep 1983) This is the authorized biography of Edward Wood, later Lord Halifax, who was prominent in the Anglican orders controversy in the 1890's and in the Malines Conversations in 1926. Edward was born 16 April 1881 and died 23 Dec 1959. He was Viceroy in India 1926-1931 and Foreign Minister after Anthony Eden resigned and until he became Ambassador to the U.S. in January 1941. He ceased being Ambassador in 1946. This book does not spare Halifax entirely, and of course his role in the Neville Chamberlain government was not one of his finer hours. The book is felicitous, and says nice things well, and I rather enjoyed it. The closing chapters are nicely done. "It was with a profound relief that he came at last to the familiar scene and knew that he need never leave it again, and that the rest of his life would be lapped in its repose. Now he could walk again from the house to the top of Garrowby Hill, and see the Dale of York spread out beneath him, and sometimes a glitter in the sunshine from the windows of the distant Minster, and wander back down the paths through Kingtop Wood, or ride again over Cheesecake Wold and look down upon the valley of Megdale encircled by the wolds, a sweep of fields and woods and rolling country, and in a dip of the hills the little village of Kirby Underdale tranquil beside its stream." There is more in the same vein, dwelling on the Yorkshire area where Lord Halifax was born and died. Not a great book, but rather fun to read, in a way. ( )