Hibbert, Christopher 1924-

PERSONAL:

Born March 5, 1924, in Enderby, Leicestershire, England; son of H.V. Hibbert (a canon); married Susan Piggford, 1948; children: James, Tom, Kate. Education: Oriel College, Oxford, M.A., 1948. Hobbies and other interests: Painting, gardening, collecting eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century caricatures.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. Agent—David Higham Associates Ltd., 5-8 Lower John St., London W1R 4HA, England.

CAREER:

Writer. Military service: Royal Army, Infantry, four years; became captain; received the Military Cross.

MEMBER:

Royal Society of Literature (fellow), Royal Geographical Society (fellow), Johnson Society (president, 1979).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Royal Society of Literature award, 1962, for The Destruction of Lord Raglan.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Road to Tyburn, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1958.

King Mob, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1959.

Wolfe at Quebec, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1960.

Corunna, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1961.

Il Duce, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1962, revised edition published as Benito Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce, Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1975.

The Destruction of Lord Raglan, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1962.

The Battle of Arnhem, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1962.

The Roots of Evil, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1963.

Agincourt, Dufour (Philadelphia, PA), 1964.

The Court at Windsor, Harper (New York, NY), 1965.

Garibaldi and His Enemies, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1966.

Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Campaign, New American Library (New York, NY), 1966.

The Making of Charles Dickens, Harper (New York, NY), 1967.

Highwaymen, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1967.

(Editor, annotator, and author of introduction) Louis Simond, An American in Regency England: The Journal of a Tour in 1810-1811, Maxwell (London, England), 1968.

Charles I, Harper (New York, NY), 1968.

The Grand Tour, Putnam (New York, NY), 1969.

(With Charles Thomas) The Search for King Arthur, American Heritage (New York, NY), 1969.

(Editor and author of introduction) John Harris, Recollections of Rifleman Harris as Told to Henry Curling, Archon Books (Hamden, CT), 1970.

London: The Biography of a City, Morrow (New York, NY), 1970.

The Dragon Wakes: China and the West, 1793-1911, Harper (New York, NY), 1970.

Anzio: Bid for Rome, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1970.

The Personal History of Samuel Johnson, Harper (New York, NY), 1971.

(Editor, with others) Tower of London, Newsweek Books (New York, NY), 1971.

Versailles, Newsweek Books (New York, NY), 1972.

Edward: The Uncrowned King, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1972.

Twilight of Princes, Newsweek Books (New York, NY), 1974.

The Pen and the Sword, Newsweek Books (New York, NY), 1974.

George IV: Prince of Wales, 1762-1811, Harper (New York, NY), 1974.

George IV: Regent and King, 1811-1830, Harper (New York, NY), 1975.

The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, Morrow (New York, NY), 1975.

The Horizon Book of Daily Life in Victorian England, American Heritage (New York, NY), 1975.

The Illustrated London News' Social History of Victorian Britain, Angus & Robertson (London, England), 1975.

George IV, Penguin (New York, NY), 1976.

The Royal Victorians: King Edward VII, His Family and Friends, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1976.

Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Victorian World, Putnam (New York, NY), 1976.

The Great Mutiny: India, 1857, Viking (New York, NY), 1978.

Disraeli and His World, Scribner (New York, NY), 1978.

Victoria, Park Lane Press (New York, NY), 1979.

The French Revolution, Morrow (New York, NY), 1980.

The Court of St. James's: The Monarch at Work from Victoria to Elizabeth II, Morrow (New York, NY), 1980.

(Editor and annotator) Greville's England: Selections from the Diaries of Charles Greville, 1818-1860, Folio Society (London, England), 1981.

The Emperors of China, Stonehenge (Alexandria, VA), 1981.

Chateaux of the Loire, Newsweek Books (New York, NY), 1982.

The Popes, Stonehenge (Alexandria, VA), 1982.

(Editor, with Ben Weinreb) The London Encyclopaedia, Macmillan (London, England), 1983, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1991.

Rome, the Biography of a City, Norton (New York, NY), 1985.

Queen Victoria in Her Letters and Journals: A Selection, Viking (New York, NY), 1985.

Cities and Civilizations, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1986.

London's Churches, Queen Anne Press (London, England), 1988.

Venice, the Biography of a City, Grafton Books (London, England), 1988.

Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution through British Eyes, Norton (New York, NY), 1990.

The Virgin Queen: Elizabeth I, Genius of the Golden Age, Addison-Wesley (New York, NY), 1991.

The Story of England, Phaidon (London, England), 1992.

Cavaliers and Roundheads: The English Civil War, 1642-1649, Scribner (New York, NY), 1993.

Florence: The Biography of a City, Norton (New York, NY), 1993.

Nelson: A Personal History, Addison-Wesley (New York, NY), 1994.

(Author of foreword) Richard Ollard, Dorset, Pimlico (London, England), 1995.

(Editor and author of introduction) A Soldier of the Seventy-first: The Journal of a Soldier in the Peninsular War, Windrush Press (Moreton-on-Marsh, Gloucestershire, England), 1996.

Wellington: A Personal History, Addison-Wesley (New York, NY), 1997.

No Ordinary Place: Radley College and the Public School System, John Murray (London, England), 1997.

George III: A Personal History, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Wolfe at Quebec, Cooper Square (New York, NY), 1999.

Queen Victoria: A Personal History, Perseus (New York, NY), 2000.

The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill, 1650-1744, Viking (New York, NY), 2001.

Napoleon: His Wives and Women, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

Disraeli: A Personal History, HarperCollins Publishers (London, England), 2004, published as Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2006.

The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431-1519, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2008.

ADAPTATIONS:

Several of Hibbert's books have been adapted to audiotape, including The Days of the French Revolution, Nelson: A Personal History, and The Battle of Arnhem.

SIDELIGHTS:

Christopher Hibbert, "a well-respected independent scholar and biographer," as Frederic Krome described him in Library Journal, has written extensively about English history and its leading figures. Booklist critic Gilbert Taylor has called Hibbert "a prolific biographer of famous Britishers," while a writer for Contemporary Review found him to be "the doyen of popular historians and respected biographers." Among Hibbert's many biographies are Wellington: A Personal History, George III: A Personal History, and Queen Victoria: A Personal History, all of which focus more on their subjects' personal lives than on their public careers.

In Wellington, Hibbert tells the story of the English duke who served as a statesman and, as soldier, bested Napoleon in battle. A critic for Publishers Weekly found that Hibbert's "graceful and well-researched life" concentrates on Wellington's "personality and behavior." David Lee Poremba, reviewing the book for Library Journal, noted that "the subject comes alive in a completely objective narrative."

George III chronicles the sixty-year reign of the English monarch who saw the American colonies revolt against his domination. Plagued by bouts of insanity, prone to violent outbursts, and the father of several sons who ran wild, George III was nevertheless revered by his people for his virtuous behavior. Writing in History Today, Asa Briggs described Hibbert's account of the monarch's long and eventful life as a "readable and sympathetic new biography." National Review contributor Florence King found the book to be "another irresistible biography by British writer Christopher Hibbert, peerless master of history with its pomp down."

Hibbert's Queen Victoria documents the sixty-four-year reign of one of England's most beloved monarchs. His extensive research into the queen's correspondence, diaries, and other sources enables him to reveal "a much more complex Queen Victoria than many readers have imagined," according to Krome.

In Napoleon: His Wives and Women, Hibbert looks at the life of Napoleon through the women who had the most effect of him, including his mother, sisters, wives, and lovers. Because he makes frequent references to other individuals close to Napoleon and his family, this book, though not a scholarly reference, is not intended for the general reader but rather with one already familiar with the major players related to Napoleon and his reign. A reviewer for M2 Best Books remarked: "Hibbert gives the reader a fantastic insight into a rarely portrayed side of Napoleon's personality. It is interesting to read what some women put up with just for the love of one man who was, more often than not, not even worth it."

Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister takes a look at the life of two-time prime minister of Great Britain, Benjamin Disraeli. Hibbert's approach is to delve deeply into the former prime minister's personal life while minimizing his political career, which has been chronicled so thoroughly elsewhere. He covers Disraeli's early career, during which time he was known as a society novelist, an unusual occupation for a man destined to become a world leader. Hibbert then follows Disraeli's rise into politics through the House of Commons, his marriage, and his long-standing history of arguments with William Gladstone. Matt Todd, in a review for Library Journal, called the book a "lively and engaging portrait." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the volume to be "an adroitly written evocation of a compelling but enigmatic personality."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of Wellington: A Personal History, p. 201.

Contemporary Review, February, 2002, review of The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill, 1650-1744, p. 127.

History Today, December, 1998, Asa Briggs, review of George III: A Personal History, p. 50.

Library Journal, September 15, 1997, David Lee Poremba, review of Wellington, p. 82; February 1, 2000, Michael Rogers, review of Wolfe at Quebec, p. 122; December, 2000, Frederic Krome, review of Queen Victoria: A Personal History, p. 154; May 1, 2006, Matt Todd, review of Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister, p. 94.

M2 Best Books, January 31, 2003, review of Napoleon: His Wives and Women.

National Review, January 28, 1969; March 22, 1999, Florence King, review of George III, p. 51.

Publishers Weekly, August 18, 1997, review of Wellington, p. 83; March 27, 2006, review of Disraeli, p. 70.