Alistair Lexden: Forty years ago, Thatcher was assembling her transformative Government

Disraeli defined conservatism as ‘love of country and an instinct for power’, and her successors should strive for her winning fusion of the two.

Alistair Lexden: I heard the bomb as it exploded. My memories of Airey Neave, for whom I worked.

He was murdered by terrorists 40 years ago today. Now there is a new, exemplary biography of him.

Alistair Lexden: The Carlton Club meeting and the fall of the Lloyd George Coalition

How a proud, unbending leader misread his party, brought down a government, and set back the idea of sharing power for a generation.

Alistair Lexden: Commemorating Baldwin, the Prime Minister who pioneered ‘One Nation’

The Conservative Party’s official historian was speaking at the unveiling of a new statue to the former Party leader in his home town of Bewdley today.

Alistair Lexden: A rigorous new biography explores the ‘mild supremacy’ of Lord Liverpool

William Hay offers a well-researched and welcome antidote to the reactionary caricature of Peterloo mythology.

Alistair Lexden: Vivid writing, voracious research. Antonia Fraser’s account of the slow story of Catholic emancipation.

In her twenty-fourth book, she assembles a large cast of curious and colourful characters, much given to making outlandish remarks and fighting duels.

Alistair Lexden: How the 1918 election paved the way to inter-war Conservative hegemony

Just as they had with Joe Chamberlain before him, the Tory leadership wooed Lloyd George to fatally fracture the Liberal Party.

Alistair Lexden: Heath, the “almost great” Prime Minister who became the crosspatch of the century

This unusual leader still evokes passions in his Party even decades after his surprise election victory.

Alistair Lexden: Neville Chamberlain – the unappreciated merits

The work done in partnership with Baldwin, and by Chamberlain alone after 1937, gave Britain some of the best welfare services in the world.

Alistair Lexden: British disinterest is at the root of many of Northern Ireland’s problems

The row over the DUP fits into a long and inglorious tradition of mainland approbation towards, and ignorance of, Ulster Unionists.

Alistair Lexden: Remembering Baldwin in a year of anniversaries

It’s past time that the record was set straight on the life and achievements of this remarkable Tory statesman.

Alistair Lexden: One hundred years on from the Somme

The political fallout from this bloody battle of attrition did more to enhance British prospects of victory than the actual fighting.

Alistair Lexden: How Churchill tackled the challenges of Ireland

A new book charts how, over the course of a complicated career, he tried to bring peace to the island whilst defending British interests.

Alistair Lexden: Anthony Eden, a man of peace

The reputation of this charming, honourable man deserves to be defined by more than Suez.

Alistair Lexden: Condemned in secret by persons unknown. The Church of England’s scandalous treatment of Bishop Bell

Our report exposes the astonishing inadequacy of the procedures through which the ecclesiastical authorities reached their verdict.