Lord Beaverbrook, the famous press magnate, made friends and enemies everywhere. A new biography of him has recently been published . Alistair Lexden reviewed it for the issue of Parliament’s House Magazine dated 10 June.

As a historian, Alistair Lexden is often asked: “what precedents are there for today’s extraordinary, long-running political crisis?”

On 4 June, the Lords held a debate to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. In his contribution, Alistair Lexden spoke principally about Churchill’s role.

Follow the link to read his speech… theyworkforyou

A number of Queen Victoria’s drawings of her children, which were given to the British Museum in 1926, are to go on public display for the first time to mark the bicentenary of her birth in 1819.

In the May European elections, the Tories won 9.1 per cent of the vote; just three of their candidates were successful. This result was widely described in the media as the Party’s worst since 1832, the year of the Great Reform Bill.

Alistair Lexden has presented a number of awards in the House of Lords over the last few years; on 16 May he unexpectedly received one.

It is Alistair Lexden’s view as a historian that Mrs May has done worse than any of her Tory predecessors. He has repeated his view on a number of occasions, and did so again in a letter in The Daily Telegraph on 24 May, the day she finally announced her resignation.

Speaking in the Lords on 11 April (see below), Alistair Lexden condemned the barbaric decision of the Brunei government to make homosexuals liable to death by stoning under a new sharia penal code.

The Man who was Saturday: The Extraordinary Life of Airey Neave, Soldier, Escaper, Spymaster, Politician
Patrick Bishop, William Collins, £20 (hardback)

A light-hearted article in The Times on May 21 discussed the new fashion for dousing election candidates with milkshakes. In a letter published in the paper on May 23, Alistair Lexden recalled how candidates in the 19th century tended to deal with projectiles aimed at them.