Curated playlist
20th-century English historians
- George OrwellGeorge Orwell was a pen name, chosen from a shortlist in 1932. He was born Eric Arthur Blair in British India.
- John Lynch (historian)Historian John Lynch went from British Army service to decades studying Spanish America's revolutions.
- Antony BeevorAntony Beevor swapped a troop of tanks for a typewriter. The army officer became a historian of war.
- Joan RobinsonEconomist Joan Robinson coined a word in 1933 that the Supreme Court used in 2019.
- David AttenboroughAt 11, David Attenborough sold newts to a university for three pence each.
- H. F. M. PrescottH. F. M. Prescott wrote a novel about a Tudor uprising that has never gone out of print.
- Geoffrey EltonGeoffrey Elton argued that Thomas Cromwell, more than Henry VIII, drove a revolution in English government.
- Ronald CoaseRonald Coase faced twenty skeptical senior economists in 1960 and gradually won them over.
- T. D. KendrickT. D. Kendrick's own daughter did not know he was her father. He was a British Museum archaeologist.
- Jeremy Black (historian)Historian Jeremy Black wrote a book on Sherlock Holmes and another on Poirot in 2022.
- Alison WeirPublishers rejected Alison Weir's Henry VIII book for being too long, then her next for being too short.
- John KeeganJohn Keegan taught war for 26 years but never fired a shot in anger. Illness left the historian unfit for service.
- Eric ChristiansenHistorian Eric Christiansen won his Oxford fellowship with a thesis on modern Spain.
- Correlli BarnettMichael Heseltine gave every Cabinet member a copy of Correlli Barnett's The Lost Victory.
- Roy PorterHistorian Roy Porter died while cycling, five months into retirement. He planned to learn the saxophone.