Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines (born 21 June 1953 in London) is a British historian and literary biographer, and a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Early life

Davenport-Hines was educated at

St Paul's School, London St Paul's School is a Selective school, selective Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent day school (with limited boarding school, boarding) for boys aged 13–18, founded in 1509 by John Colet and located on a 43-acre site by Rive ...

(1967–71) and

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Selwyn (bishop of Lichfield), Georg ...

(which he entered as Corfield Exhibitioner in 1972 and left in 1977 after completing a PhD thesis on the history of British armaments companies during 1918–36). He was a research fellow at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(1982–86), where he headed a research project on the globalisation of pharmaceutical companies. He was joint winner of the Wolfson Prize for History and Biography in 1985 and winner of the Wadsworth Prize for Business History in 1986. He now writes and reviews in a number of literary journals, including the '' Literary Review'' and ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''. He is an adviser to the Oxford ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', to which (as of December 2022) he has contributed 169 biographies. During 2016, he was visiting fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

Career

He was a trustee of the London Library between 1996 and 2005, and was on the committee of the Royal Literary Fund from 2008 to 2018. He is a member of the Athenaeum Club, London, Brooks's Club and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

since and the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

since 1984. He was chairman of the judges of the Biographers’ Club Prize in 2008, and of the judges of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History in 2010. He is a judge of the Cosmo Davenport-Hines Prize for Poetry awarded annually since 2009 to members of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

– named in commemoration of his son who died on 9 June 2008, aged 21. He also inaugurated the Cosmo Davenport-Hines Memorial Lecture given from 2010 to 2015 under the joint auspices of

and the

. He was a leading signatory to a letter in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' urging Britain to remain in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

during the membership referendum of 2016.

Essays

He has contributed to several volumes of historical or literary essays. These include an essay on English and French armaments dealers operating in eastern Europe in the 1920s in Maurice Lévy-Leboyer, Helga Nussbaum and Alice Teichova (editors), ''Historical Studies in International Corporate Business'' (1989); an essay on HIV in

Roy Porter Roy Sydney Porter (31 December 1946 – 3 March 2002) was a British historian known for his work on the history of medicine. He retired in 2001 as the director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine at University College London ...

and Mikulas Teich (editors), ''Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science'' (1994); a historical critique of drugs prohibition laws in Selina Chen and Edward Skidelsky, ''High Time for Reform'' (2001); a chapter in the ''Cambridge Companion to W.H. Auden'' (2005); and a memoir in Peter Stanford (editor), ''The Death of a Child'' (2011).

Works

*'' Dudley Docker: The Life and Times of a Trade Warrior'' (Cambridge University Press, 1984) *''Markets and Bagmen, Studies in the History of Marketing and British Industrial Performance, 1830–1939'' (Ashgate, 1986) editor *''Speculators and Patriots: Essays in Business Biography'' (Cass, 1986) *''Business in the Age of Reason'' (Cass, 1987) editor with Jonathan Liebenau *''Enterprise Management and Innovation'' (Cass, 1988) editor with Geoffrey Jones *''British Business in Asia Since 1860'' (Cambridge University Press, 1989) editor with Geoffrey Jones *''The End of Insularity – Essays in Comparative Business History'' (Cass, 1989) editor with Geoffrey Jones *''Business in the Age of Depression & War'' (Cass, 1990) editor *''Capital Entrepreneurs and Profits'' (Cass, 1990) editor *''Sex, Death and Punishment: Attitudes To Sex & Sexuality In Britain Since The Renaissance '' (Collins, 1990) *'' Glaxo: A History to 1962'' (Cambridge University Press, 1992) with Judy Slinn *''The Macmillans'' (Heinemann, 1992) *''Vice: An Anthology'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1993) *'' Auden'' (Heinemann, 1995) *''Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin'' (Fourth Estate, 1998) *''The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics 1500–2000'' (Weidenfeld, 2001) *''A Night at the Majestic:

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

and the Great Modernist Dinner Party of 1922'' (Faber, 2006) (in USA, ''Proust at the Majestic'') *''Ettie: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough'' (Weidenfeld, 2008) *'' Titanic Lives: Migrants and Millionaires, Conmen and Crew'' (HarperCollins, 2012) *'' An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo'' (HarperCollins, 2013) *''Universal Man: The Seven Lives of

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...

'' (Collins, 2015) *''

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...

: The Cosmopolitan King'' (Penguin, 2016) *''Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain'' (HarperCollins, 2018) *''

Hugh Trevor-Roper Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History (Oxford), Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Rope ...

, Letters from Oxford: to Bernard Berenson'' (Weidenfeld, 2006) editor *''Hugh Trevor-Roper, Wartime Journals'' (I. B. Tauris, 2012). editor *''One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper'' (Oxford University Press, 2014). editor with Adam Sisman *'' John Meade Falkner: Abnormal Romantic'' (Roxburghe Club, 2018). *''Hugh Trevor-Roper, China Journals: Ideology and Intrigue in the 1960s'' (Bloomsbury, 2020). editor *''Conservative Thinkers from All Souls College, Oxford'' (The Boydell Press, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davenport-Hines, Richard 1953 births Living people British biographers People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Wolfson History Prize winners