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Harold Nicolson and Appeasement

Young, John W.

Authors

JOHN YOUNG john.young@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of International History



Contributors

Malcolm H. Murfett
Editor

Abstract

Harold Nicolson is remembered for many aspects of a remarkably varied life. The son of a Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office, he became a successful diplomat himself, with a role in shaping the 1919 Paris peace settlement. He served as far afield as Constantinople, Tehran and, in the late 1920s, Berlin. He was a prodigious writer, his publication list including novels, a memoir of the Paris peace conference, the official biography of George V and two studies of diplomacy. Nicolson’s life is peculiarly well documented thanks to his diaries, most of which have been published, and he has been the centre of attention too because of his unusual relationship with his wife, Vita Sackville-West — both were bisexual — with whom he created the gardens at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent. At different times he was a journalist, broadcaster, member of parliament and government minister, yet somehow his career never reached the heights he hoped. Under pressure from his wife, he gave up his diplomatic career in 1929, in favour of writing a column for the Evening Standard, but rapidly became disaffected with the triviality of the job and for a time was involved with Oswald Mosley, who later led the British Union of Fascists. Nicolson was a candidate for Mosley’s New Party in the 1931 general election, but broke with him the following year when his fascist leanings became clear.

Citation

Young, J. W. (2014). Harold Nicolson and Appeasement. In M. H. Murfett (Ed.), Shaping British Foreign and Defence Policy in the Twentieth Century: A Tough Ask in Turbulent Times, 136-158. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137431493_8

Publication Date 2014
Deposit Date Aug 23, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Shaping British Foreign and Defence Policy in the Twentieth Century
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Pages 136-158
Book Title Shaping British Foreign and Defence Policy in the Twentieth Century: A Tough Ask in Turbulent Times
ISBN 9781349492275; 9781137431493
DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137431493_8
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2483002
Publisher URL https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137431493_8

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