Dr David Starkey forsook the ivory towers of academia to popularise history as a constitutional commentator in the press and as a broadcaster and writer. His approach to history is a personal one; he explains events through the lens of individual hopes, flaws and lusts and says historical influence can be seen in terms of who are "the movers and shakers and the bottom wipers" in the royal court. Their equivalent can be seen in government today, he says, through the unelected advisers who take their seat on the Downing Street sofa.
Born into a working class, Quaker family in Kendal, David's formidable drive owes much to his mother's love and ambitions for her only child. David's feeling that history should not be the preserve of academics, but belongs to the public, set him on a path to a TV career, via Cambridge, the LSE, and his infamous performances on Radio 4's The Moral Maze which earned him the title of 'the rudest man in Britain', to which Starkey was said to have told friends, "Don't worry darlings, it's worth at least £100,000 a year".
Being a British historian, his work is all about British history, notably about The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, Episode 1 and Episode 2. His breathless delivery, with noticeable breaths and choppy cadence, is now widely imitated.
There are lots of David Starkey videos on YouTube - click here - but for my money, I am starting on "The British Empire - The Complex Truth":
What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday listening to this man!
