Conservative History Journal

As it is past midnight, it is fair to say that the highly apposite anniversary was yesterday. On March 28, 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia and the complicated and unpleasant business known as the Crimean War began and went on till 1856 with the Peace of Paris signed on March 30 of that year. It is fair to say that the war led to some reforms in military matters in Britain, a greater understanding of the need for nursing...

There are many interesting comments in the diaries of Lady Knightley of Fawsley and a longer posting will appear in due course, as well as many more snippets, I have no doubt. This struck me as sadly ironic. Writing on March 8, 1906, almost two months after the catastrophic (for the Conservatives) election that also brought in twenty-nine Labour members (Lady Knightley thought as she heard the results in January that there would be forty to fifty) she mentions that a Resolution in favour of payment of Members brought in...

Today is the anniversary of James VI of Scotland becoming James I of England in 1603, thus uniting the two kingdoms in the monarch's person. The anniversary is not a particularly notable one but History Today is celebrating it by reprinting a 1999 article by Roger Lockyer, whose name must surely be familiar to anyone who has ever studied that period. Can one even envisage school and university courses without Professor Lockyer's books, particularly Tudor and Stuart Britain? My own well-worn copy is still on my shelf, to...

Tory Historian is reading Disraeli or The Two Lives, a cleverly titled book by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young. In chapter III, Doer or Dreamer there is a discussion about Disraeli's novels that have fallen completely out of favour. Hardly anybody who is not a specialist in Victorian literature or Disraeli himself reads them now though the later ones are not that bad. The early ones, on the other hand, are truly terrible. The authors of Disraeli acknowledge the poor quality of the writing and plotting of the early novels...

Tory Historian has started reading two books (among others), written by people who are completely overwhelming. Readers of this blog will be pleased to know that TH has finally launched into Frederick Burnaby's A Ride to Khiva, which is not just a tremendously exciting and frightening account of an unbelievable journey but is also highly entertaining. Burnaby wrote only two books in his life, which was a remarkable one by any standard...

Tony Benn (1925 - 2014) formerly known as Viscount Stansgate and Anthony Wedgwood Benn can claim one achievement in his political career and that is the passing of The Peerage Act 1963 but one wonders how pleased he was by the unexpected consequence. No sooner was the Act passed than the 14th Earl Home used it to disclaim his peerage and to become, as Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the Leader of the Conservative Party and a not unsuccessful...

Readers of this blog know that there have been several postings on John Buchan in the past, he being something of a favourite for many reasons. As part of my post-hospital convalescence I picked up one of the Buchan thrillers I had not read before, The House of the Four Winds, and read it in short order. It is probably the weakest of the three Dickson McCunn tales and is one of Buchan’s weaker thrillers, taking place not in Britain but in the invented Central European country, Evallonia, which resembles Austria in many ways...