John Derek Jarrett (18 March 1928 – 28 March 2004) was an English schoolteacher, historian, and writer. He was born at

Whyteleafe Whyteleafe is a village in the district of Tandridge, Surrey, England, with a few streets falling inside the London Borough of Croydon. The village, in a dry valley of the North Downs, has three railway stations (on two parallel lines). Neighbou ...

, Surrey and served in the RAF during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

before studying history at

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University Museum a ...

. He is best known for his edition of

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

's ''Memoirs of the Reign of King George III'', and perhaps for his sometimes acerbic reviews in the ''New York Review of Books''. Jarrett taught at

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

in Dorset until the mid-1960s, then at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

for the remainder of his academic career. Around 1990 he retired to Cornwall to complete work on his Walpole masterpiece, which was published in 1999. He died at

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

in Cornwall.

Works

*''Britain 1688–1815'' (1965) *''The Begetters of Revolution: England's Involvement with France, 1759–1789'' (1973) *''Pitt the Younger'' (1974) *''The Ingenious Mr. Hogarth'' (1976) *''England in the Age of Hogarth'' (1976) *''The Sleep of Reason: Fantasy and Reality from the Victorian Age to the First World War'' (1988). *''Horace Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of King George III'', 4 volumes, ''editor'' (1999)

References

1928 births 2004 deaths Alumni of Keble College, Oxford {{england-writer-stub