Who's In, Who's Out: The Journals of Kenneth Rose: Volume One 1944-1979: 1 - Softcover

Rose, Kenneth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474601553 ISBN 13: 9781474601559

Publisher: W&N, 2022

Synopsis

'The most detailed, amusing and accurate account ever of the post-war world of the English Establishment' William Shawcross, Daily Telegraph
'Extremely entertaining' Jane Ridley, Literary Review

Kenneth Rose was one of the most astute observers of the establishment for over seventy years. The wry and amusing journals of the royal biographer and historian made objective observation a sculpted craft.

His impeccable social placement located him within the beating heart of the national elite for decades. He was capable of writing substantial history, such as his priceless material on the abdication crisis from conversations with both the Duke of Windsor and the Queen Mother. Yet he maintained sufficient distance to achieve impartial documentation while working among political, clerical, military, literary and aristocratic circles. Relentless observation and a self-confessed difficulty 'to let a good story pass me by' made Rose a legendary social commentator, while his impressive breadth of interests was underpinned by tremendous respect for the subjects of his enquiry.

Brilliantly equipped as Rose was to witness, detail and report, the first volume of his journals vividly portrays some of the most important events and people of the last century, from the bombing of London during the Second World War to the election of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman Prime Minister, in 1979.

About this title

About the Authors

Kenneth Rose was born in 1924. He was educated at Repton and was a scholar at New College, Oxford. He served in the Welsh Guards during the Second World War and was subsequently a schoolmaster at Eton, before working for the British Council in Rome and Naples. He joined the DAILY TELEGRAPH in 1951 and worked on the Peterborough column before starting the long-running Albany at Large column in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH in 1961. He published prize-winning biographies of Lord Curzon, King George V and Victor Rothschild, as well as acclaimed studies of the Victorian Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and his family in THE LATER CECILS. His journals, spanning 1944 to his death in 2014, are to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in two volumes.

D. R. Thorpe was born in 1943 and educated at Fettes College and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a regular contributor to the OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. He has been an Archives Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge and the Sir Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford. Since 1998 he has been based at Brasenose College, Oxford as a senior member. He has published five acclaimed biographical works: THE UNCROWNED PRIME MINISTERS: A STUDY OF SIR AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, LORD CURZON AND RAB BUTLER; the official lives of Selwyn Lloyd and Sir Alec Douglas-Home; and EDEN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTHONY EDEN, FIRST EARL OF AVON, 1897-1977. His biography of Harold Macmillan, SUPERMAC: THE LIFE OF HAROLD MACMILLAN won the biennial Marsh Biography Award, 2009-10. He knew Kenneth Rose for forty years and was appointed by him to edit his journals.

Edition details

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1474601553
• ISBN 13: 9781474601559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640
• Editor: Thorpe Richard