Beginning with Heath's early years - his childhood in Kent, student days in pre-war Oxford, wartime military service and short business career - Ziegler goes on to chart Heath's effortless rise through the ranks of the Conservative Party He captures Heath's rivalry with Harold Wilson and the supreme drama of 1974 - the year of two elections and a hung parliament - with its uncanny parallels for our own times Politics consumed Heath's life but he found time for other pursuits, becoming an accomplished conductor and an internationally successful yachtsman The book explores Heath's endlessly fascinating personality and casts fresh light on the financial affairs and private life of this most complex of political leaders