These rough notes—begun long ago and continued at slow intervals—were put aside during the onerous task of editing for Mr. Murray the O'Connell Correspondence. The recent publication of Mr. Lecky's final volumes, awakening by their grasp a fixed interest in pre-Union times, and confirming much that by circumstantial evidence I had sought to establish, affords a reason, perhaps, that my later researches in the same field ought not to be wholly lost. Mr. Lecky's kindness in frequently quotin...

The story of the Peterloo massacre, a defining moment in the history of British democracy, told with passion and authority.'Excellent' Zadie Smith'Fast-paced and full of fascinating detail' Tim Clayton'A superb account of one of the defining moments in modern British history' Tristram Hunt'Peterloo is one of the greatest scandals of British political history... Riding tells this tragic story with mesmerising ...

Michael Bloch gives a new twist to the oft-told story of King Edward's short reign.Drawing on a decade-long study of the King's personality, and on privileged access to his papers, he sees the King's abdication partly as the result of a plot to get rid of him by men who mistrusted his modernity and popular touch, but also explainable by the fact that he did not really want to be king or fight for his throne.

First published in 1966, Robert Blake's biography of Disraeli is one of the supreme political biographies of the last hundred years.An outsider, a nationalist, a European, a Romantic and a Tory - Disraeli's story is an extraordinary one. Born in 1804, the grandson of an immigrant Italian Jew, he became leader of the Conservative Party and was twice Prime Minister. Famous for the 1867 Reform Act, his purchasing of the Suez Canal and his diplomatic triumphs at the Congress of Berlin,...

The year 1721 has many splendours: great houses built by William Kent, fine pictures and the fruits of commerce. But there are also thirteen public hanging days a year, drunkenness is endemic, organised crime rampages through the streets. And politics are ferocious. Only a generation earlier, The Pretender failed to take the Crown; the new King is cursed as a damned foreigner; James's followers - the Jacobites - conspire and are persecuted; the South Sea Bubble collapses.Robert Walpole, on...

A remarkably perceptive and vivid life of one of England's greatest radicals.The early years of the 19th-century were ones of misery and oppression. The common people were forced into conditions of extreme poverty by enclosures and the Agricultural Revolution, and the long Tory administration of Lord Liverpool saw its task as keeping law and order at all costs. The cause of reform was a dangerous one, as William Cobbett was to find.Cobbett is best known for his ‘Rural Rides...

Some excuse seems to be needed for venturing at this time to publish biographical sketches of the men of the Victorian era. Several have been written by men, like Lord Morley and Lord Bryce, having first-hand knowledge of their subjects, Others by the best critics of the next generation, such as Mr. Chesterton and Mr. Clutton-Brock. With their critical ability I am not able to compete; but they often postulate a knowledge of facts which the average reader has forgotten or has never known. ...

In 'The History of King George the Third,' Horace Walpole meticulously chronicles the tumultuous reign of one of Britain's most iconic monarchs, offering an intricate blend of historical narrative and personal insight. Employing an elegant and accessible prose style reminiscent of 18th-century epistolary literature, Walpole navigates the political landscapes of his time while incorporating vivid character portraits and anecdotal evidence. This work engages with themes of power, governance,...

This memoir by Trollope, written between November 1881 and February 1882, the last year of the author's life, offers the modern reader a vivid impression of Palmerston's character and career. Fascinatingly the man is revealed as possessing most of the characteristics of a typical Trollope character from the author's novels: indeed Plantaganet Palliser had already been given many of Palmerston's attributes, particularly his stubbornness, his doggedness, and his diligence. Palmerston emerges...

Charles Greville (1794-1865) made his first occasional diary entries in 1814, but the diary only became a regular habit in the mid-1820s, continuing with occasional breaks, about which he is self-reproachful, through the reigns of George IV, William IV and Victoria. Finally, in 1860, after shaking his head over the worrying triumphs of Garibaldi, he closed it, once and for all. The grandson of a duke, Greville looked with a level and scornful eye upon royalty. George was 'the most worthles...

In no other civilized country in the world is marriage contracted, or dissolved, with such culpable levity as in our own. In no other civilized country (except, perhaps, in France, just at present), can divorce be obtained with such facility, and upon such slight grounds. And it may be the very ease with which the sacred bond may be broken that leads many people into forming it so lightly. An obligation so easily annulled may be carelessly contracted. I remember an anecdote in point:—“Take...

The definitive short biography of Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–98), the founding father of Irish republicanism Originally published in 1981 as part of the groundbreaking Gill's Irish Lives series, Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–98), A Life remains the most concise, accessible and authoritative introduction to one of Irish history's most seminal figures. Theobald Wolfe Tone, founder of the United Irishmen, revolutionary philosopher, nationalist martyr and, above all, legend of Irish history. For ge...