In 10 days, the chancellor will become prime minister. But who is he � and what turned a vivacious student into the dour control freak of media legend? Alan Taylor talks to friends of the old, and the new, Gordon Brown, while Jamie Lafferty travels to Kirkcaldy to meet his constituents

THE history of Britain is littered with stories of nearly men, those who came close but got no cigar, who have been added to the long list of contenders for the prize of the best prime minister we never had. One thinks, for example, of Nye Bevan, the Welsh firebrand with the silver tongue, of Rab Butler, whom many expected to succeed Anthony Eden but who was gazumped by wily Harold Wilson, and also - nearer our own time - of Michael Heseltine, Roy Jenkins and John Smith, all of whom fell frustratingly short of achieving their cherished goal.

For a long time it looked as if Gordon Brown was destined to join them. As Tony Blair clung tenaciously to power, each year that passed tested the Chancellor's fragile patience and his tungsten resolve. What was Blair up to? Had he not sworn to Brown he would stand down after serving a second term? It seemed as if he and his erstwhile partner in the New Labour project were locked in an interminable game of poker, the one waiting for the other to blink first. Who, one wondered, would finally snap?

The moment came on Thursday, May 10, 2007, when Blair travelled to Sedgefield and, his voice choking with emotion, declared he was standing down. "Hand on heart," he said, referring to the invasion of Iraq, "I did what I thought was right for our country." Nominations were then invited for Labour's new leader. The Chancellor's was the first hat to be hurled into the ring. For once there was no dilly-dallying. Potential challengers had 17 days to muster the backing of 45 MPs in order to turn the coronation into a contest. No-one got anywhere near that number. Thus, barring the cruellest twist of fate, Gordon Brown will on June 27 become our 52nd prime minister.

And so Brown will get the job for which he has endured a nail-biting apprenticeship. In recent weeks, as his graduation day looms, the shoulders have straightened, the smile has broadened and he looks as if the monstrous weight of expectation has lifted. For some, leadership is a burden so onerous itdebilitatesthem.Forothers,suchas Brown, it energises them. Bill Campbell, a close friend of the PM-in-waiting since university days, and now one of Brown's publishers, expects him to come out with all guns blazing. "If I know Gordon he'll be planning quite a dramatic entrance."

Formanypeople,however,Brown remains - in Churchill's immortal words - a riddlewrappedinamysteryinsidean enigma. His former student, radio presenter Simon Pia, compares Brown to Shakespeare's Prince Hal, who became a model king after a madcap youth. Others liken himtoHeathcliff,dark,gloweringand handsome, his silence seething with righteous anger. Famously, an unidentified member of Blair's coterie, probably Alastair Campbell, described him as psychologically flawed. Last autumn, Charles Clarke, a former Cabinet colleague, developed the theme. Brown, he said, was a control freak, adding: "His massive weakness is that he can't work with people." Lord Turnbull, ex-head of the civil service, invoked Stalin. Morerecently,witnessesonaTVprogrammequeuedtodenouncehimas arrogant, rude, uncommunicative, suspicious, a dour, mean-spirited, petulant bully who would not trust a lollipop man to see him safely across a road.

Yet there is another, almost diametrically opposed, side to this most complicated of characters, as enthusiastically attested by those who knew him when he was growing up in Fife in the 1950s and at university in Edinburgh in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ThisGordonBrownoozedcharmand charisma and was guilelessly attractive to women as George Clooney. He grew his hair long, liked a drink but was rarely seen the worse for wear, and was universally admired. "He was a star already," remembers Pia. "You'd often see him in the company of older men - journalists, academics, Labour Party people. People would say, You know, he could be a prime minister one day.'"

Bob Cuddihy, a fellow student of Brown's, recallshimreadingGeorgeDavie'sThe Democratic Intellect and David Halberstam's The Best And The Brightest until the books were falling apart, thus fusing the Scottish Enlightenment and JFK's Camelot. "He was a smashing guy," adds Cuddihy, "perfectly normal. Gordon was just one of the boys, albeit one of the brighter boys." Bill Campbell recalls meeting him at a party during freshers' week. "He was well pissed. Thenagain,so wasI."Theyhavebeen mateseversinceandoftenholiday together. The first time Campbell encountered Tony Blair was when he was playing tennis with Brown. "I'll just be a minute, Tony,"saidBrown."Andhewas,"says Campbell, "because I beat him. I thought he Blair was another of Gordon's acolytes."

To begin to understand Gordon Brown you need a rudimentary grasp of Scottish Presbyterianism. Too often it is portrayed as joyless, guilt-ridden and tortured, the church of John Knox and Lord Reith. That, though,isonlypartlyaccurate.Other adjectives which could be attached to it are compassionate, democratic, independent, inclusive, selfless. Its central place in Scottish society - particularly at the time when Brown was a boy - can hardly be overstated. Moreover, before the advent of devolution the Kirk's annual General Assembly was the nation's de facto parliament, the one arena where the issues of the day could be aired and debated.

This was the backdrop to Brown's formative years. His father, John, was a minister whomadehisthreesonsawareofthe poverty and illness that existed in his down-at-heel Kirkcaldy parish and its unlovely environs.Livinginamanse,recalled Brown: "You find out quickly about life and death and the meaning of poverty, injustice andunemployment."Hisfatherwashis first influence, initially for his ability to speak without notes in front of a crowd, an artwhichhissonsoonmastered,and because of his benevolent attitude towards people. "He taught me to treat everyone equally," Brown has said, "and that is something I have not forgotten."

Life, according to the gospel of father Brown, was a gift which was precious and unpredictable. Who knows how long any of us have to live? With that uppermost in mind, Brown's father emphasised the need to live every day as if it were our last. "So let usnottriflebecausewethinkwehave plenty of time ahead of us," he preached. "We do not know what time we have. We cannot be sure of the length of life ... Thereforeuseyourtimewisely.Liveasthose who are answerable for every moment and every hour."

These were words which Brown must often have recalled as he was obliged to kick hisheelstheselastfewyears.Asaboy, though, they spurred him to achieve. Tasks, his father inculcated, were worthless if left uncompleted. Failure was unconscionable. Foreachofuswithoutexceptionthere would come a day when we would be called to account, when our every act would be scrutinised. There can be little doubt that Brown took these sentiments to heart. At school,tellingly,heexcelledbothinthe classroom and on the playing field.

At the age of 10, together with his friend MurrayElder,nowLordElder,hewas enrolled at Kirkcaldy High School as part of an experiment to fast-track the cleverest children. For some it worked. For others the pressure proved too much and their lives were subsequently blighted. Brown thrived but recognised that the experiment was flawed. In many respects he was a normal boy, grieving with the rest of a disconsolate nation over Scotland's 9-3 loss to England at Wembley in 1961. Determined to be a footballer, he was equally adept at other sports, including athletics. But he was also, as he writes in his new book, Courage - which presents "portraits" of eight of his heroes - fascinated by people who risked their lives in the pursuit of adventure or who placed themselves in harm's way in order to help others. The story of nurse Edith Cavell who during the first world war was arrested, tried and executed for setting up routes behind enemy lines for escaping Allied prisoners, impressed him most profoundly. Coincidentally, her father, like his, was a man of the cloth. "Cavell's life," he writes, as if sending himself a memo, "was not just the sum of chance and accident, but of powerfulresolveateachcrossroadsin her life."

Brown set himself high standards. At 15 he had achieved sufficient Highers to read history at Edinburgh University. However, prior to him crossing the Forth he sustained an injury while playing rugby which it has been suggested changed him psychologically. At first he delayed seeing a doctor. Eventually detached retinas in both eyes were diagnosed. It was six months before treatmentcouldbegin,duringwhich period the condition worsened and there was a danger of him losing his sight. In the event one eye was lost. For six months he was confined to hospital, unable to read, barely able to move, and uncertain about hisfuture.Itwas,hereflected,"aliving torture".Itwasalsoareminderofhis father's dictum, that fate has a habit of intervening when you least expect it.

Brown emerged from his darkest hour intent on making up for lost time. It was 1968 and he was 17. He shared a flat in Marchmont with a shifting group of fellow students. His untidiness and lack of domesticityhavebecomethestuffoflegend. Once, recalled sometime flatmate George Duncan, he put some eggs on to boil and went for a bath. The eggs exploded. He used to stuff dirty clothes under the bedclothes, having been told dirt would oxidise and they would clean themselves. On the rare occasions he did the washing up he would use Domestos rather than Fairy Liquid.

DonaldDewaronce dropped by the flat and was greeted by a young woman wearing a T-shirt bearing the legend "Gordon for me", and nothing else. She was one of the "Brown Sugars" - a group of young women who, according to Pia, were "very vivacious, lively and living student life to the full". Named after the Rolling Stones song, they were campaigning for Brown to become student rector in 1972. Dewar was dumbstruck. Brown, distracted by some heavyweight tome, gave the impression he wouldn't have noticed if the girl had been topless.

On another occasion Pia arrived back in the wee small hours at Marchmont with a couple of the Sugars. Brown could be heard tappingawayonhistypewriter.Ever sociable, he joined them for a drink. As Pia left, with the dawn rising and milkfloats rattlingonthecobblestones,heheard Browntappingawayagain."Therewas always a touch of the manse about him," says Pia, "but not in an inhibiting way. He waswell-likedandrespected.Hehada maturitybutwasveryapproachable.He was someone everybody wanted to know."

Brown, says Bill Campbell, who was editor of the student newspaper, was a fantastic contributor. "If you needed an article in a hurry, Gordon was your man." Brown was also a contributing editor to Alternative Edinburgh, a guidebook which tapped into thecounter-culturezeitgeist."Thebest thing about Edinburgh can be the train out of it," it offered by way of introduction. "Like all tourist economies, the capital city livesonconningits 11.4 million tourists, exploiting the bulk of its half a million residents and raping its cultural heritage. Poverty is the only thing that's officially free in the city ..."

Almost unthinkably, the man responsible forsuchopinionsbecamechairofthe universitycourt.Tothechagrinofthe authorities, Brown - ably abetted by the voluptuous Sugars - became Edinburgh's second student rector. His friend and flatmate, Jonathan Wills, had preceded him but, to the relief of the university establishment,resignedbeforehecoulddoany damage. Brown, however, not only took up the post but exercised his right to chair meetingsoftheuniversitycourt.Sir MichaelSwann,thevice-chancellor, attemptedtoremovehimbutBrown appealed to the Court of Session and won. When Swann tried again the Duke of EdinburghintervenedonBrown'sbehalf. Brown,ittranspired,wasconveniently dating the Duke's goddaughter, Princess Margarita of Romania.

The historian, Owen Dudley Edwards, recalls an evening of intemperate imbibing when he and Brown and the writers Hugh and William McIlvanney arrived back at the flat to find Margarita nursing her wrath. Normally, wrote Tom Bower, Brown's unofficial biographer, his friends would crash out on the floor while he read a book. "Butonthisoccasion,whileMargarita loudly reproached him, he picked her upandlaughinglycarriedhertothe bedroom."

This stretches credulity, especially when onethinksofcontemporaryprofilesof Brown. But it is the unanimous view of those who knew him then that he was a work-hard, play-hard, archetypal student without a moment to lose. The Brown of current media caricature, says Cuddihy, is "not the guy I know". Even so, there is little doubt that in the three decades since he left university, Brown's public character has undergonearadicaltransformation,invariably allowing his detractors and enemies to regurgitate PG Wodehouse's quote about itnotbeingdifficulttodifferentiate between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.

Some, like Pia, suggest that those anxiousmonthsspentwonderingwhetherhe would see again must have taken their toll, making him appreciate just how slender is the line between success and failure. He was soon to be reminded of this after he graduated, when he tried to convert a part-timelectureship at the university into a permanent position only to be blocked by those whom he had so recently embarrassed. "They forced me out," he concluded.

But he must also have grasped that he had received a hard lesson in realpolitik. From now until his election to parliament he dabbled in journalism and academia. At ScottishTelevisionheworkedasa researcher. Russell Galbraith, then its head of news and current affairs, recalls him doing an uncanny impression of Oswald Mosley, in preparation for an interview with the former Blackshirt. Ahead of the 1982 WorldCupinSpain,Brownscouted locations and made sure there was transport to convey STV's staff from Malaga to Seville for Scotland's game against Brazil. Galbraith will never forgive him for not selecting David Narey's spectacular "toe-poke" as his favourite goal, preferring instead one by England's Paul Gascoigne against Scotland.

In 1978 Brown had his first chance to become an MP when a by-election arose in Hamilton.HadhechallengedGeorge Robertson for the nomination he might have won it. Riven by indecision, he opted to remain as the candidate for Edinburgh South. In 1979, he had another opportunity to win a safe seat - Leith - but again he hesitated, perhaps because there was no certaintyhewouldwinthenomination. Finally, in 1979, he stood as Labour candidate for Edinburgh South and was defeated by Tory Michael Ancram. As Margaret Thatcherpromisedtobringharmony where there had been discord, Brown sat in an armchair in Marchmont enveloped in gloom. It would be four more years before he would get another chance. This time the seat - Dunfermline East - was situated in an area nicknamed Little Moscow. In a previous generation it had been the fiefdom of Willie Gallacher, a communist. Brown won with more than 11,000 votes to spare. He was in and on the way up.

Whatthislitanyof prevarication illustratesisatrait common throughout Brown's career. When faced with a toughdecisionhe has shown a tendency to freeze, as though afraid to trust to his instincts or to put himself in a position where he might be seen to fail. The most telling example of this came when Labour Party leader John Smith died in May 1994. Who would succeed him, BlairorBrown?Thelatterseemedthe obvious choice. He had the gravitas, the intellectual depth, the backing of the trade unions, a track record inside the Labour Party. Moreover, he was made in Smith's mould.IndeedBrowncouldhavechallenged Smith for the party leadership in 1992 but didn't in deference to his mentor. Blair,incontrast,seemedalightweight known only to Westminster insiders.

But while Brown mourned, Blair swiftly marshalled support. By the time Brown had takenoffhisblacktiethecontestwas virtually over. A Scotsman poll of Scottish MPs confirmed Brown's cause was hopeless.Wouldhehavewonhadheacted earlier? We - and he - will never know. What we do know is that the loss of initiative left him looking like an amateur when it came to procuring power. When the opportunity came, Blair was the sprinter and Brownwas left languishing on the blocks.

The $64,000 question, says former MP Tam Dalyell, who has known Brown since he was an "obstreperous" student, concerns his "stomach", his capacity to take difficult, painful,courageousdecisions.Doeshe have it? Thatcher did. So, undoubtedly, did Blair.DalyellbelievesthathadBrown married and had a family earlier he would have been a more attractive prospect to the Labour Party and the electorate. As it is, the long wait for Blair to stand aside has bred in Brown a sense of grievance which manifests itself in unholy rages and painful silences. It is hard to discern where he really stands on crucial issues. Like Macavity the cat he is adept at making himself scarce whenthetemperatureinthekitchenis turned up. Where, for example, does he really stand on Iraq? He could have made it a test of Blair's leadership given that he, like othermembersoftheCabinet,never received the attorney-general's full advice about the legality of the invasion. But what especially irks Dalyell is Brown's assertion thathisfatherwouldhaveapprovedof Trident. "Why claim that?"

"Gordon substituted the Labour Party for God,"ishowDudleyEdwardsexplains the difference between the old and the new Browns. When in doubt Brown has always toed the line, stuck loyally to party policy, bent to Blair's will. Why? Because his eye was always fixed on the bigger prize? He may insist that the only thing that matters to him is "doing the right thing" but that has never led him to put his own position in jeopardy.

Reading Courage, Dudley Edwards was reminded again of the Brown of old. In particular, he was impressed by the chapter on Robert Kennedy, one of Halberstam's best and brightest, whose assassination made him another of history's nearly men.

"Can we explain why Robert Kennedy," writes Brown, "who started his political life seenashisbrother'shard-edgeand enforcer - gaining a reputation as calculated and ruthless - became the hero of a new idealism and passion about the future? What changed the man who was known for yearsasoneofthetoughestpolitical operators ... into one of the most caring visionaries? What took him beyond politics as the acquisition of power to a conviction that politics only mattered if it had the power to transform lives?"

Tothisdayno-oneknowswhether Kennedy was genuine. Was he really a born-again altruist or a calculating, vote-seeking schemer whose belated opposition to the war in Vietnam was designed to bring him the White House? We shall never know. However,weshallknowsoonwhere Gordon Brown stands vis-à-vis war and other matters on which he has hitherto been conspicuously quiet. Until now he has either observed a self-imposed omerta or hiddenbehindthecloakof"Cabinet responsibility". Whatever one thinks of him it was not the conduct of someone whose favourite word is "courage". But 10 days hence he will need to stand up and be counted. Then, we shall see how courageous he can be.