14 Facts About Alistair Horne

Sir Alistair Allan Horne was a British journalist, biographer and historian of Europe, especially of 19th- and 20th-century France.

Alistair Horne wrote more than 20 books on travel, history, and biography.

Alistair Horne was the only son of Sir Allan Horne and Auriol, niece of the 13th Earl of Kinnoull.

Alistair Horne was educated at Eastacre, then Ludgrove School when it was at Cockfosters and described Ludgrove as a place of "humbug, snobbery and rampant, unchecked bullying" which he thought was intended to toughen the boys up.

Alistair Horne seems to have hated Stowe, which he escaped from to America during wartime.

Alistair Horne attended Millbrook School, where he befriended William F Buckley Jr.

Alistair Horne served in the RAF and later as an officer in the Coldstream Guards.

Alistair Horne graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge, as a Master of Arts and received the degree of LittD from the University of Cambridge.

Alistair Horne campaigned against the opening of a Montessori school adjacent to his Turville home because Reverend Paul Nicolson, the vicar responsible for the project, planned to use the project to fund summer vacations at the school for children from nearby London.

Alistair Horne worked as a foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph from 1952 to 1955.

Alistair Horne was the official biographer of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a work originally published in 1988.

Alistair Horne was an Honorary Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a cricket enthusiast.

In October 2006 the book was republished and in January 2007, by phone from his home in England, Alistair Horne was invited to take part in an Iraq War discussion panel on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS.

In 2004, Alistair Horne was offered the authorship of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's official biography but declined due to the daunting amount of work involved and his age and opted instead to write a volume on one year in Kissinger's life.