"For a while, during the 13 years when Gordon Brown was at the apex of British politics, it became fashionable, and then a cliche, to depict him as a Shakespearean protagonist. He was the Scot who would be king, consumed by vaulting ambition for the throne, or else the powerful man of action, devoured by envy of his onetime friend."
"But in an illuminating new biography by the political journalist James Macintyre, Brown emerges as something closer to the hero of a Victorian novel: a man who leads an epic life shaped by early misfortune and later tragedy, driven onward by a moral purpose that burns to the very end. His is a compelling story. Bill Clinton was once described as the most psychologically complex occupant of the Oval Office since Richard Nixon;"
Gordon Brown emerges as a Victorian-hero figure whose epic life is shaped by early misfortune and later tragedy and propelled by a moral purpose rooted in Christian faith. He possesses exceptional intellect and psychological complexity comparable to notable modern leaders. He combines public ambition and drive with severe personal flaws: a volcanic temper, enduring grudges, deep suspicion of opponents, and dependence on aggressive spin doctors. These contradictions—moral fervor and intellectual firepower alongside vindictiveness and political ruthlessness—prevent easy categorization within contemporary political and media frames.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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