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Curated playlist

English male non-fiction writers

  • Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by hiding on freight trains. It made him famous.
  • Benjamin DisraeliBenjamin Disraeli bought a controlling stake in the Suez Canal within days in 1875.
  • W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died hours after reading his poems aloud in a Vienna hotel.
  • Antony BeevorAntony Beevor swapped a troop of tanks for a typewriter. The army officer became a historian of war.
  • Stanley SadieStanley Sadie grew a nine-volume music dictionary into twenty volumes. The 1980 result needed a new name: The New Grove.
  • Thomas MoreThomas More taught his daughters Greek when almost no one did. He also approved burning heretics.
  • John FoxeJohn Foxe wrote a bestseller in 1563 and stayed as poor as ever. Publishing paid authors no royalties then.
  • John Boardman (art historian)John Boardman took over the Oxford chair once held by vase expert John Beazley. He widened it to Persia and China.
  • Raphael HolinshedRaphael Holinshed is the man Shakespeare read, yet almost nothing else is known about him.
  • William CamdenIn 2023, imaging revealed passages William Camden had covered up in his history of Elizabeth.
  • John Hawkins (author)Sir John Hawkins was at the bedside of Dr Samuel Johnson when the great man died, a distinction his better-known rival biographer could never claim. James Boswell had been in Scotland for some months. Hawkins was born on the 29th of March…
  • Stephen HawkingDoctors gave Stephen Hawking two years to live at age 21, but he died at 76.
  • Andy SerkisDoes an actor in a suit covered in tracking dots deserve an Oscar? Andy Serkis became that debate's living proof.
  • Geoffrey EltonGeoffrey Elton argued that Thomas Cromwell, more than Henry VIII, drove a revolution in English government.
  • Jeremy Black (historian)Historian Jeremy Black wrote a book on Sherlock Holmes and another on Poirot in 2022.
  • John Harris (writer)A priest was the first person on record to describe a bdelloid rotifer. John Harris did it under a microscope in 1696.
  • Mark LewisohnA famous joke about Ringo Starr was long credited to John Lennon, but Mark Lewisohn found no record he said it.
  • John LingardA Catholic priest wrote a history of England that Protestants read. John Lingard hid his priesthood on the title page.
  • Reginald PoleReginald Pole ended up two votes short of becoming pope. The English cardinal held 26 of 28 votes needed in 1549-1550.
  • Gary WhittaGary Whitta once stayed on camera for 24 hours straight. In October 2011 he co-hosted a live-streamed edition of the show This is Only a Test with Tested creators Will Smith and Norman Chan. The marathon raised over $50,000 for Child's…
  • Correlli BarnettMichael Heseltine gave every Cabinet member a copy of Correlli Barnett's The Lost Victory.
  • Joseph FaringtonJoseph Farington died on the last day of 1821 by falling down church steps in Didsbury. His diary outlasted him.
  • Alan WattsAlan Watts resigned as an Episcopal priest in August 1950. He later became a leading voice of Zen in America.
  • Thomas RymerThomas Rymer wrote in 1681 that you should not expect truth from an historiographer royal.

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