Hugh Trevor-Roper
On sale
2nd April 2026
Price: £16.99
Genre
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SECRET LIFE OF JOHN LE CARRÉ
‘A fine and serious biography which, on page after page, has made me laugh out loud’ Sunday Telegraph
‘It is a long time since I have enjoyed a book as much as this one’ Robert Harris, Sunday Times
‘It is impossible to praise Sisman’s biography too highly’ A.N. Wilson, Observer
Clever, witty and cruel, Hugh Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation. As a young intelligence officer, he broke one of the German codes while taking a bath during an air raid. After the war, his solo investigation into the death of Hitler made him famous in his early thirties and rich enough to buy a Bentley. Ten years later he was appointed the most senior history professor at Oxford. He married into the aristocracy and was acknowledged as one of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time. But he failed to write the ‘big book’ expected of him and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged ‘Hitler Diaries’. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse forms a fitting finale to the story of a full and varied life.
‘A fine and serious biography which, on page after page, has made me laugh out loud’ Sunday Telegraph
‘It is a long time since I have enjoyed a book as much as this one’ Robert Harris, Sunday Times
‘It is impossible to praise Sisman’s biography too highly’ A.N. Wilson, Observer
Clever, witty and cruel, Hugh Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation. As a young intelligence officer, he broke one of the German codes while taking a bath during an air raid. After the war, his solo investigation into the death of Hitler made him famous in his early thirties and rich enough to buy a Bentley. Ten years later he was appointed the most senior history professor at Oxford. He married into the aristocracy and was acknowledged as one of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time. But he failed to write the ‘big book’ expected of him and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged ‘Hitler Diaries’. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse forms a fitting finale to the story of a full and varied life.
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Reviews
Detailed, judicious and entertaining
Wonderfully complete and beautifully crafted
Extraordinarily gripping, wonderfully vivid
Sisman tells the story of Trevor-Roper with authority and relish...a perfect biography
This is a richly comic tale, brilliantly told by Adam Sisman
The combination of Sisman, author of the hugely enjoyable Boswell's Presumptuous Task, and Trevor-Roper, one of the most acerbic and waspish of 20th-century dons, should make this a biography to savour. The feuding was endless, the career impressive, the fall after the Hitler Diaries stupendous
A reminder of what a realy luminous portrait looks like. Elegant, witty and incisive, it is a study in paradoxes...Sisman casts light into the darkest crannies of a fascniating personality.
a rewarding read
Sisman delves deep into the life and mind of his subject in this remarkably well-written biography
Sisman provides a gripping narrative of how Trevor-Roper came to authenticate Hitler Diaries..This biography is bursting with similarly compelling episodes from Trevor-Roper's life
How lucky for Trevor-Roper, and for us, that the ideal biographer was here. It is impossible to praise Sisman's book too highly
It is a long time since I have enjoyed a book as much as this one
Richly rewarding on every level
Adam Sisman's biography provides a wide-ranging, acute and convincing account of an extremely interesting man. It allows us to get some sense of how his limitations sat side by side with his superb gifts and how the deployment of both were part of a single process.
By miles the best biography I have read this year
A comprehensive and entertaining biography, highlighting the successes and failures of a complex man
the thoroughness, fairness and frankness of this biography are exemplary.. consistently engrossing
A fascinating biography
Adam Sisman's superb HUGH TREVOR-ROPER: THE BIOGRAPHY surpassed anything I read this year
Brilliant
I was completely beguiled by Adam Sisman's HUGH TREVOR-ROPER
Sisman tells the story of Trevor-Roper with authority and relish..a perfect biography
Magnificent ... riveting
This is a fine and serious biography which, on page after page, has made me laugh out loud
Sisman's imperious account ... is lovingly researched yet impressively objective, leaving the reader in no doubt as to Trevor-Roper's academic abilities as well as to his failings as a man.
detailed, judicious and entertaining, a great treat for those of us who enjoy bitchy don anecdotes
This is a fine and serious biography which, on page after page, has made me laugh out loud
Detailed, judicious and entertaining, a great treat for those of us who enjoy bitchy don anecdotes
An entertaining and scholarly account of the life of the great historian and the milieu of interwar Oxford.
This is an outstanding biography of a fascinating and brilliant man
The great achievement of Sisman's work lies in the way he skilfully places Trevor-Roper's position as perhaps the foremost historian of the mid-20th century into a proper perspective
Richly rewarding on every level
How lucky for Trevor-Roper, and for us, that the ideal biographer was here. It is impossible to praise Sisman's book too highly
Succeeds triumphantly in making the life of the arrogant don a riveting read...an irresistible story