Table of Contents

Preface Part One Dickie Mountbatten, consul, courtier, charmer and chancer 1.Introduction 2.Lord Louis Mountbatten - royal parvenue? Part Two Mountbatten at war, 1914-1939 3. The First World War and the 1920s 4. Fast-tracking in 1930s Part Three Mountbatten at war, Flotilla Captain 1939-41 5. HMS 'Kelly', 1939-1940 6. HMS 'Kelly' 1941 Part Four Mountbatten at war, Chief of Combined Operations 1941-43 7. From Adviser to Chief of Combined Operations 1941-2 8. The Dieppe Raid, 19 August 1942 9. Dieppe - the aftermath, the inquest and the debate 10. 'The steel hand from sea' - Combined Operations at its zenith Conclusion

Promotional Information

Admired as a modernising chief of staff, a timely decoloniser, and a genuine player on the world stage, Mountbatten nevertheless continues to attract fierce criticism. This biography offers a fresh perspective, depicting Mountbatten as a quintessentially modern, and a highly professional figure within the Royal Navy.

About the Author

Adrian Smith is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Southampton, with access to the Mountbatten papers in the University's special collections. He has previously taught at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and the University of Kent. He is an established author, broadcaster and journalist on the political, military, and cultural history of Britain and the Commonwealth over the past hundred years. His books include City of Coventry: Twentieth Century Icon (I.B.Tauris), Mick Mannock Fighter Pilot: Myth, Life and Politics, and The New Statesman Portrait of a Political Weekly 1913-1931.

Reviews

'Lord Louis Mountbatten is one of the most glittering yet mercurial figures of twentieth-century British history. Nobody was neutral about him. For some he was a far-sighted hero; for others he was an intellectual charlatan and a chancer. Adrian Smith gets us very close to the real Lord Louis, and the time is right for a reappraisal of his extraordinary trajectory across military, public and political life.' - Professor Peter Henessy, Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary College, University of London