London, Jan 06: British historian Christopher Hibbert, whose popular books covered subjects from the medieval Battle of Agincourt to the American Revolutionary War, has died. He was 84.
Hibbert died Dec 21 in Henley-on-Thames, west of London,
after a short illness, his agent, Bruce Hunter, said Tuesday.
Hibbert wrote more than 50 books, including accounts of
the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, studies of
Venice, Florence and Rome, and biographies of Queen Elizabeth
I, King Charles I, lexicographer Samuel Johnson and British
politician Benjamin Disraeli.
"He was exceptionally talented, and very curious," Hunter
said. "Curious about everything."
Hibbert was less concerned with breaking new ground than
with accuracy and engaging readers' imaginations.
"You've got to make the reader want to know what's going
to happen next, even if you're writing about something, the
outcome of which is well known," he once said.
Arthur Raymond Hibbert was born in Enderby, central
England, in 1924--he was known as Christopher after his army
nickname, "Christopher Robin", a character in Winnie-the-Pooh
stories.
Hibbert studied history at Oxford University, though his
education was interrupted by service as an infantry officer
during World War II. He fought in Italy, where he was wounded
and decorated for bravery.
Hibbert worked as a real estate agent and television
critic after the war, and wrote short stories before
publishing his first nonfiction work, a biography of
18th-century highwayman Jack Shepard, in 1957. He had his
first big success in 1961 with "The Destruction of Lord
Raglan," a history of the Crimean War.
Bureau Report