One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper Read online

  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

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  © 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 Dece
mber 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)

  ‘You understand the nature of history better than any of your contemporaries in England, and I dare say in Europe, and there is no reason for concealing this fact.’

  Sir Isaiah Berlin to Hugh Trevor-Roper, 6 March 1962

  INTRODUCTION

  These hundred letters, a selection from the many thousands that Hugh Trevor-Roper composed, were written over fifty-eight years, from September 1943, when he was 29 years old, to December 2001, when he was 87 and had thirteen months to live.1 The first letter was written in his period as an intelligence officer, who found in correspondence, and in the solitary meditations that were published in 2011 as The Wartime Journals, forms of self-expression that were excluded by the secrecy and mechanical preoccupations of his work. When he wrote the last of his letters he was living alone, widowed, almost blind, and mortally ill, in a Victorian rectory in the town of Didcot in south Oxfordshire. This volume traverses a career in academic life which roamed far beyond it. A Tutor in History at Oxford from 1946, he became Regius Professor of Modern History in 1957; was ennobled in 1979 as Lord Dacre of Glanton; and moved to Cambridge in 1980 as Master of Peterhouse, an office he held for seven years until his retirement. Seventeen of the letters are written from his Oxford college, home, or office; eleven from the Master’s Lodge at Peterhouse; seventeen others during his many travels. The letters describe visits to Greece, to Spain, to Portugal, to Iceland, to Israel, to the United States, to the West Indies, to Australia, to Pakistan, to Soviet Russia, to Czechoslovakia.

  Trevor-Roper wrote to enliven. As he declared in a BBC radio programme (described in his letter to Noël Annan of 20 October 1988), he believed that history should be not ‘a boring private subject for the specialists’ but a vital force that animated general readers: ‘I would like people to feel that they’re part of history … to feel … the movement of it and themselves in it, and not to see the past as a dead deposit but as a living continuity.’1 His vitality, which was indomitable in both his historical work and his extra-curricular diversions, is evident throughout these hundred letters selected for publication at the time of the centenary of his birth. Our selection illustrates the range of his life and preoccupations: as a historian, a controversialist, a public intellectual, a legislator, a lover of literature, a traveller, a countryman. It depicts a life of rich diversity in public activities and private avocations; a mind of intellectual sparkle and eager curiosity; a character that relished the comedies of his time, and revelled in the absurdities, crotchets, and vanities of his contemporaries. It reveals the complexities of an exceptional personality. And it will gladden readers who value wit, erudition, and intellectual vigour. The playful irony of his correspondence places him in a literary tradition which stretches back to the correspondence of Madame de Sévigné in the seventeenth century and Horace Walpole in the eighteenth. Like them he takes pleasure in enlightening and amusing his correspondents. Like them he has a vivid power of pictorial imagery. Yet in a letter of 7 March 1959 we find Trevor-Roper wearying of the superficiality of de Sévigné’s correspondence. His power of analysis brings something more searching. He, no less than they, is an aesthete, but his aestheticism is combined with fierceness of intellect, with an inexhaustible curiosity of enquiry, and with a passion for lucid analysis.

  Trevor-Roper’s correspondence amounted to millions of words. A book needs reasonable bounds, but a volume containing many hundred more letters could easily have been compiled without a diminution of quality. Had the editors had an eye to the stature or fame of the recipients rather than to the intrinsic interest of the letters, we might have included letters to such men as George Orwell, Anthony Powell, Cyril Connolly, Malcolm Muggeridge, Lord Cherwell, Solly Zuckerman, and Harold Macmillan. Yet Trevor-Roper, who was no respecter of celebrity, wrote the great majority of his most memorable letters to less prominent people.

  Hugh Trevor-Roper was born in January 1914 in the small village of Glanton in the Cheviot Hills, close to Northumberland’s border with Scotland. As he recounted to his future wife in his letters of August 1953, a chill loneliness numbed his childhood. His v
isual alertness and pictorial imagination, which through his life would feed his unquenchable appetite for metaphor, were present in his boyhood, as was the myopia which perhaps intensified those qualities. ‘I can’t understand anything’, he explained in 1942, ‘that I can’t present to my imagination in a pictorial form; and when I comprehend anything vividly, it is always in the terms of some visual image.’

  A physically strenuous child, he had little physical contact with his parents, and his adult relationships would sometimes be hampered by bodily tension or awkwardness. He discovered for himself during his solitary childhood those consolatory resources that would also sustain him in adulthood: reading, and observation of the natural world. The first letter in this collection, to Logan Pearsall Smith in 1943, is written from his parents’ house in Alnwick, the Northumberland town to which his parents moved when he was a small boy. It mentions, inter alia, the trout-streams, woodlands, stubble-fields, and partridges of the neighbouring landscape. In another letter, written to his future wife on 8 August 1953, he recalls his boyhood love of the wild flowers, crustaceans, tadpoles, caterpillars and butterflies that he found on forays in Northumberland or near his boarding-schools. Nearly four decades later, in a letter written on 14 July 1991, he describes his struggle to save the lives of an array of orphaned hedgehogs. The emotional isolation of his childhood leaves its mark on his letters. They are a reaching out for contact. The craving is so strong in the sequence of letters to James Howard-Johnston, his stepson, that the recipient often felt unequal to replying. It is more discreetly present in letters to Peter Ramsbotham (19 March 1947), Dawyck Haig (28 January 1951), and others. It is implicit, too, even if less transparently so, in his exchanges with Valerie Pearl, Felix Raab, Blair Worden, Alasdair Palmer, and Edward Chaney. He longed for his correspondents to reply. ‘Do write again: I love your letters, and I long to hear of you, and from you,’ he urged Gerald Brenan, on 11 March 1968. Many of the letters published here are expressions of tenderness or affection from an inhibited man who—even by the standards of his emotionally well-drilled generation—had difficulty in expressing his feelings. The high spirits of the letters can have a serious purpose, which has care and thought behind it. We see it in the humour of his letter to Alan Yorke-Long (21 September 1952), which was written to amuse a dying friend, or in his letter to James Howard-Johnston (21 May 1960), which was intended to revive the spirits of a depressed teenager.