Adam Sisman
A Historian’s Heart
The Wartime Journals
By Hugh Trevor-Roper (Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines)
I B Tauris 322pp £25
Does language matter? Hugh Trevor-Roper thought that it did. Nowadays it is fashionable to rate self-expression above precision. But Trevor-Roper believed that without clarity of language there can be no clarity of thought. Like Orwell (whom he admired), he knew that freedom is endangered when language becomes corrupt. These journals were written during the Second World War, when the defence of the English language against all forms of attack seemed especially important. They remained unseen until after his death in 2003, when they were discovered hidden in his house. Their publication now reveals a new side to the formidable historian. The notebook entries exhibit an intellectual in the process of formation: an isolated, reflective individual training his mind and refining his style.
Though only twenty-five when war broke out in 1939, Trevor-Roper had already finished his first book, a biography of Archbishop Laud. Influenced by his friend A J Ayer, he had formed the view that lucidity was the sole criterion of good writing. Trevor-Roper had swallowed Ayer’s prescriptions as a purgative
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk