Simon Heffer was born in 1960. He read English at Cambridge and took a PhD in modern history at that university. His previous books include: Moral Desperado: A Life of Thomas Carlyle
, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell
, Power and Place: The Political Consequences of King Edward VII
, Nor Shall My Sword: The Reinvention of England
, Vaughan Williams
, Strictly English
, A Short History of Power
, Simply English
and High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain
. In a thirty-year career in Fleet Street, he has held senior editorial positions on The Daily Telegraph
and The Spectator,
and is now a columnist for The Daily Telegraph
and The Sunday Telegraph.