Richard Davenport-Hines won the Wolfson Prize for History for his first book, Dudley Docker, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He is the author of several books, including biographies of W.H. Auden and Marcel Proust. His most recent books include An English Affair, Titanic Lives, and Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes. He writes for the Guardian, Oldie, Spectator, The Times, Wall Street Journal, and Times Literary Supplement. He is an adviser to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and lives in London.

EARLY PRAISE FOR HISTORY IN THE HOUSE: 'In his highly informed new study, Richard Davenport-Hines illuminatingly explores the links between privilege and patronage with wit and authority, bringing contradictory characters such as the historians Hugh Trevor-Roper and Arthur Hassall to life in fascinating detail' Observer 'Davenport-Hines does not know how to write a drab word, and his lovingly drawn portraits are charming, captivating and…compelling' TLS 'Engaging…an exemplary work in the genre… the author delivers the goods on nearly every page' Spectator 'Among the great qualities of his marvellous book is that it manages, with infinite subtlety and tremendous charity, to capture both the grandiosity and the melancholy of the place… The book opens with a pitch-perfect historical introduction. This is followed by a collection of biographical essays about eight of the men (and they were, until recently, all men) who taught modern history at Christ Church. By almost any measure, they were an impressive lot….History in the House…is replete with reflections on lives devoted to the study of the past. The whole book, indeed, is in part a meditation on the nature of history: how it should be taught and why it should be studied' Literary Review

Richard Davenport-Hines won the Wolfson Prize for History for his first book, Dudley Docker, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He is the author of several books, including biographies of W.H. Auden and Marcel Proust. His most recent books include An English Affair, Titanic Lives, and Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes. He writes for the Guardian, Oldie, Spectator, The Times, Wall Street Journal, and Times Literary Supplement. He is an adviser to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and lives in London.

EARLY PRAISE FOR HISTORY IN THE HOUSE: 'In his highly informed new study, Richard Davenport-Hines illuminatingly explores the links between privilege and patronage with wit and authority, bringing contradictory characters such as the historians Hugh Trevor-Roper and Arthur Hassall to life in fascinating detail' Observer 'Davenport-Hines does not know how to write a drab word, and his lovingly drawn portraits are charming, captivating and…compelling' TLS 'Engaging…an exemplary work in the genre… the author delivers the goods on nearly every page' Spectator 'Among the great qualities of his marvellous book is that it manages, with infinite subtlety and tremendous charity, to capture both the grandiosity and the melancholy of the place… The book opens with a pitch-perfect historical introduction. This is followed by a collection of biographical essays about eight of the men (and they were, until recently, all men) who taught modern history at Christ Church. By almost any measure, they were an impressive lot….History in the House…is replete with reflections on lives devoted to the study of the past. The whole book, indeed, is in part a meditation on the nature of history: how it should be taught and why it should be studied' Literary Review