Companion to British History

Charles Arnold-Baker

Editions

Review

Originally commissioned as the Oxford Companion to British History, this book, almost incredibly, is the work of one man.  When he had finished it, Oxford University Press said that it had to be cut.  There was too much superfluous information, they said.  But our man disagreed and published it himself, and we should be grateful for his obstinacy as much as for his erudition.  The author aims to embrace "the things which form the national atmosphere from commerce, wars, statesmanship, to transport, colonies and even cookery...  [He] also covers, besides the details of the constitution, local history, local administration and much technical material such as law, navigational and piratical hazards."  It is a staggering achievement.

Opening at random, I find between 'Channel Tunnel' and 'Chantries', the entry 'Chantrey Bequest': "Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), a Sheffield grocer's boy, was apprenticed to a woodcarver and from 1802 practised as a portrait sculptor and painter.  By 1804 he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy and in 1822 he made a bust of George IV.  Knighted in 1835, he bequeathed his property to the Royal Academy.  A couple of pages further on begins the entry for Charles I: 10 columns divided into 27 numbered paragraphs.  If you are British and have one reference work apart from a dictionary, this should be it.  And if you are not British but you have any interest in history then you will find this a useful book. - review by Johnny de Falbe