Professor A.J.P Taylor (British)

Taylor was a British Historian who specialised in 19th and 20th Century European Diplomacy. He was both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became famous and well known to millions of people through his television lectures. His combination of academic rigour and popular appeal led to him being described by some as "the Macaulay of our age". He was born in 1906 in Southport, Lancs, the only child of a cotton merchant. His parents were Quakers and opposed the First World War. As a result, Taylor received his education at Quaker schools. He went to Oriel College, Oxford; later he lectured in History at the University of Manchester. He became a Fellow of Magdelene College at Oxford in 1938 and lectured in Modern History at the University. He had been a member of the Communist Party in the Twenties, later he supported Labour. He had an extensive career as a journalist and broadcaster