Sir Malcolm Rifkind's political career has been as glittering as it has been long-lived. Indeed, as a minister for eighteen years, he has seen longer uninterrupted service than anyone since Lord Palmerston in the early nineteenth century.

In both the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence, during some of the most turbulent years of the late twentieth century, he had a ringside seat at Margaret Thatcher's historic summit with President Gorbachev, was in charge of British troops during the Bosnian conflict, helped change Polish history during the Cold War, and held secret negotiations on the Falklands with the Argentinians. For his robustness against the Kremlin's aggression in Ukraine, he is currently banned from Russia by President Putin.

Now, from the man himself, comes the inside story of all those affairs and more. From Rifkind's battles with Margaret Thatcher over Scotland to his five pivotal years as chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, overseeing GCHQ, working with MI6, meeting the CIA, Power and Pragmatism is the shrewd, humorous and frank memoir of a genuine political heavyweight.