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D. R. Thorpe
D. R. (Richard) Thorpe (born 1943) is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of three British Prime Ministers of the mid 20th century, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Macmillan. Education and academic career Thorpe was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He taught history at Charterhouse, a public school in Surrey, for over 30 years. Among other academic appointments, he was Archives Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and Brasenose College, Oxford. Published works Thorpe's first book, ''The Uncrowned Prime Ministers'' (1980), examined the careers of Austen Chamberlain, Lord Curzon and R. A. Butler, three men who came close to reaching the "top of the greasy pole" (Disraeli's phrase, applied by Thorpe to Home's ascent to the premiership). He was subsequently the official biographer of the former Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker of the Hous ...
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Sir Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promotion as a young Conservative member of Parliament, he became foreign secretary aged 38, before resigning in protest at Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy towards Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy. He again held that position for most of the Second World War, and a third time in the early 1950s. Having been deputy to Winston Churchill for almost 15 years, Eden succeeded him as the leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister in 1955, and a month later won a general election. Eden's reputation as a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in 1956 when the United States refused to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez Crisis, which critics across party lines regarded as a historic setback for British foreign policy, ...
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Clarissa Eden, Countess Of Avon
Anne Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon (; 28 June 1920 – 15 November 2021) was an English memoirist and the second wife of Anthony Eden, who served as British prime minister from 1955 to 1957. She married Eden in 1952, becoming Lady Eden in 1954 when he was made a Knight of the Garter, before becoming Countess of Avon in 1961 when her husband was created Earl of Avon. She was also the niece of Winston Churchill. In 2007, at age 87, she released her memoir subtitled '' From Churchill to Eden''. On the death of Lady Wilson of Rievaulx in 2018, Lady Avon became the oldest living spouse of a British prime minister. She turned 100 in 2020, the second British prime minister's spouse to become a centenarian after Wilson. She also outlived four other prime ministers' spouses who came after her: Lady Dorothy Macmillan (died 1966), Elizabeth Douglas-Home (died 1990), Audrey Callaghan (died 2005) and Sir Denis Thatcher (died 2003). Early life Clarissa Spencer-Churchill was born in ...
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Churchill Archives Centre
The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of former British prime minister Winston Churchill. In addition to housing the personal papers of Churchill, the centre also houses the private papers of other notable figures, including former British prime minister Baroness Thatcher, Ernest Bevin, Enoch Powell, Lord Kinnock, Sir John Colville, Lord Hankey, Admiral Lord Fisher, Field Marshal Lord Slim, Sir John Cockcroft, Sir James Chadwick, Professor Lise Meitner, Dr Rosalind Franklin, and Sir Frank Whittle. The centre is the national and Commonwealth memorial to Winston Churchill and has been awarded designated status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The centre is open to the public. Its mission is to preserve the collections in its care for future generatio ...
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Kenneth Rose
Kenneth Vivian Rose (15 November 1924 – 28 January 2014) was a journalist and royal biographer in the United Kingdom. The son of Ada and Jacob Rosenwige, a Bradford Jewish surgeon, Rose was educated at Repton and New College, Oxford. He served in the Welsh Guards 1943–6 and was attached to Phantom, 1945. He did a brief spell of teaching as an Assistant Master at Eton College, 1948. His journalistic career began when he joined the Editorial Staff of the ''Daily Telegraph'', a position he held from 1952 to 1960. He founded and wrote the Albany Column, 1961–97, for the ''Sunday Telegraph''. Rose was an award-winning writer, having won the prestigious Whitbread Book Award in the biography category in 1983 for his book, ''King George V''. He shared that award with Victoria Glendinning, who won for her book ''Vita''. He was appointed CBE in the 1997 New Year Honours. In April 2005, days before the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, a British tabloid published ...
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Royal Historical Society
The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Historical Society. In 1897, it merged with (or absorbed) the Camden Society, founded in 1838. In its origins, and for many years afterwards, the society was effectively a gentlemen's club. However, in the middle and later twentieth century the RHS took on a more active role in representing the discipline and profession of history. Current activities The society exists to promote historical research in the United Kingdom and worldwide, representing historians of all kinds. Its activities primarily concern advocacy and policy research, training, publishing, grants and research support, especially for early career historians, and awards and professional recognition. It provides a varied programme of lectures and one-day and two-day conferences an ...
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Marsh Biography Award
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Marsh Biography Award was a British literary award, given to the author of the best biography written in the previous two years by a British author. It was established in 1987 and was presented biennially until 2011. The Marsh Christian Trust and the English Speaking Union presented this award in partnership. Winners * 1987 - Roland Huntford - ''Shackleton'' * 1989 - David Gilmour - ''The Last Leopard'' * 1991 - Hugh & Mirabel Cecil - ''Clever Hearts'' * 1993 - Patrick Marnham - ''The Man who Wasn't Maigret'' * 1995 - Selina Hastings - ''Evelyn Waugh'' * 1997 - Jim Ring - ''Erskine Childers'' * 1999 - Richard Holmes - ''Coleridge: Darker Reflections'' * 2001 - Anthony Sampson - '' Mandela: The Authorised Biography'' * 2003 - Brenda Maddox - '' Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA'' * 2005 - John Guy - ''My Heart is My Own'' * 2007 - Maggie Ferguson Maggie Ferguson (born in Sydney) is an Australian violinist and bandoneonista who s ...
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English Speaking Union
The English-Speaking Union (ESU) is an international educational membership organistation. Founded by the journalist Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1918, it aims to bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures, by building skills and confidence in communication, such that individuals realise their potential. With 35 branches in the United Kingdom and over 50 international ESUs in countries around the world, the ESU carries out a variety of activities such as debating, public speaking and student exchange programmes, runs conferences and seminars, and offers scholarships, to encourage the effective use of the English language around the globe. The aims of the English-Speaking Union (as stated on its website) are: # The mutual advancement of education of the English-speaking world, respecting the traditions and heritage of those with whom we work whilst acknowledging the current events and issues that affect them. # The use of English as a shared language and means ...
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Orwell Prize
The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction (established 2019) and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism and one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" (established 2015); between 2009 and 2012, a fifth prize was awarded for blogging. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art". In 2014, the Youth Orwell Prize was launched, targeted at school years 9 to 13 in order to "support and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers". In 2015, The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils, sponsored and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, was launched. The British political the ...
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Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bernard Bogdanor (; born 16 July 1943) is a British political scientist and historian, research professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London and professor of politics at the New College of the Humanities. He is also emeritus professor of politics and government at the University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. He is one of Britain's foremost constitutional experts and has written extensively on political and constitutional issues. He supports the British monarchy and the adoption of proportional representation. Early life and education Bogdanor was born in Staines to Harry and Rosa Bogdanor (''née'' Weinger), and grew up in Uxbridge."Federalism and the future of Europe" Conference Re ...
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Capax Imperii Nisi Imperasset
''Capax imperii nisi imperasset'' is a Latin phrase written by Tacitus in Chapter 1.49 of his '' Histories''. Upon the death of Galba, Tacitus discusses Galba's life and character and ends Chapter 49 with this sentence: ''Maior privato visus dum privatus fuit, et omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset'' ("He seemed too great to be a citizen so long as he was a citizen and all would have agreed that he was worthy to the imperial office, if he had never held it"). It has been said that the phrase is used by Tacitus to sum up Galba's character, as one who seemed to hold all the values of a good leader but failed when he became leader. In modern times, the phrase has been used to describe leaders who have failed to live up to their expectations. Jeremy Paxman has quoted the phrase to describe Boris Johnson becoming prime minister, and it has also been used to describe Gordon Brown. See also * List of Latin phrases * Peter Principle The Peter principle is a concept i ...
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Galba
Galba (; born Servius Sulpicius Galba; 24 December 3 BC – 15 January AD 69) was the sixth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 68 to 69. After his adoption by his stepmother, and before becoming emperor, he was known as Livius Ocella Sulpicius Galba. He was the first emperor in the Year of the Four Emperors and assumed the throne following Emperor Nero's suicide. Born into a wealthy family, Galba held at various times the positions of praetor, consul, and governor to the provinces of Aquitania, Upper Germany, and Africa during the first half of the first century AD. He retired from his positions during the latter part of Claudius' reign (with the advent of Agrippina the Younger), but Nero later granted him the governorship of Hispania. Taking advantage of the defeat of Vindex's rebellion and Nero's suicide, he became emperor with the support of the Praetorian Guard. Galba's physical weakness and general apathy led to him being selected-over by favorites. Unable to gain popularit ...
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Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ''Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales'') and the ''Histories'' (Latin: ''Historiae'')—examine the reigns of the emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors (69 AD). These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus (14 AD) to the death of Domitian (96 AD), although there are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts. Tacitus's other writings discuss oratory (in dialogue format, see '' Dialogus de oratoribus''), Germania (in ''De origine et situ Germanorum''), and the life of his father-in-law, Agricola (the general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain), mainly focusing on his campaign in Britannia ('' De vita et moribus Iulii Agricol ...
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