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Fri, 8 August 2025

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Lord Lexden

Lord Lexden reviews 'The Spy and the Devil'

04 Jul Books & culture

Lord Lexden reviews 'The Spy and the Devil'

While Tim Willasey-Wilsey has ensured that an unsung hero finally gets the attention he deserves, this book however suffers from a surfeit of detail

From the jaws of victory: How Churchill lost the 1945 election

08 Jun History

From the jaws of victory: How Churchill lost the 1945 election

Having led us through our ‘darkest hour’, Churchill was convinced the country would reward him – but in 1945 the British people decided against the wartime leader as PM of the peace

Lord Lexden reviews Iain Dale's 'Margaret Thatcher'

04 Jun Books & culture

Lord Lexden reviews Iain Dale's 'Margaret Thatcher'

While there is no such thing as a definitive biography, Iain Dale’s balanced and succinct study of Margaret Thatcher brings us a fuller understanding of a controversial politician

'Few were loud in her praise': Lord Lexden reviews 'Lady Pamela Berry'

28 May Books & culture

'Few were loud in her praise': Lord Lexden reviews 'Lady Pamela Berry'

Harriet Cullen has produced a candid portrait of a sharp-tongued socialite and newspaper proprietor’s wife – her mother, Lady Pamela Berry

V for Victory: How Churchill Addressed Parliament On VE Day

08 May History

V for Victory: How Churchill Addressed Parliament On VE Day

Vast crowds gathered outside the Houses of Parliament in the early afternoon. MPs met as usual at 2.15pm for Oral Questions, crowding onto the red benches in the Lords, which they had occupied since the destruction of their own Chamber in May 1941.

'The prose is unpleasant – but so is the protagonist': Lord Lexden reviews 'Green Ink'

29 Apr Books & culture

'The prose is unpleasant – but so is the protagonist': Lord Lexden reviews 'Green Ink'

Stephen May has brought his lively imagination to bear on the unsolved mystery of the disappearance of the socialist politician, Victor Grayson

'The bishops and the rats': 1910-11 constitutional crisis

02 Apr History

"The bishops and the rats": 1910-11 constitutional crisis

Objections to the expulsion of the last remaining hereditary peers are but a faint echo of the Tory uproar in 1910, writes Lord Lexden

Lord Lexden reviews: 'Clarissa, Muse to Power'

19 Mar Books & culture

Lord Lexden reviews: 'Clarissa, Muse to Power'

Drawing on the letters and diaries Clarissa Eden bequeathed to him upon her death age 101, Hugo Vickers reveals many secrets in this affectionate biography

'Written with zest and wit': Lord Lexden reviews 'History in The House'

06 Mar Books & culture

'Written with zest and wit': Lord Lexden reviews 'History in The House'

Richard Davenport-Hines has produced a richly entertaining look at the political alumni of the Christ Church history course – a former nursery for British statesmen

'He said there was no chance of her winning': Inside the 1975 Conservative leadership race

19 Feb Political parties

'He said there was no chance of her winning': Inside the 1975 Conservative leadership race

Margaret Thatcher owed her victory to the cunning Airey Neave and the miscalculations of Tories who just wanted to give Ted Heath ‘a kick up the bum’, reports Lord Lexden

'Impeccable scholarship': Lord Lexden reviews 'British Christians and the Third Reich'

27 Jan Books & culture

'Impeccable scholarship': Lord Lexden reviews 'British Christians and the Third Reich'

Andrew Chandler has produced a long overdue and powerful exploration of how British Churches and their congregations responded to Hitler’s Nazi regime

The true origins of one-nation conservatism

18 Jan Political parties

The true origins of one-nation conservatism

Disraeli is wrongly credited with the strand of conservatism that seeks to unify the two nations of rich and poor. As Lord Lexden reports, Stanley Baldwin was the original one-nation Tory

Legal jeopardy: the fall of the first Labour government

16 Jan History

Legal jeopardy: the fall of the first Labour government

A Labour figure with more legal judgment than political nous stumbles into an opposition trap. Lord Lexden explains the demise of the party’s first experience of government

'A clever and captivating book': Lord Lexden reviews 'The Scapegoat'

14 Nov 2024 Books & culture

'A clever and captivating book': Lord Lexden reviews 'The Scapegoat'

Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s learned study of the 1st Duke of Buckingham is written with a novelist’s verve and skill

Red scare: the story of the Zinoviev letter

27 Sep 2024 History

Red scare: the story of the Zinoviev letter

Conservative peer and historian Lord Lexden recalls the Daily Mail’s damaging 1924 campaign against the Labour Party, culminating in the forged Zinoviev letter

A 'significant contribution to history': Lord Lexden reviews 'Precipice' by Robert Harris

02 Sep 2024 Books & culture

A 'significant contribution to history': Lord Lexden reviews 'Precipice' by Robert Harris

An impressive blend of fact and fiction, Robert Harris' account of the love affair between Herbert Asquith and Venetia Stanley reveals her to be one of the most consequential women in British history

'Enchanting': Lord Lexden reviews 'Monsieur: Patrick O’Higgins – The Lost Photographer'

29 Jul 2024 Books & culture

'Enchanting': Lord Lexden reviews 'Monsieur: Patrick O’Higgins – The Lost Photographer'

This superb collection of the surviving black-and-white photography of Patrick O’Higgins is powerfully evocative

Lord Lexden reviews: 'Bloody Panico! or, Whatever Happened to The Tory Party'

26 Jul 2024 Books & culture

Lord Lexden reviews: 'Bloody Panico! or, Whatever Happened to The Tory Party'

Angry and fast-moving, Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s powerful attempt to understand what has gone wrong in the Tory Party is rooted in despair

Lord Lexden reviews '44 Days in Prague'

24 May 2024 Books & culture

Lord Lexden reviews '44 Days in Prague'

Ann Shukman has produced a vivid and scrupulously fair investigation into her grandfather Walter Runciman’s role in the doomed pre-war mission to broker a peace deal between the Czechoslovak Republic and its Sudeten German minority

'A brilliant little book': Lord Lexden reviews the newly revised, 'Gimson’s Kings & Queens'

30 Apr 2024 Books & culture

'A brilliant little book': Lord Lexden reviews the newly revised, 'Gimson’s Kings & Queens'

Written with a most attractive astringency, Andrew Gimson’s book has been updated to include the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the succession of her son, Charles III

A tale of two Tories: the by-election that made Churchill weep

09 Apr 2024 Political parties

A tale of two Tories: the by-election that made Churchill weep

By trying to parachute an ex-Liberal cabinet minister called Winston Churchill into a safe seat, the Conservatives split a local party and set off one of the most rancorous by-elections in history. A hundred years later, Lord Lexden tells a tale of fighting, dirty tricks and flying turnips

'I doubt if a better history book will be published this year': Lord Lexden reviews 'Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers'

28 Mar 2024 Books & culture

'I doubt if a better history book will be published this year': Lord Lexden reviews 'Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers'

Anne Somerset has produced a masterful and scintillating study of Queen Victoria’s relationship with her 10 prime minsters

'Excellent': Lord Lexden reviews 'Sex, Spies and Scandal: The John Vassall Affair'

26 Feb 2024 Books & culture

'Excellent': Lord Lexden reviews 'Sex, Spies and Scandal: The John Vassall Affair'

Drawing on recently declassified secret service files, Alex Grant has written a definitive account of a sensational scandal and its terrible repercussions

A tale of two parties: the origin of the Tory Party

22 Jan 2024 Political parties

A tale of two parties: the origin of the Tory Party

Lord Lexden details the origin of the Tory Party – born of a crisis triggered by a lying priest and a monarch’s ruthless suppression of the Whigs

A valuable book: Lord Lexden reviews 'Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII'

20 Dec 2023 Books & culture

A valuable book: Lord Lexden reviews 'Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII'

Making her literary debut in fine style, Jane Marguerite Tippett has turned Edward VIII’s previously unseen jottings into a first-rate biographical study

We need a new independent review of the allegations against Ted Heath

21 Nov 2023 History

We need a new independent review of the allegations against Ted Heath

There is an overwhelming – some say unanswerable – case for an independent review of a number of allegations of child sex abuse made against Ted Heath after his death. The allegations were left unresolved at the end of a deeply flawed police investigation, known as Operation Conifer, in 2017.

Incisive: Lord Lexden reviews 'Sing As We Go'

06 Nov 2023 Books & culture

Incisive: Lord Lexden reviews 'Sing As We Go'

Simon Heffer has produced a self-confident and omniscient history of Britain between the wars

‘Meticulous’: Lord Lexden reviews 'The 1922 Committee: Power Behind the Scenes'

04 Oct 2023 Books & culture

‘Meticulous’: Lord Lexden reviews 'The 1922 Committee: Power Behind the Scenes'

With unrestricted access to its records, Lord Norton’s masterful account sheds fresh light on the workings of this mysterious committee

Lord Lexden reviews 'Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics'

13 Sep 2023 Books & culture

Lord Lexden reviews 'Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics'

Lord Bew has written an absorbing study of the often fraught relationship between the remarkable Charles Stewart Parnell and his intellectually impressive lieutenant, John Dillon

Fascinating: Lord Lexden reviews 'A Liberal Chronicle in Peace and War'

20 Jul 2023 Books & culture

Fascinating: Lord Lexden reviews 'A Liberal Chronicle in Peace and War'

The magnificent efforts of two industrious editors have rescued these invaluable diaries from oblivion

Lords Diary: Lord Lexden

19 Jun 2023 Defence

Lords Diary: Lord Lexden

From record-breaking late night sittings – with remarkable endurance skills – to becoming a 'national treasure'

Written with characteristic verve and skill: Lord Lexden reviews Antonia Fraser's 'Lady Caroline Lamb'

07 Jun 2023 Books & culture

Written with characteristic verve and skill: Lord Lexden reviews Antonia Fraser's 'Lady Caroline Lamb'

In this delightful new book, Antonia Fraser captures the appeal of a woman whose indifference to societal conventions helped pave the way to equality

The king’s dilemma: how it fell to George V to choose a new prime minister

09 May 2023 History

The king’s dilemma: how it fell to George V to choose a new prime minister

A century ago, it fell to King George V to select a new prime minister. Lord Lexden revisits the machinations that lay behind the eventual decision

How an Irish state was created 100 years ago

28 Dec 2022 Foreign affairs

How an Irish state was created 100 years ago

“You have agreed to a revolution in Ireland.” So said Edward Carson, the famous leader of the Irish Unionists, as the legislation giving full internal self-government to 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland was passed by the House of Lords, of which he was then a Member, in December 1922.

Secrets of the ballot box: 150 years of voting in private

05 Dec 2022 Political parties

Secrets of the ballot box: 150 years of voting in private

Seldom can a major constitutional reform have aroused so little enthusiasm. No public meetings were held to demand it; no great demonstrations were organised in its support. After much parliamentary dithering and delay, the Ballot Act finally became law in the second half of 1872, exactly 150 years ago.

'Entertaining': Lord Lexden reviews 'Cheers, Mr Churchill! Winston in Scotland'

02 Nov 2022 Books & culture

'Entertaining': Lord Lexden reviews 'Cheers, Mr Churchill! Winston in Scotland'

In a carefully researched and lively account, Andrew Liddle finally sets the record straight on Winston Churchill’s attitude to Scotland

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