How did Gerry Adams grow from a revolutionary street activist - in perpetual danger of arrest and assassination - into the leader of Sinn Fein, with intimate access to the British and Irish prime ministers and the US president? And how did he outlast them all?

Drawing on newly available intelligence and scores of exclusive interviews, Malachi O'Doherty's meticulously researched biography sheds light on the history of this extraordinary shape-shifter. O'Doherty's experience as a journalist, as a correspondent during the peace process and as a commentator on Northern Irish affairs, informs this authoritative account of one of the world's most controversial politicians.