Mountbatten: The Official Biography

Description for MOUNTBATTEN: THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY by Philip Ziegler: Few were as charmed as that of Lord Mountbatten. Queen Victoria attended his christening. The future Edward VIII was best man at his wedding to one of the greatest heiresses of Europe, one of the most attractive and spirited women of the new generation. Twenty years later, still only in his early forties, Mountbatten held Supreme Command in the south-east Asian theatre of the greatest war the world has known. At its close he found himself responsible for a huge area where the old European empires crumbled in the face of nationalist, often Communist, movements. Hardly had he time to meet this challenge before he was called upon to preside as the last Viceroy and first Governor-General at the transfer of power in India. Of all the services he was to perform, none was more daunting and none more dazzlingly discharged. That was not the end of it. Mountbatten reverted to his interrupted naval career and