Andrew Roberts: preference

Transcript context

…One thing I found really interesting in your biographies of Napoleon and Churchill, if I’m remembering correctly, both of them wrote a novel in their early 20s or thereabouts, where they, or rather, a character saves their country in battle and wins over a pretty maiden. And I remember the details, but I thought, wow, both of them did that. That’s a really interesting detail. What explains this? Yes, it’s probably a terrible psychological disorder, but I’ve just realized that I did the same thing when I was in my twenties. I had a novel in which I saved the country and married a fair maiden. Gosh, I don’t know what that makes me. Probably a megalomaniac like Napoleon, but yes, they’re both great reads. By the way, I love Klisson and Eugenie, the book you’re referring to by Napoleon, but the best one by far is Savrola by Winston Churchill, where you see lots of rolling Churchillian phrases which come out again later on in life. And you’re right, both of them are very, very obviously autobiographical. Actually, in Savrola, the hero, doesn’t he save the country, but then he goes off into exile. And I think, doesn’t the Napoleon figure die heroically in battle after saving the nation? But there’s a lot of nation saving going on in both of those youthful novels. Now that we’re nearing the end of our time, I want to ask you about how is it possible you’re in the House of Lords? I just realized that well, I knew you were in the House of Lords, but I just realized how much of your time that consumes. On top of that, you’re writing these books that are your biographies are widely recognized as the best biographies of these people, who have thousands of biographies written about them. And you’ve written 20 books. How are you managing your time? How is this possible?…

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