Jan-Maat’s Reviews > Essays in English History > Status Update

"A thorough grounding in advanced dominoes was, I think, the only useful instruction I received from my father"

in my case it was basic coconut opening - occasionally a useful skill to have

"I have always assumed, though with little first hand experience, that Lancashire women are as brisk & businesslike in love-making as in everything else"

anybody keen to confirm or deny this?

"The Norwegian campaign was inspired & directed by Winston Churchill. Its failure brought down Chamberlain & put Churchill in his place"

"Editors of The Times have often believed that they were more important than prime ministers. Lloyd George was the only prime minister who apparently agreed with them"

"There was something to be said for keeping shipping movements & losses secret, though this was carried rather far when the sinking of the Audacious, which took place on 27 October 1914, was announced only on 13th November 1918"

George V's "standards of decency were often higher than those of his ministers. He disliked the campaign against aliens & conscientious objectors during the first world war; he objected to the violence of The British Gazette (edited by Winston Churchill) during the General Strike; he protested against the Black & Tans & against the forcible feeding of Suffragettes. With General Smuts's assistance, he made a...

"There is something to be said for conservatism (though I can never recollect what); there is much to be said for radical change; the defects of gradual reform are greater than is commonly supposed - & it is gradual reform which the British constitution & monarchy inevitably promote"

"Those who explained Imperialism in terms of economics were rationalists themselves & therefore sought a rational explanation for the behaviour of others"

"Disraeli riveted on our political life the conception that politics consist entirely in 2 parties fighting for office. These 2 parties were to represent not programmes but interests. What interests Disraeli did not much mind. Sometimes he talked of the Conservative party as 'the landed interest'; sometimes he appealed to all who had 'a stake in the country'; in practice his party was an alliance between the City...

"systems, patterns, faiths are an attempt to impose an artifical simplification on the infinite variety of the past. The historian remains sceptical of them all & can derive only malicious amusement from the efforts of present day politicians to enlist their great predecessors in contemporary disputes"