Walking is central to my relaxation because when I'm writing I'm stationary for seven hours at a time. — David Starkey Copy Share Image
I think my cheerfulness keeps my writing from sinking into the depths of melancholy, while the darker side keeps in check any… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
If you make a book which is little more than putting a television script on the page, and add a few pictures,… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
I think I give far more space and play to avant-garde writing than any other contemporary textbook author. I want students to… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
I admire writers who have the tenacity to write a blog, and I'm told by everyone that it's an important element in… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
I wouldn't dream of commenting on Hilary Mantel as a novelist, frankly I'd be grateful if she stayed off my patch as… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
Once a piece of writing gets to a moment where it's not going to get much better than it already is, marinate… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
Embrace the melancholic voice completely in the drafting stages, to explore it for all it's worth. Then, in revision, privilege craft over… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
I think it's probably true that creative people are touched by melancholy more than the average person, and to the extent that… — David Starkey Copy Share Image
I was born in a council house, my father left school at the age of 11, had his teeth out without anaesthetic at the… — David Starkey Copy Share
I was a complete and typical only child. I was bookish, and sport was out of the question anyway. I had read all of… — David Starkey Copy Share
Compare the scale and magnifcence of Versailles with St James's - the brick-built hovel in which the 18th-century kings of England lived. What was… — David Starkey Copy Share
Churchill may have made some horrendous mistakes - Gallipoli, for one - but he had a sense of the profundity and integrity of the… — David Starkey Copy Share
We have this extraordinarily unbalanced constitution, in which we have an elected dictatorship of the prime minister. — David Starkey Copy Share
Historians have become far too precious. Their work has become ever more specialised and, as they steadily lose the context of their studies, they… — David Starkey Copy Share
Floating the idea that every kid in Brixton can become a whizkid at information technology is dishonest. — David Starkey Copy Share
What I love doing is creating a room, with attractive paintings and colours and furnishings - very much my mother. — David Starkey Copy Share
I mean, really, compared to a senior civil servant, I'm very modestly paid! — David Starkey Copy Share
I'm not a completely envy-free zone - I envy 25-year-old men with magnificent bodies - but when I look at my colleagues on the… — David Starkey Copy Share
What Black Lives Matter is doing is a deliberate inversion of the proper processes of historical analysis. It is beginning with a conclusion. And… — David Starkey Copy Share
