Biography
David Robert Starkey, CBE, FSA (born 3 January 1945) is an English historian, a television and radio presenter, and a specialist in the Tudor period.
Starkey was born the only child of poor Quaker parents in Kendal, Westmorland (now Cumbria), England. He now resides in Barham, Kent. His mother, Elsie Lyon, a strong personality, had a powerful influence on Starkey's formative years; he portrays his father, Robert Starkey, as a somewhat ineffectual man.
Despite suffering from physical disabilities, Starkey did well at school and won a scholarship to be at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, of which he is an Honorary Fellow. As a student at Cambridge, he fell under the influence of Professor G.R. Elton. According to Starkey, Elton provided the stern father figure he had never had, against whom to rebel.
From 1972 to 1998 Starkey taught history at the London School of Economics. During this period, he embarked on a career as a broadcaster, and soon acquired a reputation for abrasiveness, particularly on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze, a debating programme, on which he was a ruthless interrogator of "witnesses" examining contemporary moral questions. In the 1990s he presented a current affairs phone-in show on Talk Radio UK (since relaunched as talkSPORT) where his manner with callers served to bolster his rebarbative reputation. However, the programme, which he described as "three hours of brainy barney" was extremely popular. His rudeness has been singled out by his detractors. In the televised Trial of Richard III, he appeared as a witness for the prosecution, and accused the defence counsel, Sir Brian Dillon, of having a "small lawyer's mind". More recently, he received considerable attention when he compared Elizabeth II unfavourably with her predecessors, calling her an uneducated housewife, and comparing her cultural attitude to Josef Goebbels, by suggesting that she gave him the impression that every time she heard the word culture she wanted to reach for a gun (in fact the line is most commonly attributed to Hermann Göring, but was really written by the lesser known Nazi playwright Hanns Johst).
He has been accused of misogyny due to his frequent attacks on female historians, including his claim that they have "feminised" history by writing social history or focusing on female characters. He claimed that undue attention had been given to Henry VII's wives, even though he presented his own television series on the subject. He stated: "But it’s what you expect from feminised history, the fact that so many of the writers who write about this are women and so much of their audience is a female audience. Unhappy marriages are big box office." He has also stated that women shouldn’t be considered as “power players” in pre-20th century Europe, notwithstanding the fact that several powerful monarchs were female, including Queen Mary, Elizabeth I, and Queen Victoria. History has been 'feminised' says David Starkey as he launches Henry VIII series - Telegraph
His television series on Henry VIII of England, Elizabeth I of England, the six Wives of Henry VIII (The Six Wives of Henry VIII) and on lesser-known Tudor monarchs have made him a familiar face. In 2004 he began a Channel 4 multi-year series Monarchy, which chronicled the history of English kings and queens from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms onward. His greatest contribution to Tudor research has been in explaining the complicated social etiquette of Henry's household, exploring the complicated nature of Catherine Howard's fall in 1541–1542, and rescuing Anne Boleyn from the historical doldrums by persuasively proving that she was a committed religious reformer, keen politician and sparkling intellectual. Starkey has also rejected the historical community's tendency to portray Catherine of Aragon as a "plaster-of-Paris saint".
In October 2006 he started hosting the second series of The Last Word now known as Starkey's Last Word. He also makes regular radio broadcasts and contributes to many magazines and newspapers.
Starkey was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1994. He was appointed CBE in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours list.
Starkey is openly gay. His partner is James Brown, a publisher and book designer, and he has often discussed his sexuality in the Moral Maze and other discussion shows.
Formerly a leftist, Starkey is now known for his controversial right-wing views. For example, he says of multiculturalism: "What's striking about our problem ethnic communities is that they are the ones with the least commitment to self-betterment."
On 23 April 2009, Starkey was on the panel for BBC One's Question Time, where he enraged some viewers with his comments relating to Scottish, Irish and Welsh nationalism, describing people from these countries as "feeble". However, others, including some of the studio audience, supported his attacks on politicians.
This same month (April, 2009) Starkey acted as Guest Curator for Henry VIII: Man & Monarch, an exhibition of documents (and some portraits) at the British Library.
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