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A good biography of King Juan Carlos of Spain. It is assiduously researched, and generally well-written. Juan Carlos is an oddity, when you think about it. He was generally given all the power of Generalissimo Francisco Franco and could have ruled as a dictator-king, but he chose to brave the storm and lead Spain to democracy. This came, however, with the odious side-effect of reintroducing socialism into Spain. The recent Zapatero regime has run Spain into the Euro-socialist morass and opened up wounds long-since healed with "memorial commissions," removing Franco statues, and banning (how free speech is that?) symbols of the old dictatorship. Still, Juan Carlos's life is a great tale. He was basically abandoned to Franco by his father Juan of Barcelona, and used as a puppet by both men. The power of his personal conviction to steer Spain to a democratic and constitutional monarchy is heartening. In the end, he is one of the greatest men of the twentieth century. (Except for his dealings with Arafat, who I think makes Franco look like a saint by comparison.) Preston's liberalism does poke through, however. The commies are unflinchingly good it seems, the fascists unflinchingly bad. Franco is presented as a doting old father figure to Juan Carlos throughout the book, as he never had a son himself, and Juan of Barcelona is presented as an unloving, uncaring, power-hungry sot, yet, at the end of all this, Preston writes: "Not only could Franco never match the warmth, good humour and open-mindedness of the Conde de Barcelona [Juan]...." Really? That is the exact opposite impression I got. I saw Juan as a petty and brainless fool, and Juan Carlos as, to sound a bit Freudian, trying to win the love of his absent father. The subtitle is: "Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy," and though Preston tells of Juan Carlos's life in great detail from birth till 1985 or so, he glosses over the rest of his life till 2004 in just a few pages, leaving the story incomplete and unfinished. (Also, Preston glosses over Juan Carlos's personal failings, i.e. mistresses, but ....) ( )