Harold Nicolson

Diplomacy

Fictionalized portraits of ten people in Edwardian England provide a commentary on the manners, prejudices, interests, and beliefs of the period

Some People

Peacemaking, 1919

(1700-1789)

The age of reason

Harold Nicolson Diaries, 1907-1963

G. D. H. Cole

Harold J. Laski

Herbert Read

W. M. Macmillan

Ellen Wilkinson

Written two years after the commencement of the Second World War, the chapters in this book succinctly put forward the case for reorganizing the foundations of the social order, by rejecting capitalism and historical equilibrium, both in Europe and further afield in the British Empire, in favour of building a Socialist civilization.

Programme for Victory (Works of Harold J. Laski)

'Of all branches of human endeavour, diplomacy is the most protean.' That is how Harold Nicolson begins this book. It is an apt opening. The Paris Conference of 1919, attended by thirty-two nations, had the supremely challenging task of attempting to bring about a lasting peace after the global catastrophe of the Great War. Harold Nicolson was a member of the British delegation. His book is in two parts. In the first he provides an account of the conference, in the second his diary covering his six month stint. There is a piquant counterpoise between the two. Of his diary he writes, 'I should wish it to be read as people read the reminiscences of a subaltern in the trenches. There is the same distrust of headquarters; the same irritation against the staff-officer who interrupts; the same belief that one's own sector is the centre of the battle-front; the same conviction that one is, with great nobility of soul, winning the war quite single-handed.' The diary ends with prophetic disillusionment, 'To bed, sick of life.'As a first-hand account of one of the most important events shaping the modern world this book remains a classic.

"If we in Great Britain are resolute and wise there will emerge from this catastrophe something which may well give hope to the world" First published in 1939 as a Penguin Special, this is the original best-selling account of why Britain went to war with Germany. In simple terms it describes the stages of Adolf Hitler's ruthless pursuit for power, identifies his methods of deception and false diplomacy, and details his terrifying use of force that rendered peaceful negotiation increasingly difficult, and finally impossible. Shining a light on Hitler's early life and character, Harold Nicolson reveals the dictator's political theories in Mein Kampf, and explains the strategies he adopted in seizing the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and later Poland. Written with clarity and insight, and read widely by soldiers during World War II, the final message of hope and peace is as relevant today as it was in 1939. This facsimile edition includes a new introduction by Andrew Roberts, best-selling author of The Storm of War; Masters and Commanders and Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership.

With a New Introduction by Andrew Roberts

Why Britain is at War

Do we want to be persons of culture, civility, and manners? Even in the contemporary world, where this question is not much asked, most people would respond with a resounding YES. Well, if you want to be cultured, civil, and mannered, not just another everyday barbarian, it will take some work, some training, and a good place to start is with Harold Nicolson's very readable and entertaining book.New Introduction by Juliet Nicolson, Harold Nicolson's granddaughter.

Being a Study of Certain Types of Civility

Good Behavior

Nigel Nicolson

Victoria Sackville-West

Brevveksling melem ægtefællerne forfatterinden Vita Sackville-West og diplomaten Harold Nicolson, udgivet af parrets yngste søn

The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson

Vita and Harold

Paul Verlaine

Thomas Stearns Eliot

William Francis Forbes-Sempill Sempill

Three War-time Speeches to the Anglo-Swedish Society by Lord Sempill, Harold Nicolson, T.S. Eliot

Friendship, Progress, Civilisation

Harold Nicolson was well qualified to write this book. His father, Sir Arthur Nicolson, was a diplomat as he himself was in early adulthood being a member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as well as serving in other capacities. A later historian of the Congress, Adam Zamoyski, has described it in the following way: 'The reconstruction of Europe at the Congress of Vienna is probably the most seminal episode in modern history.' Harold Nicolson's classic account written piquantly just after the Second World War is memorable not just for its adroit grasp of the many complex issues but also for its numerous vivid character sketches of the principal peacemakers: Alexander I of Russia, Metternich, Talleyrand, Castlereagh and others are brought brilliantly to life. 'Mr Nicolson has written a vivid, entertaining and penetrating book about an episode in nineteenth-century history with which has gifts and his own education most particularly qualified him to deal. Moreover he often makes valuable generalisations. . . In a short review it is impossible to convey by quotation those qualities which will make it eagerly sought after: its vivid portraits and scenes from the past: its clear analysis of political situations as they arise; its shrewd comments on the characters of the men who dealt with them.' Desmond MacCarthy, Sunday Times Faber Finds is reissuing all of Harold Nicolson's works of diplomatic history: The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812 - 1822; Lord Carnock: A Study in Old Diplomacy: Peacemaking, 1919 and Curzon: The Last Phase, 1919 - 1925.

A Study in Allied Unity, 1812-1822

The Congress of Vienna

Diaries and letters. Ed. by Nigel Nicolson. [Illustr.][1-3.]

Diaries and Letters; 1945-1962; Edited by Nigel Nicolson

Harold Nicolson is one of the three great political diarists of the 20th century. Nicolson was an MP who attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He never achieved high office, but rarely a day went by when he didn't record what was going on at Westminster. He socialized widely, was married to the poet and author Vita Sackville-West, and together they created the famous garden at Sissinghurst. The diversity of Harold Nicolson's interests and the irony in his writing make his diary a highly entertaining record of his life and times, as well as a document of great historical value.

Harold Nicolson Diaries and Letters 1907-1964

Diaries and Letters ; Edited by Nigel Nicolson

And Other Essays

The English Sense of Humour

Harold Nicolson's Diaries and Letters, spanning the years 1930 to 1962, were first published in three volumes, and it is in this format Faber Finds is reissuing them. The one-volume abridgement available in paperback from Phoenix is practical, and in itself a superb piece of compression, but such a great work, one of the major diaries of the twentieth-century, deserves also to be available in its full original incarnation.In this third volume we see Harold Nicolson, though no longer a Member of Parliament, still deeply involved in public affairs. He joins the Labour Party: he attends the Nuremberg trials: he broadcasts from Paris on the three-months peace-conference of 1946, and he gives an illuminating account of the Suez crisis. But perhaps the most valuable political aspect of this volume, as with the others, is the portraits and private conversation of leading statesmen: Churchill in advancing age, Macmillan on his way up and as Prime Minister, Eden, Smuts, Bevin and many others. 'One of the best diaries in the language' Michael Foot'Nowhere are his style and cultivation more truly reflected than in his diaries and letters, edited with skill and candour by his son Nigel . . . Full of witty and intimate pictures of the famous and immediate comments on the great events of the time, they were very much more than a record of classy hobnobbings, for few excelled Nicolson in the art of self-revelation and no lesser diarist could have made so moving and fascinating a thing of the relationship between himself and his wife, Vita Sackville-West, and his sons.' The Times

Harold Nicolson

About

Books

Join the club