Biography

British foreign secretary (1935-1938, 1940-1945, 1951-1955). British prime minister (1955-1957).

In 1959, an American Magazine paid him $300,000 for an excerpt from his memoir, The Memoirs of Sir Anthony Eden, which Houghton Mifflin published the following year.

He was portrayed by Anthony Calf in the original production of the play "Never So Good", by Howard Brenton , which premiered at the National Theatre, London, UK in March 2008.

His premiership ended when the United States strongly opposed the Anglo-French-Israeli military intervention in Egypt during the Suez Crisis in November 1956. The incident is widely regarded as the end of the UK's role as a superpower, although in reality this had happened during World War II, and arguably by the 1930s.

Won the Military Cross, became a Privy Councillor in 1934, a Knight of the Garter in 1954 and the 1st Earl of Avon in 1961

I am still unrepentant about Suez. People never look at What would have happened if we had done nothing. There is a parallel with the 30's. If you allow people to break agreements with impunity, the appetite grows to feed on such things. I don't see what other we ought to have done. One cannot dodge. It is hard to act rather than dodge.

Hitler was an oddly sympathetic character. He took pains to be reasonable and was extremely well-informed, but intractable in negotiations.

Peace at any price has never averted war. We must not repeat the mistakes of the prewar years by behaving as though the enemies of peace and order are armed with only good intentions.

War I hated for all I had seen of it among my family and friends, for the death, muck and misery, the pounding shell-fire and the casualty clearing stations.

A year later, a by-election at Warwick and Leamington gave me an unexpected opportunity to defeat my sister's mother-in-law, the Countess of Warwick, who had taken up the cause of socialism. I represented this constituency, or rather it remained faithful to me, for more than 33 years.