The Life and Times of an Imperial Servant

Archibald Wavell

Biography Archibald Wavell - man of letters, Field-Marshal, Viceroy. A key figure in military and political operations from the Boer to the Second World War.

This admirable biography...thoughtful, well-written, judicious account of a brilliantly clever man.

A great many anecdotes enliven Adrian Fort's welcome biography of the scentist who, in two wars, strove to unite science and the conduct of war.

This thoughtful, amused and well-researched biography

This wholly admirable...scholarly book which provides fascinating, if sometimes disconcerting, glimpses of the world of science and government in the 1930's and 1940's

Adrian Fort was educated at Oxford where he was a Clarendon Fellow. He practised as a barrister and became involved with politics before pursuing a financial career. He has published many articles on financial and economic matters and has broadcast frequently on the radio and published Prof: The Life and Times of Frederick Lindemann in 2003.

Archibald Wavell was born a few years before Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and died shortly after the end of the Second World War (1883-1950). During that time the country in which he was born and brought up in changed beyond recognition, undergoing a fundamental revision in the attitudes, expectations, prejudices and hopes of the British people. His life epitomises that of a generation of famous men whose education and upbringing equipped them for a future that was to prove an illusion. 
 
At seventeen, Archibald Wavell joined the army and as a young officer saw action in the Boer War and on the North West Frontier.In the Great War, he was often close to the greatest generals in the British Army; he fought in the trenches, was decorated for bravery and lost an eye. Between the wars his career included command of troops attempting to keep the peace in Palestine as revolt engulfed the country. His victorious campaigns early in the Second World War attracted a blaze of public admiration and renown; but he also tasted defeat and rejection, both in Africa and from 1941 as commander-in-chief of Allied forces in India, wilting before the Japanese onslaught in Burma and Singapore. In 1943 he was appointed Viceroy of India, where he took on the task of guiding that country's destiny as it crossed the brink of Empire into the turmoil of independence.

Adrian Fort

Fort casts fresh light on a remarkable woman, whose toughness and independence of opinion allowed this outsider to chart a new course for women.

The spirited story of the indomitable girl from America who married a millionaire and fought fiercely to become Britain’s first female MP

Fort’s well researched biography is excellent

Adrian Fort does justice to her energetic, forceful and outspoken personality

A masterful and compassionate book, every bit as multi-facet as the extraordinary woman

This elegant work brilliantly evokes the story of a woman ahead of her time, and does justice to her energetic and outspoken personality

Fort returns us to the spirited if sometimes misguided Virginian-born woman who married one of the richest men in the world and became the UK’s first woman MP

Adrian Fort’s book does a good job of showing the charms and contradictions of the wealthy American

Immaculately researched and a page-turner

In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first woman to take a seat in parliament. 
 
She was not what had been expected. Far from a virago who had suffered for the cause of female suffrage, she was already near the centre of the ruling society that had for so long resisted the political upheavals of the early twentieth century, having married into the family of one of the richest men in the world. She was not even British. She would prove to be a trailblazer and beacon for the generations of women who would follow her into Parliament. 
 
This new biography charts Nancy Astor's incredible story, from penury in the American South, to a lifestyle of the most immense riches, from the luxury of Edwardian England, through the 'Jazz Age', and on towards the Second World War: a world of great country estates, lavish town houses and the most sumptuous entertainments, peopled by the most famous and powerful names of the age. But hers was not only the life of power, glamour and easy charm: it was also defined by principles and bravery, by war and sacrifice, by love and bitter disputes. 
 
With glorious, page-turning brio, Adrian Fort has brought to life this restless, controversial American dynamo, an unforgettable woman who left a deep and lasting imprint on the political life of our nation.

Adrian Fort

Praise for Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor

Fort casts fresh light on a remarkable woman, whose toughness and independence of opinion allowed this outsider to chart a new course for women.

The spirited story of the indomitable girl from America who married a millionaire and fought fiercely to become Britain’s first female MP

Fort’s well researched biography is excellent

Fort casts fresh light on a remarkable woman, whose toughness and independence of opinion allowed this outsider to chart a new course for women.

The spirited story of the indomitable girl from America who married a millionaire and fought fiercely to become Britain’s first female MP

Fort’s well researched biography is excellent

Fort casts fresh light on a remarkable woman, whose toughness and independence of opinion allowed this outsider to chart a new course for women.

The spirited story of the indomitable girl from America who married a millionaire and fought fiercely to become Britain’s first female MP

Fort’s well researched biography is excellent

Books by Adrian Fort

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