PAKENHAM, Thomas 1933-

(Thomas Frank Dermot Pakenham)

PERSONAL: Born August 14, 1933, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England; son of Francis Aungier (seventh Earl of Longford, politician and writer) and Elizabeth (Countess of Longford, a writer; maiden name, Harman) Pakenham; married Valerie Susan McNair Scott (a writer), July 24, 1964; children: two sons, two daughters. Education: Magdalen College, Oxford, B.A., 1955. Hobbies and other interests: Water activities.

ADDRESSES: Home—Tullynally Castle, County Westmeath, Ireland; 111 Elgin Crescent, London W. 11, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Jonathan Ball, P.O. Box 33977, Jeppestown, 2043, South Africa.

CAREER: Writer. Freelance writer, 1956–58; Times Literary Supplement, London, England, member of editorial staff, 1959–61; Sunday Telegraph, London, member of editorial staff, 1961; Observer, London, member of editorial staff, 1961–64; writer. Victorian Society, founding member, 1958, and member of committee, 1958–64; Historic Irish Tourist Houses and Gardens Association (HITHA), founding member and member of committee, 1968–72. British-Irish Association, treasurer, 1972–; Christopher EwartBriggs Memorial Fund, secretary and co-founder, 1976–; Ladbroke Association, chairman, 1988–; Irish Tree Society, founder and chairman, 1990—honorary custodian of Tullynally Castle, County Westmeath, Ireland. Research fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford, 1979–81.

MEMBER: Beefsteak, Brook's, Stephen's Green (Dublin).

AWARDS, HONORS: Cheltenham Prize from Cheltenham Festival of Literature, 1980, for The Boer War; W.H. Smith Prize, 1992, for The Scramble for Africa.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Mountains of Rasselas: An Ethiopian Adventure, Reynal, 1959, reprinted, Seven Dials (London, England), 1999.

(With Paul R. Thompson) Architecture: Art or Social Service, Fabian Society, 1963.

Universities Explained: An "Observer" Guide to the Universities of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, [London, England], 1963.

The Year of Liberty: The Story of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1969, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1970.

The Boer War, Random House (New York, NY), 1979.

(And editor, with wife, Valerie Pakenham) Dublin: A Traveler's Companion, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1988.

The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, Random House (New York, NY), 1991.

(And photographer) Meetings with Remarkable Trees, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

(And photographer) Remarkable Trees of the World, Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

The Remarkable Baobab, Jonathan Ball (Jeppestown, South Africa), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: As a member of the "literary Longfords," Thomas Pakenham is surrounded by writers. His father wrote many books, including a biography of Pope John Paul II; Elizabeth Longford, his mother, is the prolific writer who produced Jameson's Raid: The Prelude to the Boer War and Wellington. The Boer War, Pakenham's award-winning 1979 study, was reportedly eight years in the making, originating from Pakenham's personal interest in the war in which his grandfathers served. Lauded for his excellent documentation, the author interviewed survivors, visited battle scenes and obtained private letters, secret diaries, and unpublished papers; he even learned Dutch and Afrikaans to translate primary sources on his own. "The grim story has been told before," wrote Mayo Mohs in Time, "but never with such sweep and grieving comprehension."

According to Pakenham, the war began in 1899, due largely to the machinations of Alfred Milner, British high commissioner of South Africa. In his drive for an all-British state, Milner antagonized the Dutch colonists (Boers) in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State who would not give white "Uitlanders" equal rights. Thus, a prolonged, bloody, and expensive war ensued. Neither side was prepared for a war that would last three years. Britain anticipated a short, nineteenth-century skirmish, but encountered a lengthy, twentieth-century war instead. Initially, Britain expected to suppress the Boers with 10,000 troops, but eventually sent 450,000 soldiers and spent 200 million pounds. Twenty-two thousand British soldiers died in the war, as did 25,000 Boers and 12,000 African tribesmen.

The Boer War studies the psychological and material dimensions of the war. For example, Pakenham looked at the contributions of millionaires, blacks, and Boer women in the historical event. According to Pakenham, idealism, combined with the greed of the "gold bugs," those wealthy industrialists who owned the area's gold mines, escalated the war. Boer women, he found, operated farms in their husbands' absences, supplied troops with food, and were ultimately shoved into the squalor of concentration camps. Blacks, hitherto a little-studied group, actively fought under the promise of improved status, an oath the British soon forgot. "In understanding and proclaiming that this was also a black experience—simultaneous with but very different from the experiences of British and Boer soldiers and civilians—Thomas Pakenham has helped to push open a very interesting door indeed," commented Neal Ascherson in the New York Review of Books. Nevertheless, "Pakenham's most original achievement," wrote Ascherson, "is to rescue the reputation of Sir Redvers Buller from its disgrace beneath the billiard table." Maligned by previous histories, Buller proves himself to be a good man in a bad situation, the victim of backbiting British generals. Though Pakenham's evidence restores this general's respectability, it also shows the ineptitude of Frederick Roberts, formerly the lauded British supreme commander. Finally, Pakenham profiles Lord Kitchner, Roberts's successor and the inventor of concentration camps and failed anti-guerilla tactics.

Critically, The Boer War was well received. As John Gooch explained in the English Historical Review: "For an outsider to shoulder his way into the circles of scholarship with a book which demands both recognition and respect is a none too common occurrence. Thomas Pakenham has managed just that with The Boer War …, a tour-de-force of narrative history which not only tells the story of the war better than it has ever been told, but along the way forces us to revise some of our judgments on the leading military figures of the day." Piers Brendon, in his Books and Bookmen critique, declared: "Here at last is a book which has been needed for a generation or more—a radical reappraisal of the Boer War based on the best evidence, a reappraisal which sets straight the record so monumentally biased by (among other things) Leo Amery's seven-volume Times History of the War in South Africa. This is something which the professional historians have been too indolent or too obtuse to accomplish (though a 'definitive academic revision' is apparently in preparation) and it is to his vast credit that the task has been completed by a brilliant amateur, Thomas Pakenham."

Other critics, including Walter Clemons, a writer for Newsweek, have noticed the author's "powerful narrative gift," especially suited for fight scenes. "At describing a battle," Gooch submitted, "he has no peer." "Pakenham's book," Clemons continued, "rouses anger at events that took place 80 years ago. This is a hot, impassioned work." "Indeed," Brendon concluded, "no account of this bloody conflict can henceforth be written without reference to his magnificent reinterpretation."

The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912 is an exploration of the historical period when the previous relative disinterest of the European imperialistic powers toward the African continent turned into a frenzied rush for domination and expansion. Thematically, it is somewhat of a follow-up to and expansion of Pakenham's in-depth study of one particular episode in this saga, The Boer War, extending his focus to a broader historical and geographical vantage.

Peter Stansky, discussing The Scramble for Africa in the New York Times Book Review, noted that Pakenham "writes with both compassion and with an effective combination of detachment and judgment." Stansky remarked that in such conflicts as the Boer War, despite the seeming winners and losers among the Europeans, "the true losers were the blacks, whose rights were sacrificed to keep the whites happy. Today the further stages of that history are being played out. To understand the present, we need to know about the past—a truism that is all too often forgotten." Stansky further noted, "The new history tries to recover the experiences of the Africans themselves—and the Africans play a vital role in this volume. We are given a vivid sense of what they were like."

However, despite Pakenham's attention to the blacks' central role as the exploited natives, Stansky found "the emphasis is on the Europeans and their relentless activity in discovering and taking over Africa." He also judged that while some Europeans were simply evil, "many more were caught in the demands of the time to repress, control and make profits. Bright and hopeful young men were corrupted by the system. African chiefs attempted to resist and to protect their people, or to sign the blank British treaty forms, or to appeal to Victoria to help them. The scramble was a juggernaut that couldn't be stopped."

Douglas Porch, in his Washington Post Book World review of The Scramble for Africa, offered a similar assessment of the period, noting that "Pakenham strips the impresarios of imperialism of their veneer of Victorian heroism or reputations for statesman-like vision, to reveal them as men with bloated and often vicious egos. Beneath the elegance of the chancellories, the eminence of the diplomats, the adulation showered upon explorers and conquerors, described with great skill by Pakenham, there often lurked an enterprise of undisguised thuggery." "Thomas Pakenham has splendidly demonstrated how the Europeans imposed themselves on Africa," observed Stansky.

The author has also demonstrated a strong interest in nature and has written several books about trees, including Meetings with Remarkable Trees and Remarkable Trees of the World. The first book focuses on the trees of England and Ireland. Alice Joyce, writing in Booklist, called the author "thoroughly delightful in his role as guide" in Meetings with Remarkable Trees. In Remarkable Trees of the World, Pakenham moves beyond the British Isles to write about and photograph trees from such diverse locations as New Zealand, California, Botswana, and Sri Lanka. "Charming and amusing in recounting his adventures, Pakenham nonetheless pays significant tribute to the extraordinary trees he portrays," wrote Donna Seaman in Booklist. In a review in the School Library Journal, Christine C. Menefee noted that "though it is a highly personal work and not a scientific text, it demonstrates keen and accurate observation." Kliatt contributor Nola Theiss commented that the coffee table book "will actually be read because the author's style is so engaging." In The Remarkable Baobab, the author explores the history and nature of this unusual tree, which was first brought to the attention Europeans by a French naturalist in the eighteenth century. A Library Bookwatch contributor noted that the book included "wonderful celebratory descriptions and photos." James Fleming, writing in the Spectator, called the book "excellent."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Authors in the News, Volume 2, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1976.

PERIODICALS

ABA Journal, May, 1980, Alan J. Harvey, review of The Boer War, p. 630.

Atlantic, December, 1979, Phoebe-Lou Adams, review of The Boer War, p. 94; January, 1992, Phoebe-Lou Adams, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 114.

Booklist, January 1, 1980, review of The Boer War, p. 652; November 1, 1988, review of Dublin, p. 447; November 15, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 599; December 1, 1997, Alice Joyce, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. 602; November 1, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 464.

Books, autumn, 1998, review of The Mountains of Rasselas: An Ethiopian Adventure, p. 22.

Books and Bookmen, January, 1970, review of The Year of Liberty: The Story of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798, p. 31; July, 1972, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 44; October, 1979, Piers Brendon, review of The Boer War, p. 34.

Books of the Times, December, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 572.

Book World, November 15, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 10; August 28, 1988, review of Dublin: A Traveler's Companion, p. 12; December 22, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 3; November 29, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 12.

British Book News, July, 1980, review of The Boer War, p. 394; February, 1984, review of The Boer War, p. 78.

Chicago Tribune Book World, February 3, 1980.

Choice, September, 1970, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 921; December, 1978, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 1332; April, 1980, review of The Boer War, p. 273.

Christian Science Monitor, January 7, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 10; November 20, 1997, Merle Rubin, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. B2.

Commentary, June, 1980, Stephen Rosen, review of The Boer War, p. 79; May, 1981, review of The Boer War, p. 75.

Commonweal, December 7, 1979, David O'Brien, review of The Boer War, p. 699.

Contemporary Review, August, 1988, review of Dublin, p. 112; September, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 161; September, 1997, review of The Boer War, p. 165.

Discover, March, 2003, Maia Weinstock, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 76.

Economist, October 25, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 51; September 1, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 95; October 2, 1999, review of The Boer War, p. 92.

English Historical Review, April, 1982, John Gooch, review of The Boer War, p. 457; November, 1994, D.A. Low, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 1319.

Geographical, July, 2003, Vicky Bamforth, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 81.

Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 9, 2002, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. D14; November 23, 2002, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. D34; November 22, 2003, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. D34; December 11, 2004, review of The Remarkable Baobab, p. D14.

Guardian Weekly, December 6, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 17; September 9, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 21; September 13, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 28.

Historian, February, 1981, review of The Boer War, p. 279; summer, 1993, William Hull, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 809.

History: Review of New Books, spring, 1993, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 128.

History Today, January, 1970, review of The Year of Liberty, February, 1980, Peter Warwick, review of The Boer War, p. 54; May, 1984, review of The Boer War, p. 47; October, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 53.

Illustrated London News, October, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 150.

Journal of African History, August, 1993, A. G. Hopkins, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 489.

Journal of International Affairs, summer, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, pp. 246-249.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 1122; October 1, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 1267.

Kliatt, March, 1993, The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 40; January, 2004, Nola Theiss, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 36.

Library Bookwatch, June, 2005, review of The Remarkable Baobab.

Library Journal, April, 2003, Christine C. Menefee, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 197; November 1, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 2346; November 15, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 94; October 1, 2003, review of Dublin, p. 106.

Listener, November 27, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 757; August 30, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 282.

London Review of Books, April 9, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 22.

Los Angeles Times, December 15, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 2.

Maclean's, November 4, 2002, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. 67.

Manchester Guardian, April 3, 1959.

Mankind, February, 1981, Hugh S. Bonar, Jr., review of The Boer War, p. 44.

National Interest, fall, 1992, Michael Howard, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 83.

New Republic, November 17, 1979, George Dangerfield, review of The Boer War, p. 35.

New Scientist, December 21, 1996, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. 67.

New Statesman, February 28, 1959; October 24, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 580; August 31, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 309.

Newsweek, December 3, 1979, Walter Clemons, review of The Boer War, p. 122.

New Yorker, January 20, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 80; September 9, 2002, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 58.

New York Review of Books, April 9, 1970, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 15; December 6, 1979, Neal Ascherson, review of The Boer War, p. 12; March 13, 2003, Tim Flannery, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 6.

New York Times, November 16, 1979, John Leonard, review of The Boer War, p. C27; December 18, 1997, Mac Riswold, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. F5.

New York Times Book Review, November 18, 1979, Alistair Horne, review of The Boer War, p. 9; November 25, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 62; December 30, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 10; December 8, 1991, Peter Stansky, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 1; May 31, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 28; January 3, 1993, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 20; June 6, 1993, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 56; October 5, 2003, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 28.

Observer (London, England), November 9, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 34; September 9, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 37; December 9, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 35; March 21, 1982, review of The Boer War, p. 30; October 20, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 61; November 3, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 69; January 3, 1993, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 37.

Publishers Weekly, October 15, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 56; November 1, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 65.

Saturday Review, November 24, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 22.

School Library Journal, April, 2003, Christine C. Menefee, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 197.

Science, May 9, 2003, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 908.

Science and Society, winter, 1993, Marvin E. Gettleman, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 461.

Science Books & Films, July, 2003, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 168; November, 2003, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 247; July-August, 2005, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 146.

SciTech Book News, June, 2003, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 148.

Spectator, November 15, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 685; October 13, 1979, review of The Boer War, p. 21; July 2, 1988, review of Dublin, p. 23; October 26, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 32; November 23, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 38; November 30, 1996, Keith Thomas, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. 54; November 28, 1998, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 46; October 12, 2002, Oliver Rackham, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 69; December 4, 2004, James Fleming, review of The Remarkable Baobab, p. 49.

Time, November 26, 1979, Mayo Mohs, review of The Boer War, p. 120; October 14, 2002, Andrea Dorman, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 58.

Time for Kids, November 1, 2002, review of Remarkable Trees of the World, p. 6.

Times Educational Supplement, January 22, 1993, review of The Boer War, p. 9, and Martin Fagg, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. R9; July 22, 2005, review of The Remarkable Baobab, p. 28.

Times Literary Supplement, February 27, 1959; October 23, 1969, review of The Year of Liberty, p. 1229; November 23, 1979, review of The Boer War, pp. 4, 33; January 6, 1989, review of Dublin, p. 7; November 1, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 5; April 11, 1997, review of The Boer War, p. 28; April 25, 1997, Alexander Urquhart, review of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, p. 27.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), December 13, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 8.

Victorian Studies, spring, 1981, review of The Boer War, p. 351.

Wall Street Journal, January 10, 1980, Peter Brimelow, review of The Boer War, p. 24; December 10, 1991, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. A12.

Washington Post Book World, December 22, 1991, Douglas Porch, review of The Scramble for Africa, p. 3.

West Coast Review of Books, January, 1980, review of The Boer War, p. 40.

Wilson Quarterly, annual, 1992, review of The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, p. 94.