His prose is leaden. Waterhouse favours the portentous phrase.
Edwardian Requiem: A Life of Sir Edward Grey | Reviews in History
But the book is still worth reading. It is a well-researched and admirably fair account of a man who, for more than 15 years, played a critically important role in the formulation of British foreign policy. No Englishman could have prevented the war. Grey got as close to it as anyone could have done, and Waterhouse should be thanked for reminding us of his existence.
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Philip Ziegler 29 June 9: See also Book review Edward Grey History the first world war. Most Popular Read Recent Read. The nine lessons of Brexit Ivan Rogers. Corbyn tables a motion of no confidence in May — will it backfire? Opposition to Brexit is sincere, but it has nothing to do with democracy Stephen Daisley. Why business and the City should speak out against a second referendum Matthew Lynn. What to read next. Against Their Will, by Allen M. Hornblum - review Jonathan Mirsky.
Grey spent nearly thirty years in Parliament and only reluctantly became Foreign Secretary of a country that presided over the greatest empire the world had seen since Roman times. Yet it was a position he filled for more than a decade, the longest anyone has ever served continuously in his or any age, firstly under Campbell-Bannerman and then Asquith. During this time he battled relentlessly to protect and advance the interests of his country against the volatile backdrop of a Europe in which the balance of power was tilting wildly.
Edwardian Requiem is the remarkable portrait of a complex and enigmatic politician who presided over the twilight of old Europe.
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Edwardian Requiem, by Michael Waterhouse - review
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Apr 05, Marks54 rated it really liked it. This book is a biography of Sir Edward Grey. He was the British Foreign Secretary from and he uttered one of the greatest quotes of the Twentieth Century on August 3, just at the outbreak of the First World War: We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.
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The picture of Grey that comes across in Waterhouse's biography is of a brilliant diplomat, an old school English gentleman, a skilled politician, and a balanced reasonable person. He seemed to be about as good a Foreign Secretary as was possible to obtain during the last decade of the "Concert of Europe" style of diplomacy that prevailed in Europe from the defeat of Napoleon until The story of Grey the master diplomat is well done and generally consistent with other diplomatic histories of the time that have been coming out recently.
While I enjoyed the book, I only gave it four stars because of some of the other stories that were told by Waterhouse, along with the diplomacy story. In the course of the book, it becomes fairly clear that Grey did about as good a job as possible as Foreign Secretary and that there is plenty of blame to go around for the commencement of WWI. As to the more personal criticisms of Grey, he did do quite a bit of fishing and birdwatching.
Edwardian Requiem: A Life of Sir Edward Grey
While his recreations may not have greatly impeded his effectiveness, they were sufficiently noticed to inspire comment and some bad press - which is a problem in its own right. As to his marital relations and affairs, I did not really care one bit. This was hardly unusual in the British aristocracy and moreover is presented with a mixture of evidence and supposition that seems contrived in parts. Overall, sticking to the diplomacy would have worked much better in my opinion.
The most recent study, by Keith Robbins, remains a valuable work, but it was published more than 40 years ago. It does not appear to be based on archival research, although one cannot quite be sure as there are no footnotes.
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The select bibliography at the end of the book includes a preponderance of older and general works, with important recent books on both pre-First World War diplomacy and Liberal politics conspicuous by their absence. There is no evidence of familiarity with the literature in specialist journals. There is no real assessment of whether any alternative foreign policy might have prevented war. This might not matter so much if the book was well-written, reliable and accurate, but this is not the case.
It is so riddled with factual inaccuracies that these become more than a minor irritation. To cite just a few examples: They are compounded by infelicities which while not quite factually wrong display a lack of grasp of the politics of the period. His support for an elected House of Lords was not a sign of radicalism: I could go on, but it is kinder to leave it there.
He devotes much space to suggesting that Grey fathered a number of illegitimate children by various different women. Even here there are more howlers: One is left with a sense of the author being too keen to spice up the book with juicy stories to question their veracity. Maybe these stories suggest there is no smoke without fire. But equally they may merely indicate that some people see a certain cachet in claiming to be descended from a famous statesman.
