A.L. Rowse – författare

A historian, poet and autobiographer, A. L. Rowse (1903-1997) moved through the worlds of academia, politics and publishing; those he encountered upon the way came in for witty and vitriolic diatribes in his journals. On their first publication in 2003 these diaries were already widely anticipated - Rowse himself had suggested in his lifetime that there would be much to scandalise and entertain in them, and they didn't disappoint this prediction. Winston Churchill, G. M. Trevelyan, T. S. Eliot and John Betjeman are among the famous characters who came under his gaze, and whose conversations and opinions of one another he recorded.Compiled and edited by Richard Ollard, the diaries stretch from the 1920s - when Rowse first left his native Cornwall to study at Cambridge - to the 1960s, a fascinating and personal study of the most turbulent decades in recent history.

Sir Richard Grenville (1542-1591), English sea captain and explorer, became a legendary figure in the resistance to the Spanish Armada, dying as a result of wounds sustained at the helm of the galleon Revenge in the Battle of Flores: a fight in which he struggled against overwhelming odds.First published in 1937, Sir Richard Grenville of the Revenge was A.L. Rowse's first full-length historical monograph. 'There is no doubt that Mr Rowse's book will establish itself as the standard biography of Grenville, and he deserves our unstinting thanks for the patient research that he has put into it.' J.E. Neale, Sunday Times'Magnificent... I was delighted, too, by the masterful descriptions of the Elizabethan era and the brilliant figures of that age.' Lloyd George, in a letter to A.L. Rowse

Reflections on the Puritan Revolution (1986) examines the damage done by the Puritans during the English Civil War, and the enormous artistic losses England suffered from their activities. The Puritans smashed stained glass, monuments, sculpture, brasses in cathedrals and churches; they destroyed organs, dispersed the choirs and the music. They sold the King’s art collections, pictures, statues, plate, gems and jewels abroad, and broke up the Coronation regalia. They closed down the theatres and ended Caroline poetry. The greatest composer and most promising scientist of the age were among the many lives lost; and this all besides the ruin of palaces, castles and mansions.

Reflections on the Puritan Revolution (1986) examines the damage done by the Puritans during the English Civil War, and the enormous artistic losses England suffered from their activities. The Puritans smashed stained glass, monuments, sculpture, brasses in cathedrals and churches; they destroyed organs, dispersed the choirs and the music. They sold the King’s art collections, pictures, statues, plate, gems and jewels abroad, and broke up the Coronation regalia. They closed down the theatres and ended Caroline poetry. The greatest composer and most promising scientist of the age were among the many lives lost; and this all besides the ruin of palaces, castles and mansions.