Robert Lacey Explained

Robert Lacey
Birth Date:1944 1, df=y
Nationality:British
Alma Mater:Selwyn College, Cambridge
Spouse:
    Children:3

    Robert Lacey (born 3 January 1944) is a British historian and biographer. He is the author of a number of best-selling biographies, including those of Henry Ford,[1] Eileen Ford, Queen Elizabeth II and other royals, as well as several other works of popular history. Nowadays he is best known for his work as historian to the Netflix award-winning drama The Crown. Lacey was educated at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he studied history.

    Early life

    Robert grew up in Bristol and won a scholarship to Bristol Grammar School.[2]

    Lacey is an alumnus of Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA in History in 1967, a diploma of education in 1967 and an MA in 1970.[3] He began his writing career as a journalist on the Illustrated London News, and later The Sunday Times.[4]

    Career

    Lacey's 1981 work The Kingdom, about the Saudi royal family and its 2009 follow-up Inside the Kingdom have now both been cited as standard study texts for the diplomatic community working inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. David Brancaccio said: "In Saudi Arabia, Robert Lacey had the kind of access most journalists only dream of."[5]

    To research and write the book Lacey took his wife and children to live for two and a half years in Jeddah in the late 1970s. Friends he made there included journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Lacey co-wrote his last three articles before Khashoggi was murdered in 2018.[6] In 2009 Lacey made the controversial documentary Rehab for Terrorists?: Can Terrorists be Rehabilitated with Kindness? for the Now show for the PBS channel[7] [8] and appeared as a commentator on the subject for the channel. Lacey is a royal correspondent, appearing regularly on ABC's Good Morning America, and was in London for the channel covering the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.[9] Lacey remains active in academia, giving lectures "around the world".[10]

    Lacey is the historical consultant to the Netflix series The Crown.[11] The series has been widely criticised in the UK - despite its commercial success - for its historical inaccuracies and artistic inventions; former National Trust chairman and ex-Times editor Simon Jenkins branded it "cowardly...fake history".[12]

    Robert Lacey is trustee of Kent Opera,[13] which provides training and development for professional and amateur opera singers and educational and community workshops linked to operas.

    During a live BBC broadcast covering the arrival of the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh Lacey spoke of his admiration for John Knox, who he erroneously claimed had "cleared the Catholics out of Scotland". Lacey's comments attracted almost 300 complaints and were reported in the national press.

    Family

    His first marriage, to Alexandra Jane "Sandi" Avrach, ended in 2004 in a legal separation after 34 years. They had three children: Sasha, Scarlett and Bruno.[14]

    In August 2012 Lacey married Lady Jane Rayne (b. 11 August 1932), the daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry and widow of property developer Max Rayne. Lady Jane Rayne Lacey is a founding member and director of the Chickenshed Theatre and was President of Trustees until her daughter Natasha took over in 2013.[15] [16]

    Works

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS. 28 June 1987 . The New York Times. 16 April 2015.
    2. Web site: The Old Bristolians Community . 27 July 2021 . Our first speaker is esteemed Royal Historian and Biographer Robert Lacey. Robert attended Bristol Grammar School from 1951-1962.
    3. Book: Aristocrats. 9780771045813. Lacey. Robert. 1983.
    4. Web site: Reader Store is Closed.. sony.com.
    5. https://www.pbs.org/cove-media/http/PBS_CP_NOW/70/650/transcript.html – PBS Transcript: Rehab for Terrorists?
    6. Jamal Khashoggi Was My Co-Writer and My Friend. Here's the Last Thing He Told Me. 18 October 2018. Time.
    7. Web site: Robert Lacey in the media. robertlacey.com.
    8. Web site: 'Inside the Kingdom,' by Robert Lacey. ABC News.
    9. Web site: Kelley . F. . William and Kate one year on: Robert Lacey . 30 April 2012 . 2021 ABC . 2 September 2020.
    10. Web site: Robert Lacey . Copyright © 2021 HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. . 2 September 2021 . For nearly forty years, Lacey has been writing about Queen Elizabeth II and her extraordinary life, making him an expert on her long reign and the royal family. Majesty, his pioneering biography of the Queen, is a landmark study of British monarchy – a subject on which Lacey lectures around the world, appearing regularly on television..
    11. Web site: Coke . H. . Everything we've learned from Battle of Brothers – the explosive new book on William and Harry's relationship . conde nast 2021 . 2 September 2021 . 6 October 2020 . In Battle of Brothers, British historian and biographer Robert Lacey – a royal expert who acted as a historical consultant for The Crown – delves into the relationship between Prince Charles’s two sons.
    12. Web site: The Crown's fake history is as corrosive as fake news | Simon Jenkins. TheGuardian.com. 16 November 2020.
    13. Web site: Kent Opera. 6 September 2019. Kent Opera.
    14. Http://ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U43641
    15. Book: Lady Jane Rayne Lacey . 2017 . Chicken Shed Theatre Trust . 2 September 2021.
    16. Web site: The day of the Queen's Coronation as remembered by five of her six blue-blooded Maids of Honour. Tatler. 2 June 2020 .

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Robert Lacey".

    Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.