DR Thorpe

DR (Richard) Thorpe (* 1943 ) is a British historian. He is best known for his biographies of several British politicians of the 20th century.

Education, academic career

Thorpe was educated at the renowned Fettes College , Edinburgh and at Selwyn College , Cambridge. He then taught history at Charterhouse , a public school in the southern county of Surrey . He was also a fellow at Churchill College , Cambridge and at Brasenose College , Oxford. In 2013 the Royal Historical Society awarded him Fellow Membership (FRHistS).

Work as a biographer

Thorpe's first book, The Uncrowned Prime Ministers , was published in 1980 and dealt with the careers of Austen Chamberlain , Lord Curzon and RA Butler , all of whom were long traded as future prime ministers but ultimately failed prematurely. By 1989 he wrote the official biography of the politician Selwyn Lloyd , formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Minister . This was followed by a triptych of three former Conservative Prime Ministers: the biography of Alec Douglas-Home appeared in 1996; In 2003, the official biography of Anthony Edens followed , written by Thorpe at the invitation of Eden's widow Clarissa. In 2010, the biography of Harold Macmillan followed with Supermac - The Life of Harold Macmillan .

Publications

• The Uncrowned Prime Ministers , Darkhorse Pub., London 1980, ISBN 0-90722-201-3 .
• Selwyn Lloyd . Jonathan Cape Publishing, London 1989. ISBN 0-224-02828-6 .
• Alec Douglas Home . Sinclair-Stevenson, London 1996, Politico's new edition, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-84275-191-6 .
• Eden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden, First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977 . Chatto & Windus, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-6505-6 .
• Supermac - The Life of Harold Macmillan. Chatto & Windus, London 2010, ISBN 978-0-7011-7748-5 (awarded the Marsh Biography Award in 2011 ).