Product Description

Edward Wood, 3rd Viscount Halifax, was a church-going, fox-hunting aristocrat, but it was his political guile that earned him Churchill's nickname 'The Holy Fox'. As Viceroy of India, his deal with Gandhi ended the Civil Disobedience campaign before it could force the British to quit. His meeting with Hitler in 1937 was a milestone in appeasement, yet just days before Munich, Halifax repudiated the policy and demanded 'the destruction of Nazism'. By May 1940, it was he, not Winston Churchill, who was the choice for Britain's war leader. Andrew Roberts has drawn on remarkable private documents to present Lord Halifax as an enigmatic, influential and much-maligned politician.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330300 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

From the Publisher
“A biography of astonishing maturity and distinction” Philip Ziegler.

About the Author
Andrew Roberts took a first in Modern History at Gonville & Caius, Cambridge. He won the Wolfson History prize for his biography, Salisbury: Victorian Titan. He writes and reviews regularly in the press. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Customer Reviews

An interesting analysis
The Holy Fox by Andrew Roberts is a very interesting take on the life of Lord Halifax. Lord Halifax is remembered to history as an arch-appeaser and this until I read this book was all that I knew of him. What I learnt was actually quite fascinating such as his role in India and his attempts to maintain order there. However, although Andrew Roberts tries hard to persuade that Halifax was not the arch-appeaser in 1938 or a total defeatist in 1940 his argument just doesn't seem to be strong enough in my opinion to show that history has dealt with Lord Halifax harshly. All in all it is a very good book with a well-paced narrative as well as some interesting analysis but at times it does seem to be trying too hard in its efforts to save Halifax from the judgement of history.

Justice for Halifax
Halifax reputation suffered, and has continue to suffer, for his name being linked with that of Neville Chamberlain and Appeasement.

In arguing that this judgment is incorrect, Andrew Roberts has given us an important, and detailed revision of the years leading up the Second World War.

He shows that Halifax saw Hitler in his true colours at the time of the Bad Godesberg meetings, and before the Munich Agreement.

From this time on he worked for a more realistic understanding of Hitler's real aims, and for rearmament and conscription.

Halifax came within a whisker of becoming Prime Minister in May 1940; the job was his to refuse. The Tory Party, and the King both wanted him, and it was argued that his place in House Lords was a barrier that could be removed.

Halifax must have realised himself that he was no war leader, and, inspite of massive doubts within the Tory Party, Halifax supported Churchill's claim.

From then on the story which unfolds is much less well known, and invites a re-assessment of Churchill's reputation.

Churchill - known to Halifax as The Rogue Elephant - needed Halifax to argue against his wilder schemes. The book is particularly important on relations with the Vichy regime, the problems associated with the French Navy, and the differences between Halifax and Churchill on how these should be handled.

It is not now very easy to understand that Britain was alone at this juncture, and that American support was very uncertain.

However, Halifax's attachment to Chamberlain's name made him important enemies, one of whom, Roberts reveals, was newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook.

When a new ambassador was needed in Washington, Halifax was not the first name mentioned. Beaverbrook saw to it that his name became prominent, and it is a blot on Churchill's reputation that he went along with this idea, almost certainly to rid him of the one minister in his cabinet who could stand up to him.

It is not pleasant reading.

A less time-specific reason for reading this book is that it portrays a now forgotten era when the aristocracy still dominated government in Britain.

Halifax comes across as a figure who eschewed "short termism" - now the current plague of British politics.

an unlpleasant man
I found this a very interesting book even if i disagreed with many of the conclusions drawn by the author.Halifax still comes over as an arch appeaser and a rather unpleasant individual.His role inthe sacking of Hore Belisha is jsut one instance of his disgraceful attitudes.
However what i find rather odd is that the author devotes 20 pages to the time in India but doesnt mention the signing of the Soviet German pact on 31st August 1939 and breezes through the Munich Agreement in a couple of pages.
Quite frankly Halifax was a disaster as Foreign Secretary,and this is clearly highlighted by this book,whether or not the author is able to accept this conclusion.