‘A worthy tribute to a great man’ The Times Literary Supplement
‘Excellent’ Country Life
‘Eminently
fair’
The Spectator
‘Well written and based on detailed research’, BBC History
Magazine
‘In her masterly biography, Victoria Schofield brings
to life one of the towering figures of the Second World War, and in
the process, she illuminates many of the obscure pages of the history
of the period.. The man who comes through in this meticulously researched
book is a modest figure who succeeded by dint of hard work and occasional
brilliance. Taciturn almost to the point of rudeness, he often drove
Churchill to distraction by his long silences. And yet he was a loving
husband and father who doted on his family,’ writes Irfan Husain in Dawn, Karachi
'Victoria Schofield’s authoritative biography
does justice to a man of many parts, some of them unexpected, such
as a passion for poetry.' The Sunday Telegraph, 21 January
2007
'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
'This is a kindly biography that is yet objective,
one that is based
on a thorough mastery of surviving documents, a model biography.' Contemporary
Review, Winter Issue.
'No review has appeared in The Guards Magazine
for many years which urged serving officers to read a particular book
to enhance their knowledge. However an exception can now be made with
Wavell: Soldier and Statesman. The book by Victoria Schofied is quite
outstanding: over 500 pages long, it is not a page too long.' Guards
Magazine, November 2006
In his journal Wavell wrote
that he hoped some of the things he had done in his various responsibilities
had ‘been of some use to someone’. It was a remarkably self-effacing
comment from a man who had been Commander-in-Chief in the two most important
theatres of the Second World War, and also Viceroy of India. But that
was the character of the man. He neither craved fame nor clung to it.
His disappointment at his dismissal as Viceroy had more to do with his
dislike of leaving a job unfinished than with any distress at the loss
of office. With his apparent lack of ambition, however, went an unwillingness
to project himself favourably with his political colleagues; his failed
relationship with Churchill is the most obvious example, that with
Attlee a close second….Of the plethora of eulogistic obituaries
that followed Wavell’s death, Peter Fleming’s in the Spectator aptly
described his allure: ‘An immense patient strength – perhaps
that is the quality in Lord Wavell which seems, now that he is dead, the
most important part of his character. With it went gentleness and wisdom
and a remarkable humility. His one eye looked quizzically rather than
sardonically upon the world, and he retained a certain innocence of spirit,
the uprightness almost of a small boy who does not yet know that there
are alternatives to uprightness.’
[Chapter 23: Wavell’s Legacy, p. 392]
