11 August 2018
This is the new title under which DiploFoundation has re-launched my biography of E. C. Grenville-Murray on the ISSUU platform.
Diplomacy, Satire and the Victorians
Previously called A Diplomatic Whistleblower in the Victorian Era, I have chosen the new title in the hope that it will attract the attention not only of those interested in diplomacy but also of those with a passion for nineteenth century English literature and journalism. For as well as being a controversial diplomat, ending his career when sacked as British Consul-General in southern Russia, Grenville-Murray was a brilliant satirist and wrote many novels, some widely praised. He was admired by Charles Dickens, who published him for many years (under the pseudonym ‘The Roving Englishman’) in his weekly magazine, Household Words. Among the most important of his non-satirical, non-fiction works, and the one that first aroused my interest in him, is Embassies and Foreign Courts, which is available on the Internet Archive here. Diplomacy, Satire and the Victorians is still the only biography to have been written of this mysterious and influential – but routinely misrepresented – man, and it took me some years to research and put together. As re-issued on the attractive ISSUU platform, the book now has its illustrations – all in their original colours – lodged on or adjacent to the relevant pages rather than tucked away at the back, and here and there I have refreshed the text. It also has a striking new cover. We are now selling this ebook, such proceeds as are earned being divided between myself and DiploFoundation. It can be bought here. About 10 per cent of the text is freely available by way of a sample.