Richard Cleveland

Gooch's biography of Frederick, whom I have always found to be an interesting character, beats the short life by Nancy Mitford which I read several years ago. Gooch was an accomplished historian and a fine writer with several historical studies to his credit when his Frederick was published in 1947. Gooch's extensive use of letters to and from the king, as well as excerpts from several of his published works, provide a thorough examination of this enlightened despot. Gooch was fair in his treatment, commending Frederick for his fine qualities of mind and his enlightened treatment of his subjects, while not excusing his shortcomings and inconsistencies between theory and practice. The writing is lively - there's nothing dull about Gooch's story-telling - and free of annoying stylistic quirks that I find irritating in many authors who are not trained to the historical method. Altogether, an exceptionally fine book by an exceptionally fine writer and highly recommended to anyone interested in 18th-Century European history.

I read a lot of English/British history and biography, and have acquainted myself with several 19th-Century prime ministers, from Pitt the Younger to Lord Salisbury. Even in American history of the mid-19th Century, Lord Palmerston intruded himself, so after polishing off Lord Melbourne, I looked for a life of Palmerston. My choices were two, and after reading reviews, I opted for Jasper Ridley, whose double biography of Wolsey and More I enjoyed. Unlike one Goodreads reviewer of Ridley's Palmerston, I liked the detail - nothing too much, is my attitude - the more I know about the subject, the better. Ridley was an exceptionally fine writer, his work was careful, lucid, free of the stylistic quirks I so dislike, shot through with dry British wit - and a joy to read. Palmerston was a colossus, a thoroughly illiberal liberal (to twist Andrew Roberts' dedication in his monumental life of Lord Salisbury) who fascinated and frustrated a generation or more of Britons. In all of his guises - Lord Cupid, Lord Pumicestone, and Good Old Pam - was an object of deep interest to the Great British Public, and he is well-served by Jasper Ridley's superb biography.