The Lord Dobbs | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2022 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 20 December 2010 Life Peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 November 1948 Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Christ Church, Oxford (BA) Tufts University (MA, MPA, PhD) |
Michael John Dobbs, Baron Dobbs (born 14 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and author, best known for his House of Cards trilogy.
Michael Dobbs was born on 14 November 1948 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, [1] the son of nurseryman Eric and Eileen Dobbs. He was educated at Hertford Grammar School, Cheshunt Grammar School, and Christ Church, Oxford.
After graduating from Oxford in 1971 with a third-class BA in philosophy, politics and economics, Dobbs moved to the United States. He attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1977 with an MA, MALD, and a PhD in nuclear defence studies. [2] His doctoral dissertation was published as China and SALT: Dragon Hunting in a Multinuclear World. [3] In 2007, Dobbs gave the Alumni Salutation at Fletcher.
After getting his PhD in 1977, Dobbs returned to England and began working in London for the Conservative Party. From 1977 to 1979, he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher, who was then leader of the Opposition. From 1979 to 1981, he was a Conservative speechwriter. From 1981 to 1986, he served as a government special advisor. From 1986 to 1987, he was the Conservative Party chief of staff.
In 1984, he survived the Brighton bombing at the Conservative Party Conference. He was called "Westminster's baby-faced hit man", by The Guardian in 1987. [4] From 1994 to 1995, he served in the John Major government as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.
On 18 December 2010, Dobbs was made a life peer, as Baron Dobbs, of Wylye, in the County of Wiltshire , [5] and was introduced in the House of Lords on 20 December. [6] He sits as a Conservative Peer. [7] Lord Dobbs is also an executive board member of the Conservative Friends of the Chinese. In August 2014, Lord Dobbs was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue. [8]
Dobbs supported a Leave vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. [9] In March 2019, he expressed himself critically about the administration of Theresa May, stating that "[w]e have a flat-pack Cabinet that threatens to collapse every time you switch the telly on." [10]
As of 13 October 2022, Dobbs was a member of the advisory board of the Parthenon Project, [11] an organisation that aims "to reunify the Parthenon Sculptures (also known as the Elgin Marbles) currently on permanent display in the British Museum with the other remaining originals in their home city of Athens" [12] in Greece. [13]
From 1983 to 1986, Dobbs worked at Saatchi & Saatchi as deputy advertising chairman. From 1987 to 1988, he was director of worldwide corporate communications. From 1988 to 1991, he was deputy chairman, working directly under Maurice Saatchi. [1]
From 1991 to 1998, Dobbs was a columnist for The Mail on Sunday newspaper. From 1998 to 2001, he hosted the current affairs programme Despatch Box on BBC Two.
Michael Dobbs' writing career began in 1989 with the publication of House of Cards, the first in what would become a trilogy of political thrillers with Francis Urquhart as the central character; House of Cards was followed by To Play the King in 1992 and The Final Cut in 1994. In 1990 House of Cards was turned into a television mini-series which received 14 BAFTA nominations and two BAFTA wins and was voted the 84th Best British Show in History. [14] Netflix produced a US version based upon Dobbs's first novel and its BBC adaptation. He was an executive producer of the American series. [15]
His novel, Winston's War (2004), was shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award, and his Harry Jones novels, A Sentimental Traitor and A Ghost at the Door, for the Paddy Power Political Book of the Year awards in 2013 and 2014, respectively. His novels are also published in the United States.
Anthony Howard of The Times said "Dobbs is following in a respectable tradition. Shakespeare, Walter Scott, even Tolstoy, all used historical events as the framework for their writings. And, unlike some of their distinguished works, Dobbs's novel [Winston's War] is, in fact, astonishingly historically accurate".[ citation needed ]
Dobbs has been a judge of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and lectures at dozens of literary and fundraising events each year.
Dobbs, now a part-time writer,[ when? ] divides his time between London and Wiltshire. He has two sons from his first marriage and two stepsons with his second wife, Rachel. [16]
Dobbs has raised money for his neighbour, who is paralysed as a result of a rugby injury. He walked from his home town in Wylye to his old school Richard Hale. He completed this on 27 March 2015. He is the patron of eye care charity, the Graham Layton Trust. [17]
Dobbs is a distant relative of the US non-fiction author with the same name. The two are sometimes confused. [18]
Francis Urquhart Novels
Tom Goodfellowe Novels
Winston Churchill Novels
Harry Jones Thrillers
Non-series novels
House of Cards is a 1990 British political thriller television serial in four episodes, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised by the BBC from 18 November to 9 December 1990. Released to critical and popular acclaim for its writing, direction, and performances, it is considered one of the greatest British television shows ever made.
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–1985), and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1987). He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–1974) and Chingford (1974–1992).
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill was a British aristocrat and politician. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term 'Tory democracy'. He participated in the creation of the National Union of the Conservative Party.
Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is a British businessman, and with his brother, Charles, co-founder of the advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi.
William Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil,, was a British politician. He was a long-serving cabinet minister before serving as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1951 to 1959. He was then appointed as the 14th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1960 until his death in 1961.
A crossbencher is a minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber.
Baron Moran, of Manton in the County of Wiltshire, is a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1943 for the physician Charles Wilson. He is chiefly remembered as Winston Churchill's personal physician during the Second World War and was president of the Royal College of Physicians from 1941 to 1949. His diary of his association with Churchill—that continued to Winston's death in 1965—was published in 1966.
Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury,, known as Viscount Cranborne from 1903 to 1947, was a British Conservative politician.
Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, PC was an Irish-born businessman, politician and a minister in the British Conservative cabinet. He is best remembered for supporting Winston Churchill during the Second World War. He was also the founder of the modern version of the Financial Times. He was Minister of Information from 1941 to 1945.
Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia,, is an English popular historian, journalist and member of the House of Lords. He is the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a Lehrman Institute Distinguished Lecturer at the New-York Historical Society. He served as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 2013 to 2021.
Winston's War is a 2002 novel by Michael Dobbs that presents a fictional account of the struggle of Winston Churchill to combat the appeasement policies of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Never Surrender is a novel by Michael Dobbs, based on historical events of the first few weeks of May 1940. It is a sequel to Dobbs's novel, Winston's War, which is based on the events surrounding the demise of Neville Chamberlain and the appointment of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.
Wylye is a village and civil parish on the River Wylye in Wiltshire, England. The village is about 9+1⁄2 miles (15 km) northwest of Salisbury and a similar distance southeast of Warminster.
Events from the year 1945 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the end of World War II and a landslide general election victory for the Labour Party.
The Chief Whip of the Conservative Party oversees the whipping system in the party, which is responsible for ensuring that Conservative MPs or members of the House of Lords attend and vote in parliament in the desired way of the party leadership. Chief Whips, of which two are appointed in the party, a member of the House of Commons and a member of the House of Lords, also help to organise their party's contribution to parliamentary business.
Named the Greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 poll, and widely regarded as being among the most influential people in British history, Winston Churchill has been regularly portrayed in film, television, radio and other media. The depictions range from minor character to the biographical centerpiece, exceeding 30 films, more than two dozen television shows, several stage productions, and countless books.
The Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill is a five star hotel located on Portman Square, north of Marble Arch in central London, England. It is owned by The Churchill Group Ltd and is currently operated by Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
House of Cards is a political thriller novel by British author Michael Dobbs. Published in 1989, it tells the story of Francis Urquhart, a fictional Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, and his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The Portrait of Winston Churchill was a painting by English artist Graham Sutherland that depicted the British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, created in 1954. It was disliked by Churchill and eventually destroyed shortly after.
The Conservative Friends of the Chinese is a membership organization that engages with the British Chinese community on UK - China relations. It is linked to the Conservative Party in the UK and actively campaigns for the Party in the British Chinese community.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| BBC adaptation |
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