Richard Cobb was one of the most distinguished British historians of the twentieth century. A professor at Oxford, a multiple prize-winner, author of numerous books and innumerable essays and reviews, on subjects that ranged from the French revolution to pre-war Tunbridge Wells, he was proudest of all to be described as a Parisian. He was unconventional, anarchic and almost impossibly erudite. Somehow he managed in the course of a life of apparently unremitting grandeur to write letters to his friends, colleagues and increasing to Hugh Trevor-Roper, his equally brilliant and eccentric contemporary, and himself a notable correspondent. They were scratchy, iconoclastic, funny, indiscreet, vivid, fluent, and occasionally brilliant set-pieces of descriptive or historical reporting. The sight of one of his ill-typed missives in a blue Basildon Bond envelope was always a promise of pleasure, and usually of instruction, frequently an invitation to a feast of scurrilous gossip, and an excuse to put off day-to-day concerns for a while. He wrote about politicians, the royal family, fellow academics and journalists, and, of course, mutual friends. The complete letters would fill many volumes, but here is a selection of the best, made by Tim Heald, who was taught by Cobb at university, and corresponded with him intermittently for the next thirty years.
| ISBN | 0711232407 | | Pages | 240 | | ISBN13 | 9780711232402
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 635 | | Publisher | Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd | | Height (mm) | 234 | | Format | Hardback | | Width (mm) | 156 | | Publication date | 06 Oct 2011 | | Spine width (mm) | 30 | | DEWEY | 907.202 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | |
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