HVF Winstone

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PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS

 

Captain Shakespear (Cape 1976; Quartet paperback 1977)

Mr Winstone has found a rich vein to mine and he does it entertainingly and well. Patrick Seale, Observer

Mr Winstone has done a real service in bringing to light the story of Captain Shakespear's achievements. John Terraine, Spectator

He has given us a lively picture of the life and death of an Englishman whose name is almost forgotten in his own country, but has remained a legend in the deserts. Humphrey Trevelyan, The Times Literary Supplement

 

Gertrude Bell (Cape 1978; Quartet paperback 1982; Constable paperback 1993; revised and enlarged edition, Barzan 2004)

Mr Winstone, an excellent biographer...has written the definitive biography of The Lady. Jan Morris, The Times

HVF Winstone neither idealizes her nor psychoanalyzes her; he shows her fairly from all angles. Valerie Lloyd, Newsweek

Honest, thoroughly researched and gracefully written...a sharp credible portrait. Patrick Seale, Observer

Winstone's book is a model of its kind...almost everything such a work ought to be. Nissim Rejwan, Jerusalem Post

Winstone's book is cool, sensible, scrupulously detailed, Jonathan Raban, Sunday Times

Mr Winstone writes very well about Gertrude Bell herself, and discerningly about her strange, unfulfilled love life...One of Mr Winstone's many merits as a writer is that he does not conceal his heroine's faults... Charles Chenevix Trench, Hibernia

This book admirably conveys the vigour of her mind and will. But it also shows her capacity for intense emotion...Economist

The Illicit Adventure (Cape 1982; USA, University Publications, 1987)

This is a massively impressive book. It must become the authority on the Ottoman Arabian Empire. It is a tale of muddle and murder on a Shakespearean scale. Woodrow Wyatt (Lord Wyatt), Sunday Times

...a tribute to Winstone's skill in presenting 12 years' research into the records of all the nations involved in the carve up of the Middle East at the end of the First World War. The canvas is massive, the figures on it multitudinous. Middle East International

This fine volume...an invaluable source book and may well prove to be definitive. The plots and counter-plots add to the tension of a good novel and one need not be an historian to be fascinated by the machinations and duplicity normally hidden within the subjective histories. Natal Star

In the other Shakespeare's words: 'Here is God's plenty', a rich and satisfying book that can be read and read again, by specialist and layman alike. Alex Gibb, Glasgow Herald

Mr Winstone displays the qualities of chess master, genealogist and strategist in this remarkable combination of detection and correlation. Laurence Cotterell, Daily Telegraph

Mr Winstone's book should be read by everyone concerned with the period...TR Fyvel, Jewish Chronicle

...a worthy successor to (perhaps a spinoff from) Winstone's earlier books, on Gertrude Bell and Captain Shakespear, which have done much to bring these highly attractive characters and their period out of oblivion. David Wasserstein, Irish Press

A book that is a must for all. Manchester Evening News

Only now, after reading it, do I realise how little I knew about what did happen...Gordon Thomas, Dublin Evening Herald

 

Leachman: OC Desert (Quartet 1982)

Mr Winstone relates an enthralling story. As in his previous book ‘Captain Shakespear’, he has rescued an interesting  eccentric from the sands of the desert.. Economist

Thanks to HVF Winstone’s sympathetic and admirably researched biography, I feel that I now understand the arcane complexities of the Desert War. By 1909 he was in Basra and. for 11 years  he was totally involved in the turbulent military and political in-fighting of what still remains potentially one of the most explosive areas in the world. David Ascoli, Daily Telegraph, 2 September 1982

 

Uncovering the Ancient World (Constable 1985)

In HVF Winstone archaeology has discovered a sympathetic interpreter who can not only tell a good story and bring a vivid personality to the page, but can also marshal the archaeological information in such a way as to make it assimilable. Henry Cleere, Geographical Magazine

Woolley of Ur (Secker & Warburg, 1990)

HVF Winstone has written a scholarly and detailed account of his life. Patrick Taylor Martin, Sunday Times

...admirably clear narrative. Anthony Powell, Weekend Telegraph

Throughout this biography, one feels the harmony of his life and character, the satisfaction of great ability put to the best possible use. Sara Paton, Spectator

Howard Carter and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (Constable 1991; Germany, vgs, 1993; Italy, Newton Compton, Rome, 1994; Constable paperback, 1993; new, revised edition, hardback and paperback, Barzan, 2006)

Howard Carter...died in 1939 without being named in any British honours list, and has had no biography until now. Here at last is a worthy one by HVF Winstone, an author who already has lives of Sir Leonard Woolley and Gertrude Bell to his credit. Economist

Writing with elegance and sensitivity, Winstone's achievement has been to recover that most difficult of things, a life. Michael Haag, Sunday Telegraph

...the narrative grips with a fascination that 70 years and endless retellings cannot dim. Christopher Hudson, Evening Standard

Lady Anne Blunt (Barzan 2003)

 

HVF Winstone has vividly portrayed a talented, industrious and original woman who lived in the shadow of her odious relations, her conceited cad of a husband and the oppressive inequality of a pre-feminist society. Jessica Mann, Literary Review

 

The book is an excellent read. Winstone writes with panache, doesn’t linger over the horse moments, and has a wide perspective on what it meant to be alive at the high noon of empire. James Fleming, The Spectator

 

You cannot take your eye from this biography for a moment... Winstone has been  able to produce a poignant and illuminating portrait of a talented, determined and visionary woman. Martin Hesp, Western Morning News

 

Lady Anne’s watercolours, a selection of which are reproduced in this book, have a particular resonance now that Baghdad, Basra and Jebel Shammar are places we hear about every night. She travelled where no European woman had been before. Kate Chisholm, The Daily Telegraph

 

Lady Anne Blunt deserves a worthy biography. This meticulously researched book is the first account of her long and full life and it makes fascinating reading. Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies

 

Lady Anne Blunt is probably best known as the granddaughter of Lord Byron and the wife of the poet, philanderer and would-be politician Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Such stellar connections make her an attractive subject for a biogrpahy, and H.V.F. Winstone has seized his chance to be the first to rescue her from the long shadow cast by her flamboyant husband and relatives. Times Literary Supplement

 

 

LISTED WRITINGS

Captain Shakespear, Jonathan Cape, 1976; Quartet (paperback), 1978.

Gertrude Bell, Jonathan Cape, 1976; Quartet (paperback), 1980; re-published in paperback, Constable, 1993; revised, edited and enlarged edition, Barzan Publishing, 2004.

Leachman, OC Desert, Quartet 1982.

Diaries of Parker Pasha (ed.), Quartet, 1982

Royal Copenhagen Porcelain, Stacey International, 1983

Woolley of Ur, Secker and Warburg, 1990

Uncovering the Ancient World, Constable, 1985

Howard Carter and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Constable, 1991; vgs, Cologne, 1993; Newton, Italy, 1993.

Lady Anne Blunt,  Barzan Publishing, Manchester and Beirut, 2003

With Zahra Freeth

Kuwait - Prospect & Reality (Allen & Unwin), Explorers of Arabia (Allen & Unwin);

With Gerald de Gaury

Spirit of the East (Quartet), The Road to Kabul (Quartet/ Macmillan USA)

 

JOURNALISM: Reporter and features writer with weekly journals and financial features agency from 1947 - 50. Industrial journal editor and press adviser to Royal Doulton and others during 1950s and 60s. Freelance writer; magazine editor 1970 - 1982, chiefly journals of decorative and applied arts; Pottery Gazette, Tableware International, Home & Table, Ambassador; industrial and commercial publications; supervisory editor English edition Automobile World (Zurich); 1975 - 1990 freelance special features writer Guardian, book reviewer Daily Telegraph, contributor to Connoisseur, The Times, specialist journals. Own editorial office established at 71 Fleet Street in 1966.

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