Max Hastings
Encyclopedia
Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL (born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist
, editor
, historian
and author. He is the son of Macdonald Hastings
, the noted British journalist and war correspondent
and Anne Scott-James
, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar
.
and University College, Oxford
, which he left after a year. He became a foreign correspondent
and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC
television and for the Evening Standard
in London. Hastings was the first journalist to enter the liberated Port Stanley during the Falklands War
. After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph
, he returned to the Evening Standard as editor in 1996 until his retirement in 2001. He received a knighthood
in 2002.
He has presented historical documentaries for BBC
TV, and is the author of many books, including Bomber Command which earned the Somerset Maugham Award
for non-fiction in 1980. Both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post
Book of the Year Prize.
Hastings lives with his second wife Penny (née Levinson), with whom he had two children, in west Berkshire. In 1999, his 27-year-old son Charles killed himself in Shanghai, China. Hastings dedicated his book Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 to his late son.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
and was President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England from 2002-2007.
He currently writes a column for the Daily Mail
but often contributes articles to other publications such as The Guardian
, The Sunday Times
and The New York Review of Books
.
In his 2007 book Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (also known as Retribution in the United States), the chapter on Australia's role in the last year of the Pacific War
was criticised by the Returned and Services League of Australia
and one of the historians at the Australian War Memorial
for, among other things, allegedly exaggerating discontent in the Australian Army during this period.
and the Labour Party
. He announced his support for the Conservative Party at the 2010 general election, having previously voted for the Labour Party at the 1997
and 2001 general elections
. He claimed that "four terms are too many for any government" and described Gordon Brown
as "wholly psychologically unfit to be prime minister
".
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and author. He is the son of Macdonald Hastings
Macdonald Hastings
Douglas Edward Macdonald Hastings was a British journalist, author and war correspondent.Macdonald Hastings was born in London, and educated at Stonyhurst College, a Roman Catholic Jesuit school in Lancashire. He became war correspondent for Picture Post during the Second World War, sending...
, the noted British journalist and war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
and Anne Scott-James
Anne Scott-James
Anne Eleanor Scott-James, Lady Lancaster was an English journalist and author. She was one of Britain's first women career journalists, editors and columnists, and latterly author of a series of gardening books....
, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
.
Life and career
Hastings was educated at Charterhouse SchoolCharterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
and University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
, which he left after a year. He became a foreign correspondent
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television and for the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
in London. Hastings was the first journalist to enter the liberated Port Stanley during the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
. After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, he returned to the Evening Standard as editor in 1996 until his retirement in 2001. He received a knighthood
British honours system
The British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement, or service to the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories...
in 2002.
He has presented historical documentaries for BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV, and is the author of many books, including Bomber Command which earned the Somerset Maugham Award
Somerset Maugham Award
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each May by the Society of Authors. It is awarded to whom they judge to be the best writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a book published in the past year. The prize was instituted in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham and thus...
for non-fiction in 1980. Both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post
Yorkshire Post
The Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
Book of the Year Prize.
Hastings lives with his second wife Penny (née Levinson), with whom he had two children, in west Berkshire. In 1999, his 27-year-old son Charles killed himself in Shanghai, China. Hastings dedicated his book Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 to his late son.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
and was President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England from 2002-2007.
He currently writes a column for the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
but often contributes articles to other publications such as The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
and The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
.
In his 2007 book Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (also known as Retribution in the United States), the chapter on Australia's role in the last year of the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
was criticised by the Returned and Services League of Australia
Returned and Services League of Australia
The Returned and Services League of Australia is a support organisation for men and women who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force ....
and one of the historians at the Australian War Memorial
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...
for, among other things, allegedly exaggerating discontent in the Australian Army during this period.
Politics
Hastings has supported both the Conservative PartyConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
and the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. He announced his support for the Conservative Party at the 2010 general election, having previously voted for the Labour Party at the 1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
and 2001 general elections
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
. He claimed that "four terms are too many for any government" and described Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
as "wholly psychologically unfit to be prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
".
Books
- America, 1968: The Fire This Time (Gollancz, 1969) ISBN 0-575-00234-4
- Ulster 1969: The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland (Gollancz, 1970) ISBN 0-575-00482-7
- Montrose: The King's Champion (GollanczVictor Gollancz LtdVictor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction. Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, ownership...
, 1977) ISBN 0-575-02226-4 - Bomber Command (Michael Joseph, 1979) ISBN 0-7181-1603-8
- Battle of Britain by Len DeightonLen DeightonLeonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
, Max Hastings (Jonathan CapeJonathan CapeJonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
, 1980) ISBN 0-224-01826-4 - Yoni — Hero of Entebbe: Life of Yonathan Netanyahu (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980) ISBN 0-297-77565-0
- Das Reich: Resistance and the March of the Second SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944 (Michael Joseph, 1981) ISBN 0-7181-2074-4
- Das Reich: March of the Second SS Panzer Division Through France (Henry Holt & Co, 1982) ISBN 0-03-057059-X
- The Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings, Simon JenkinsSimon JenkinsSir Simon David Jenkins is a British newspaper columnist and author, and since November 2008 has been chairman of the National Trust. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and London's Evening Standard, and was previously a commentator for The Times, which he edited from 1990 to 1992...
(W W Norton, 1983) ISBN 0-393-01761-3, (Michael Joseph, 1983) ISBN 0-7181-2228-3 - Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy (Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
, 1984) ISBN 0-671-46029-3 - The Oxford Book of Military Anecdotes (ed.) (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1985) ISBN 0-19-214107-4 - Victory in Europe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985) ISBN 0-297-78650-4
- The Korean War (Michael Joseph, 1987) ISBN 0-7181-2068-X, (Simon & Schuster, 1987) ISBN 0-671-52823-8
- Outside Days (Michael Joseph, 1989) ISBN 0-7181-3330-7
- Victory in Europe: D-Day to V-E Day (Little Brown & C, 1992) ISBN 0-316-81334-6
- Scattered Shots (Macmillan, 1999) ISBN 0-333-77103-6
- Going to the Wars (Macmillan, 2000) ISBN 0-333-77104-4
- Editor: A Memoir (Macmillan, 2002) ISBN 0-333-90837-6
- Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 (MacmillanMacmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 2004) ISBN 0-333-90836-8 - Warriors: Exceptional Tales from the Battlefield (HarperPress [UK], 2005) ISBN 978-0-00-719756-9
- Country Fair (HarperCollins, October 2005) ISBN 0007198868. 288 pp
- Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (HarperPress [UK], October 2007) ISBN 0-00-7219822 (re-titled Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 for US release Knopf ISBN 978-0-307-26351-3)
- Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord, 1940-45. London, HarperPress, 2009. ISBN 9780007263677 (re-titled Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945 for US release by Knopf, 2010, ISBN 978-0307268396)
- Did You Really Shoot the Television?: A Family Fable. London, HarperPress, 2010. ISBN 978-0007271719
- All Hell Let Loose: The World At War, 1939-1945. London, HarperPress, September 29, 2011. ISBN 978-0007338092 (re-titled Inferno: The World At War, 1939-1945 for US release by Knopf, November 1st, 2011, ISBN 978-0307273598. 729 pp)
External links
- www.maxhastings.com
- Column archive at The Daily Mail
- Column archive at Journalisted
- Article archive at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Interview on Armageddon at the Pritzker Military LibraryPritzker Military LibraryThe Pritzker Military Library is a research library for the study of military history in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 2003 by COL James N. Pritzker, IL ARNG to be a non-partisan institution for the study of "the citizen soldier as an essential element for the preservation of...
- Interview on Nemesis / Retribution