How Queen Victoria hounded her Prime Ministers Wednesday, 17 April, 2024 She gave them no peace. A marvellous new book gives the details of her tempestuous relations with them. Alistair Lexden reviewed it in Parliament’s magazine The House on 15 April. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers: A Personal History By Anne Somerset Published by William Collins Books Queen Victoria began her long reign as an ardent Whig and ended it a diehard Tory. Her Hanoverian... Articles
Corbyn's extra Bank Holidays mocked in 250th Telegraph letter 28th April 2017 On April 28 Alistair Lexden had his 250th letter published in The Daily Telegraph . Passing this milestone keeps him comfortably ahead of all others who have... Articles
Uncertainty in Northern Ireland 27th April 2017 Northern Ireland was the subject of Alistair Lexden’s final speech in the 2015-17 Parliament. The Province’s devolved government collapsed in January; prolonged... Speeches
From the Punjab to the Carlton Club 24th April 2017 The Punjab was ruled in the early nineteenth century by a great Sikh warrior, Ranjit Singh. His extraordinary story is told in a new book, Emperor of the Five... Articles
An unpromising precedent 19th April 2017 The unexpected announcement of an election, made by the Prime Minister on 18 April, led Alistair Lexden to look back at the last occasion on which Britain went... Articles
An unlikely Thatcher favourite 15th April 2017 The 2nd Earl of Gowrie—known generally as Grey Gowrie—had little in common with Margaret Thatcher. A poet and intellectual, his political views were often at... Articles
A King's mistress in Italy 8th April 2017 Fifteen years after Edward VII’s death in 1910, his last mistress, Mrs Alice Keppel (with whom he was extremely happy), bought a villa in Tuscany. On 2 April... Articles
Celebrating academic excellence 6th April 2017 At an awards ceremony held at the House of Lords on 5 April, Alistair Lexden presented awards for academic excellence to 38 students who achieved remarkable A... Recent News
Stanley Baldwin in a year of anniversaries 31st March 2017 On 29 March Alistair Lexden gave a lecture at the Carlton Club to mark the 150th anniversary of Stanley Baldwin’s birth and other Baldwinian anniversaries which... Speeches
Terrorism at Westminster 24th March 2017 Much has been said, and written, about the terrorist outrage which took place at Westminster on March 22. Alistair Lexden was asked by the BBC to talk about... Articles