Theory is a thing of the past for these hip young historians, says Oliver Marre
What does history mean to you? Dusty tweed in ivory towers, perhaps, or a man of a certain age, with a slightly funny voice, being both caustic and informative on television? Does it mean tramping around a site of historical interest on a wet afternoon? Or, at best, a weighty tome read by an open fire.
Today’s schoolchildren do not leap at the chance to study history – in fact, it’s no longer even a core subject. The Conservative education spokesman, Michael Gove, says that history has been dying out in Britain’s schools in the last decade – and it’s true that the percentage of pupils taking GCSEs in the subject has fallen. But that might be about to change because history is becoming cool and the fightback is being spearheaded by a group of young, fashionable writers.
They have been an actor, an artist and a TV presenter, are aged between 25 and 35 and they all have book contracts. One wrote his account of the year 1381 in a corner of the trendy London members’ club, Soho House, during leave from his day job at a men’s magazine. And rather than being looked down upon by the old guard, they are highly regarded by the academic establishment: David Starkey is considered a mentor by two of them; Simon Sebag Montefiore by others.
“They have brilliant new ideas, excellent writing and they’re exceptionally clever,” says Georgina Capel of the literary agency Capel & Land, who represents established historians Sebag-Montefiore and Tristram Hunt, and who counts four of the new crop among her clients. Her only worry is that they might be “too pretty” to be taken seriously. “They’ll just have to prove what formidable minds they have.”
So who are the new history boys (and girls) and why have they come along now, when the subject is said to be in decline? The crop of six being tipped as the Starkeys of the future are Dan Jones, Claudia Renton, Ben Wilson, John Bew, Francesca Beauman and Simon Reid-Henry. They believe the key to revitalising history is a mix of strong narratives, exciting personalities and quirky facts.
According to 31-year-old Reid-Henry – a geographer by training who is currently working on his second book for general readers – this wave of young historians has sprouted up to fill the vacuum left by the departure of theory – or the “-isms” – from mainstream academic life. “Academic history has been facing a ‘What the hell are we doing?’ moment,” he says. Claudia Renton, who is 27 and writing a biography of the Wyndham sisters (she carries their famous portrait by John Singer Sargent around with her on her iPhone), agrees: “I think writing your books with specific political aims in mind is an old-fashioned approach. It’s not particularly helpful. I think if you produce a good narrative history, which convincingly creates the world you’re writing about, then people will read it and draw their own conclusions.”
“The greatest of all crimes,” Francesca Beauman insists, “is dullness.” For her, the secret to making history compelling is to pick quirky subjects. “Two years into my degree when it came to picking subjects for our dissertations, everyone else was choosing to write about something sensible like ‘The New Deal 1933-1939′ but it seemed more fun to become the world’s expert in something nobody else knew about, hence, pineapples, the subject of my first book.”
Of the six historians, Georgina Capel represents Simon Reid-Henry, Claudia Renton, Dan Jones (27 years old; recently published a well received book on the Peasants’ Revolt); and John Bew (29; working on a book on Lord Castlereagh, the British foreign secretary who oversaw the defeat of Napoleon).
Unlike Bew and Reid-Henry, Dan Jones and Claudia Renton left university after their undergraduate degrees, he to work in journalism and she to act. Since then they have co-authored a book on historical heroes with Sebag Montefiore. “They were both wonderful,” he says now. “They are the vanguard of the new generation of talented historians and gifted storytellers. Dan’s book on the Peasants’ Revolt is both exciting and scholarly and I know that Claudia’s will be equally admirable.”
Renton is attempting to finish her book on the Wyndham sisters before beginning law school, but until recently she was juggling history with a successful acting career. It was only after starring in ITV’s Distant Shores and a run at the National Theatre in The Voysey Inheritance last year that she conceded it needed a period of full-time concentration. “I try to write about 2,000 words a day,” she says. “Although if I feel like cheating, I can always quote a really long letter.”
Renton describes writing history as “like being able to read someone else’s diary without getting busted”. She explains that, despite getting a first-class degree from Oxford and citing her tutors at Trinity College as her inspirations, it was working with Sebag Montefiore that was “the best education I could have had: write so that people can enjoy, wear your knowledge lightly. Enjoy the process, rather than trying to impress. Acting definitely informed my approach: it taught me how to get under the skin of my characters and the importance of a strong narrative line.”
Jones agrees that having a separate career can be advantageous. “Working as a journalist” – he was features editor of Men’s Health magazine – “helped me immeasurably with knowing how people like to consume biographical narrative history. I had toyed with the idea of staying in academia but I was advised not to by people at Cambridge. You see too many academics in Britain dragged down by constant paperwork and they never have the time to write much.” Jones was taught at Cambridge by Starkey, whom he describes as an “inspiration”. “Contrary to his Mr Nasty image, he has been a great patron of young historians. I am very friendly with him still.”
Ben Wilson, 29, also worked with David Starkey – he was employed after Cambridge as a researcher on Starkey’s Channel 4′s Monarchy series on Channel 4. Wilson’s third book, What Price Liberty, was published recently by Faber and, as befits a member of this pack who look forward while looking back, his was among the first books to be sold online – not through Amazon and other similar websites, but to be downloaded for whatever price people chose to pay. Based on the model used by Radiohead for their last album, the publisher made it free to access (ideally to be read on a Sony e-reader, Kindle electronic book, or even a normal computer) and asked for donations. “What was very pleasing was that some people came back and paid after they’d read it,” says Wilson.
The new historians are aware of the need to use the web to engage with their readers. While Reid-Henry points out it’s nothing new and harks back to a world of pamphleteers, Jones says it gives a good opportunity to prove the abiding relevance of history. “We can write on blogs about contemporary events seen through a historical prism,” he explains. “But we have to accept that people are not just buying books any more: when you look at a historian you’re being offered a brand and people expect you to share your lives with Twitter updates and Facebook postings, as well as your findings in your books.”
For future historians, the fact that this generation is happy to do so is fortunate indeed.
Who’s who: a little history
Simon Reid-Henry 31, educated at Cambridge. Fidel and Che was published this year by Hodder & Stoughton.
Claudia Renton 27, educated at Oxford. Her biography of the Wyndham sisters to be published by Quercus in 2010.
Dan Jones 27, educated at Cambridge. Summer of Blood, a history of the English Peasants’ Revolt, was published this year by HarperCollins.
Francesca Beauman 31, educated at Cambridge. Her third book, Shapely Ankle Preferred, a history of lonely-hearts advertisements, will be published by Chatto & Windus in 2010.
John Bew 29, educated at Cambridge. Has written a number of academic books; his latest, From Enlightenment to Tyranny, about Lord Castlereagh, is to be published by Quercus in 2010.
Ben Wilson 29, educated at Cambridge. His third book, What Price Liberty, was published this year by Faber.
