One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper

1387 Pages·2014·4.97 MB·English

by  Richard Davenport-Hines

ONE HUNDRED LETTERS
FROM HUGH TREVOR-ROPER
HUGH TREVOR-ROPER
One Hundred Letters from
edited by
Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of
Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and
education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford
University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © The Literary Estate
of Lord Dacre of Glanton 2014
Introduction, selection, editing, and notes © Richard Davenport-Hines and
Adam Sisman 2014
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in
2014
Impression: 1
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ISBN 978–0–19–870311–2
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our paramount debt, one beyond measure, is to Blair Worden, Hugh Trevor-
Roper’s literary executor, who encouraged us to undertake this book, and who
has given us far more help in the preparation and revision of it than the editors
could expect or adequately thank.
Judith Curthoys, the Christ Church archivist, who has charge of the Dacre
papers, has been a wonder of patience and efficiency throughout our work.
Rodney Allan has translated, identified, and glossed passages from Greek and
Latin, and has done sterling work in correcting the transcription of documents.
We are profoundly grateful to both of them.
We are also grateful to Jeremy Cater, Jeremy Catto, Edward Chaney, Frank
Giles, the late Earl Haig, Sir Michael Howard, James Howard-Johnston, Alan
Macfarlane, Peter Miller, Alasdair Palmer, Richard Rhodes, Zeev Sternhell, the
Hon. James Stourton, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, and Blair Worden, who supplied us
with letters and consented to their publication.
We thank those who have given permission to reproduce letters to their
relations: the Hon. Deborah Blake (to her father Lord Blake); Susan Chater and
William Stuart (their father Charles Stuart); Jane Clark (her husband Alan
Clark); Alastair Hamilton (his father Hamish Hamilton); Alexandra Henderson
(her father Sir Nicholas Henderson); Sarah Holds-worth (her mother Valerie
Pearl); Mary Lefkowitz (her husband Hugh Lloyd-Jones); Robin and Vivien
Perutz (their father Max Perutz); and Helen Szamuely (her father Tibor
Szamuely). Oliver Ramsbotham has kindly allowed us to quote correspondence
between his father, Sir Peter Ramsbotham, and Trevor-Roper.
Other debts of gratitude are to the Beinecke Library at Yale, for the letters to
Wallace Notestein; the Library of King’s College, Cambridge, for the letters to
Noël Annan; the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, for
the letters to Gerald Brenan; Claudia Wedepohl, archivist of the Warburg
Institute, for consent to reproduce letters to Frances Yates; Henry Hardy and the
Isaiah Berlin Trust; the Brotherton Library, Leeds (Special Collections), for the
letter to Lord Boyle of Handsworth; the Wellcome Library, for the letter dated
24 February 1973 to Sir Peter Medawar (PP/PBM/D/12); Gertrude Himmelfarb
for permission to quote a letter by her of 25 August 1965; Anthony Thwaite for
supplying and allowing us to quote a letter to him of 3 September 1976; and the
Syndics of Cambridge University Library, for permission to publish an extract
from a letter to J. H. Plumb. The quotation from Sir Isaiah Berlin on p. xii is
from Henry Hardy and Mark Pottle (eds.), Isaiah Berlin, Building: Letters
1960–1975 (Chatto & Windus 2013), pp. 84–5 © Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust.
Many amendments were made after Henry Woudhuysen’s invaluable
scrutiny of the typescript. Numerous other individuals have helpfully answered
queries or volunteered information, among them John Adamson, Jeremy Cater,
Jeremy Catto, Edward Chaney, Xenia Dennen, Gavin Fuller, Timothy Garton
Ash, Mark Greengrass, Miriam Gross, Henry Hardy, Edward Harrison, James
Howard-Johnston, Lord Kennet, Paulina Kewes, Mary Lefkowitz, John
Maddicott, Peter Miller, John Morgan, Jan Morris, Alasdair Palmer, Philip
Pattenden (who has taken particular trouble in answering questions about
Cambridge), Christopher Phipps, Richard Rhodes, Norman Stone, James
Stourton, Gina Thomas, William Thomas, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, David Wootton,
and Brian Young. We are grateful to them all.
CONTENTS
List of illustrations
Introduction
Prefatory note
THE LETTERS
1. Logan Pearsall Smith, 18 September 1943
2. Naomi ‘Nim’ Church, 28 August 1946
3. Peter Ramsbotham, 19 March 1947
4. Charles Stuart, 31 December 1947
5. Charles Stuart, 24 March 1949
6. Dawyck Haig, 28 January 1951
7. Dawyck Haig, 2 April 1951
8. Dawyck Haig, 20 October 1951
9. Hamish Hamilton, 19 February 1952
10. Alan Yorke-Long, 21 September 1952
11. Gerald Brenan, 23 November 1952
12. Xandra Howard-Johnston, 8 August 1953
13. Xandra Howard-Johnston, 11 August 1953
14. Isaiah Berlin, 18 February 1955
15. Sir Edward Boyle, 8 November 1956
16. Sir John Masterman, 13 December 1956
17. Wallace Notestein, 25 July 1957
18. Wallace Notestein, 7 March 1959
19. James Howard-Johnston, 21 May 1960
20. James Howard-Johnston, 19 June 1960
21. Alan Clark, 31 August 1960
22. Xandra Trevor-Roper, 21 September 1960
23. James Howard-Johnston, 5 April 1961
24. James Howard-Johnston, 8 April 1961
25. James Howard-Johnston, undated (probably 11 April 1961)
26. James Howard-Johnston, 13–14 April 1961
27. James Howard-Johnston, 15 April 1961
28. Felix Raab, undated (September 1962)
29. James Howard-Johnston, 5–7 April 1963
30. James Howard-Johnston, 29 February 1964
31. James Howard-Johnston, 6 January 1965
32. Valerie Pearl, 12 September 1965
33. Alan Macfarlane, 22 January 1967
34. Frances Yates, 2 November 1967
35. Gerald Brenan, 11 March 1968
36. James Howard-Johnston, 4 April 1968
37. A. L. Rowse, 12 April 1968
38. Wallace Notestein, 19 June 1968
39. Wallace Notestein, 21 July 1968
40. James Howard-Johnston, 23 August 1968
41. James Howard-Johnston, 15 September 1968
42. ‘Kim’ Philby, 21 September 1968
43. James Howard-Johnston, 17 December 1968
44. Valerie Pearl, 4 April 1969
45. James Howard-Johnston, 28 June 1969
46. Frances Yates, 28 December 1969
47. Tibor Szamuely, 6 March 1970
48. Robert Blake, 17 August 1970
49. Jeremy Catto, 6 April 1972
50. Sir Peter Medawar, 24 February 1973
51. Jeremy Cater, 16 April 1973
52. Jeremy Catto, 27 August 1973
53. Blair Worden, 10 April 1975
54. Blair Worden, 29 July 1976
55. Blair Worden, 12 April 1978
56. Blair Worden, 11 April 1979
57. Blair Worden, 10 August 1979
58. Nan Dunbar, 17 April 1980
59. Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 27 July 1980
60. Noël Annan, 26 December 1980
61. Michael Howard, 5 November 1981
62. Noël Annan, 17 November 1981
63. Jeremy Catto, 21 August 1982
64. Blair Worden, 14 April 1983
65. Frank Giles, 10 July 1983
66. Zeev Sternhell, 1 August 1983
67. Blair Worden, 28 December 1984
68. Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 2 March 1985
69. Noël Annan, 10 April 1985
70. Alasdair Palmer, 15 July 1986
71. Edward Chaney, 6 August 1986
72. Alasdair Palmer, 29 August 1986
73. Alasdair Palmer, 4 October 1986
74. James Stourton, 5 October 1986
75. Alasdair Palmer, 23 October 1986
76. Alasdair Palmer, 2 November 1986
77. Alasdair Palmer, 23 November 1986
78. Blair Worden, 12 April 1987
79. Edward Chaney, 5–11 May 1988
80. Alasdair Palmer, 29 May 1988
81. Edward Chaney, 26 June 1988
82. Alasdair Palmer, 14 August 1988
83. Noël Annan, 20 October 1988
84. Max Perutz, 7 January 1989
85. Max Perutz, 23 December 1989
86. Alasdair Palmer, 24 December 1989
87. Max Perutz, 15 August 1990
88. Edward Chaney, 20 April 1991
89. Adam Sisman, 21 June 1991
90. Blair Worden, 14 July 1991
91. James Shiel, 21 January 1992
92. Alasdair Palmer, undated (February 1992)
93. Alasdair Palmer, 17 December 1992
94. Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 12 January 1994
95. Noël Annan, 28 September 1994
96. Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 6 November 1997
97. Richard Rhodes, 11 June 1998
98. Peter Miller, 18 March 1999
99. Adam Sisman, undated (April 2001)
100. Sir Nicholas Henderson, 21 December 2001
Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Trevor-Roper’s map for visitors to Chiefswood.
Plates
1. Trevor-Roper and Alan Clark. (Courtesy of Jane Clark)
2. Dawyck Haig and his fiancée at Bemersyde. (Courtesy of Xenia Dennen)
3. Trevor-Roper writing in his rooms in Christ Church.
4. James Howard-Johnston’s Eton leaving photograph. (Courtesy of James
Howard-Johnston)
5. Trevor-Roper outside Chiefswood. (Courtesy of Xenia Dennen)
6. A meal at Chiefswood. (Courtesy of Xenia Dennen)
7. Chiefswood, Christmas 1959. (Courtesy of Xenia Dennen)
8. Wallace and Ada Notestein. (Courtesy of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe
Institute, Harvard University)
9. Trevor-Roper in his study at 8 St Aldates, with Xandra in the foreground.
(Courtesy of Graham Harrison/Rex Features)
10. Hugh Lloyd-Jones. (Courtesy of the Senior Common Room, Christ Church,
Oxford)
11. Jeremy Catto. (Courtesy of Diccon Swan)
12. Alasdair Palmer. (Courtesy of Alasdair Palmer)
13. Edward Chaney. (Courtesy of Edward Chaney)
14. Trevor-Roper at St John’s College, University of Queensland. (Courtesy of
John Morgan)
15. Blair Worden. (Courtesy of Albert Wilkins Photography)