Macmillan's premiership started at near rock bottom, with his party in disarray following the Suez debacle - it was not at all certain that the Government would last more than a few weeks. It reached its peak with his towering victory in the 1959 General Election, and it stayed for a time on a fairly high plateau, until economic troubles and deflation, the sacking of a third of his Cabinet, the failure of Britain's application to join the Common Market, and the Profumo case, sent his fortunes down almost to where they had been in 1957. And yet his stock was soon to rise again, and if it had not been for the resignation that resulted from a faulty prognosis - largely his own - concerning his health, it would probably have returned to its previous peak with the winning of the 1964 Election.

LRB 27 July 1989 | PDF Download