Who Is Gordon Brown?

As Gordon Brown prepares to succeed Tony Blair, the current chancellor of the exchequer's plans for Britain's future are unclear. Brown's dour, brusque style is a sharp contrast to Blair's slick verbosity, but some see that as an advantage. “He’s not regarded as a prince of spin or a liar," Oxford's Timothy Garton Ash told the New York Times.

And Brown has been waiting for a long time. He claimed his position as Blair's successor in a well-known but unconfirmed 1994 deal with the PM, who will step down on June 27.  "His dread must be that he will finally get to sup from the chalice only to find that it is poisoned,” Andrew Rawnsley wrote in the Observer. (More Gordon Brown stories.)