WAVELL: Soldier and Statesman

Soldier and Statesman Victoria Schofield Field Marshal the Earl Wavell was one of Britain’s greatest military leaders of the Second World War and, as Viceroy of India, a remarkable statesman. With extraordinary resilience he faced triumph and disaster in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Wavell’s appointment as Viceroy of India was even more challenging, as he began its arduous move to Independence. Yet behind such distinction lay an enigmatic man also celebrated for his unexpected silences, his prolific memory and his love of poetry. Victoria Schofield has written extensively on South Asia. In this book she combines a lifelong interest in military history with her detailed knowledge of the subcontinent. A worthy tribute to a great man—The Times Literary Supplement Well written and based on detailed research—BBC History Magazine Like its subject, this biography is not interested in superficial flamboyance but its solid virtues of wide-ranging research and intellectual rigour soon become apparent.—The Sunday Times, 30 January 2007 AUTHOR DESCRIPTION Victoria Schofield is a frequent commentator on BBC World TV, the BBC World Service and other news outlets. She has written primarily on South Asia for British newspapers as well as for Asian Affairs and The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs. She has an MA (Hons) degree in Modern History, having attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was President of the Oxford Union in 1977 and the Visiting Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford 2004–5. She is an Associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU), University of Durham. Her other publications include the highly acclaimed Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War and Afghan Frontier: At the Crossroads of Conflict. Schofield is also the editor of Old Roads, New Highways. She has just completed writing the official history of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) in two volumes (2012 & 2017).