Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson - Tapa dura

'wonderfully wise and witty...... in Trevor-Roper, as these letters drenched in irony attest, history had discovered a profound analyst who was also a consummate stylist' (Christopher Silvester THE SUNDAY TIMES)

'Richard Davenport-Hines's introduction is so crisp and perceptive.' (Ferdinand Mount THE SPECTATOR)

'Trevor-Roper proves a wonderful letter-writer, filling his pages with outrageously funny accounts of Oxford goings-on and malicious London gossip.' (Derwent May THE TIMES)

'... the book would be worth buying for it [Roper's account of his campaign to get Macmillan elected Chancellor of Oxford University]. But other reasons for buying this book will be found on almost every page; not least among them is the skill of the editor, Richard Davenport-Hines, whose deft annotations somehow contrive to be both economical and omniscient.' (Noel Malcolm THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH,)

'These letters offer sheer, unadulterated pleasure.' (Mark Bostridge THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

'Skilfully edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, this volume is a consolation at any season, and, it must be hoped, is the forerunner of many more to come.' (L G Mitchell THE TLS)

'The letters focus best on teh 'guerilla-warfare of the cloister,' the elections to the Wardenship of All Souls, to the Regius Professorship of Poetry.' (John Saumarez Smith COUNTRY LIFE)

'contain masterpieces of wit and irony...... Davenport-Hines has added some masterly notes and an excellent introduction' (THE FINANCIAL TIMES Robin Lane-Fox)

'this very entertaining volume.....superbly edited by Richard Davenport-Hines.' (Adam Sisman LITERARY REVIEW)

When they met in 1947 Trevor-Roper, a young historian at Christ Church, Oxford, was 33. Berenson, the world-famous art critic, was 82, frail but still intensely curious about the world. Trevor Roper promised to write to him and his letters continued until Berenson's death in in 1959. Elegantly constructed, beautifully and precisely written, they are shot through with high-octane malice, sharp judgements and blistering comments, and many wonderfully funny episodes. Trevor-Roper was an intellectual heavyweight, but the overall tone here is one of amusement at the human comedy', the vanity, snobbery and human weakness he sees all around him. At the same time he loves intrigue and controversy. Subjects range widely: several brilliant set-pieces on Oxford college elections, books, journalism, publishing, politics (postwar Europe, ex-Nazis and collaborators, the Cold War, Suez, etc), history and history-writing, personal life (including marriage to Earl Haig's daughter Alexandra after her messy divorce), travel, gossip, and so on. He has a memorable journey on a pilgrims' bus in Persia, goes behind the Iron Curtain to meet Communist dignitaries and speeds in his glamorous grey Bentley to visit duchesses in the Scottish borders. Figures in the letters include Evelyn Waugh, Isaiah Berlin, A.L. Rowse, Anthony Eden, Gerald Brenan, A.J.P.Taylor, Arnold Toynbee, Dimitri Shostakovitch, C.S. Lewis and Harold Macmillan.