RICHARD Nixon was compassionate, bold and courageous. Or so the infamous Tricky Dicky desired to portray himself.

Late at night, the man who was to destroy his own Presidency sat upstairs in the White house, writing tortured memos to himself on yellow legal pads, struggling to define who he was.

But downstairs, he was building a house of deception -- a government of secret orders and false records. And then there was the ticking timebomb of the Watergate burglary cover-up scandal.

Drawing on thousands of newly-discovered and declassified documents, author Richard Reeves reveals the flaws and fallacies of America's most foolhardy President, a desperately introverted man who trusted no one because in his isolation he thought other people were just like him.

President Nixon -- Alone in the White House by Richard Reeves (Simon and Schuster, £25).

Dave Silver