cover image Rab: Lifs R.A.Butler

Rab: Lifs R.A.Butler

Anthony Howard. Random House (UK), $0 (422pp) ISBN 978-0-224-01862-3

Richard Austen Butler (19021982) served as acting prime minister for Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home, and on three occasions came close to moving into No. 10 Downing to stay. As the Conservative party's ""uncrowned prime minister,'' he is also remembered for his 1944 Education Act and his successful handling of successive budgets during his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Butler is elaborately presented as a passive gentleman who steadfastly refused to take initiative ever and whose principal characteristic was ``to make the best of things.'' The only grit to be found in this bland narrative occurs in the account of Macmillan's ``cunning'' and ``ruthless'' opposition to Butler's assumed succession to national leadership in 1963. This is a dull political biography by a British journalist. Photos. (September)