Reviews

Flint, J. Cecil Rhodes.  Little, Brown & Co, 1974. I found this biography of Rhodes in Oxfam and, being quite short, I thought it worth a read. Published in 1974 the book is the work of an American historian and gives every appearance of being a disinterested account of Rhodes, about whom I know next to nothing. Apart from some of the sections about Rhodes setting up some of his companies, the biography is an interesting and illuminating work. Rhodes founded companies with bi

I discovered Jenkins' Dilke at a second-hand book stall when on holiday. Whilst I must have seen the name here and there I never appreciated how important Dilke was and how near he came to being Leader of the Liberal Party, and even Prime Minister. The Jenkin's biography falls into three parts (as did Dilke's life). In the first part (1843-1885) Dilke showed early promise as an outstanding undergraduate and, at the presumptive age of 26, after a world tour, he published `Grea

This biography of Lady Victoria Sackville (Vita Sackville's mother) is well worth reading. She said that her life was like a novel - it...

(First published in ‘F ighting Times’ ) Winston Churchill in 1911. It can be dangerous letting loose a biographer on a man like Winston...

I found this in Oxfam. I see from the end of the book that Jenny Lee wrote it after people had claimed that there was something wrong with her relationship with Nye Bevan because she had not written about Nye after his death. The first third of the book is Jenny Lee on her life before she became involved with Nye, during which, as a working class girl, she had risen to be MP for North Lanark (1929-31) after studying at Edinburgh University. She quotes a lot of letters that sh

Harold Laski 1892-1950 This book is a most interesting biographical memoir of Harold Laski. The author, Kingsley Martin, knew Laski well...

Newnhame College, Cambridge. This is a book, published for the centenary of the founding of Newnham College, comprises items written by...

(This review was first published in Fighting Times .) The Glorious First of June, 1 June 1794. Every researcher knows the excitement of...

Roosevelt and Churchill on USS Augusta where they agreed the text of the Atlantic Charter. I first read this book more than ten years ago...

Colville ‘The Fringes of Power’ Vol 1 (Sir John Rupert Colville was 24 years old when he was seconded from the Foreign Office to the post...

The birth of a diary ‘Ike says I’m to keep a diary.' With these words Captain Harry C Butcher, USNR, begins a diary like no other. He had...

Review of H C Butcher ‘Three Years With Eisenhower’ ( Heinemann 1946). An accidental diarist ‘Ike says I’m to keep a diary.’ With these...