John english biography pierre elliott trudeau biography

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Bestselling biographer John English gets behind the public record and existing glancing portraits of Trudeau to reveal the real man and the multiple.

Want to read. Rate this book. John English. Bestselling biographer John English gets behind the public record and existing glancing portraits of Trudeau to reveal the real man and the multiple influences that shaped his life, providing the full context lacking in all previous biographies to-date. As prime minister between and , Trudeau, the brilliant, controversial figure, intrigued Canadians and attracted international attention as no other Canadian leader has ever done.

Volume One takes us from his birth in to his election as leader in Born into a wealthy family in Montreal, Trudeau excelled at the best schools, graduating as a lawyer with conservative, nationalist and traditional Catholic views. But always conscious of his French-English heritage, desperate to know the outside world, and an adventurer to boot, he embarked on a pilgrimage of discovery — first to Harvard and the Sorbonne, then to the London School of Economics and, finally, on a trip through Europe, the Middle East, India and China.

He was a changed man when he returned — socialist in his politics, sympathetic to labour, a friend to activists and writers in radical causes.

This is the first volume of John English's biography of the life of Pierre Trudeau.

Suddenly and surprisingly, he went to Ottawa for two mostly unhappy years as a public servant in the Privy Council Office. He frequently shocked his colleagues when, on the brink of a Quebec election, for example, he departed for New York or Europe on an extended tour. Yet in the s and 60s, he wrote the most important articles outlining his political philosophy.

And there were the remarkable relationships with friends, women and especially his mother whom he lived with until he was middle-aged. He wrote to them always, exchanging ideas with the men, intimacies with the women, especially in these early years, and lively descriptions of his life. He even recorded his in-depth psychoanalysis in Paris.

This personal side of Trudeau has never been revealed before — and it sheds light on the politician and statesman he became.