An historian of 19th and 20th century Britain, Geoffrey Francis Andrew Best was Emeritus Fellow of the British Academy, a former Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Professor of History at Edinburgh, Dean of European Studies at Sussex, Academic Visitor at the London School of Economics, and Senior Member of St Antony's College, Oxford.
While it provided some good information, there were also annoyances throughout. The author consistently would talk about "world war one" and "world war two," the proper way to reference said conflicts if "World War One" and "World War Two." As a historian, he should know this fact which, for this reader, makes one question if his lackadaisical efforts there carried into his research for the book.