'Engagingly written, as unputdownable as a biography gets' Financial Mail'A rich and beautifully nuanced portrait of Milner ... a great feat, given all the paradoxical complexities of the man's life and character.' Duncan Campbell-Smith, former Financial Times and Economist journalistFrom the acclaimed biographer of Jan Smuts, a revealing new account of Empire-builder and First World War Cabinet minister Lord Alfred Milner. Alfred Milner was one of Britain's most famous empire builders who both contributed to the Allied victory in the First World War and left an indelible imprint on the history of South Africa. Yet his legacy is contested and little understood. Largely responsible for the Boer War - a conflict marking the beginning of the end of the British Empire - afterwards Milner helped to unify South Africa, but brewed resentment among Afrikaners. In Britain, from 1916, Milner was part of Lloyd George's five-man War Cabinet, and the driving force behind the Imperial War Cabinet wh