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Alan Warwick Palmer (28 September 1926 – 25 March 2022) was a British author of popular historical and biographical books. A number of these books were translated into other languages.

Background

Palmer was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, London, and Oriel College, Oxford. He spent 19 years as senior history teacher at Highgate School before becoming a full-time writer and researcher. His late wife, Veronica Palmer collaborated on several of his books.

The historian Martin Gilbert was a pupil of Palmer's at Highgate, and contributed a foreword to a 2003 reprinting of his book Napoleon in Russia stating: "Alan Palmer is one of my favourite historians. I have read all his thirty plus books, and have learned from them all. His reference works serve as models of clarity and presentation... how lucky we schoolboys were to have a working historian as our teaching historian".

Death

Palmer died on 25 March 2022, at the age of 95.

Honours and awards

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1980.

Bibliography

Biographies

• The Life and Times of George IV (1972). Weidenfeld & Nicolson "Kings and Queens" series.
• Metternich: Councillor of Europe (1972).
  • (in German) Metternich. Der Staatsmann Europas (1977; 1986). ISBN 978-3-546-47346-0.
• Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace (1974).
  • (in German) Alexander I. Gegenspieler Napoleons (1984). ISBN 978-3-453-55114-5.
  • (in German) Alexander I. Der rätselhafte Zar, Ullstein, Berlin (1994). ISBN 3-548-35402-5.
• Frederick The Great (1974). Weidenfeld & Nicolson "Great Lives" series.
• Bismarck (1976).
  • (in German) Bismarck. Eine Biographie (1976).
• Kings and Queens of England (1976; reprinted 1985).
• The Kaiser: Warlord of the Second Reich (1978). ISBN 978-0-297-77393-1.
• Princes of Wales (1979).
• Bernadotte: Napoleon's Marshal, Sweden's King (1990).
  • (in Swedish) Bernadotte. Napoleons marskalk, Sveriges kung (1992).
• Kemal Atatürk (1991). "Makers of the 20th Century" series.
• Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph (1994; reprinted 1997). ISBN 978-0-87113-665-7.
  • (in German) Franz Joseph I. Kaiser von Österreich und König von Ungarn (1995)
• Napoleon & Marie Louise: The Emperor's Second Wife (2001).

History

• The Gardeners of Salonika: The Macedonian Campaign 1915-1918 (1965).
• Napoleon in Russia: The 1812 Campaign (1967). reprinted as: Napoleon in Russia (1997); A Brief History of Napoleon in Russia (2003).
  • (in German) Napoleon in Russland (1969).
• Russia in War and Peace (1972). ISBN 0-297-99565-0.
• Nations and Empires (1974). editor, "Milestones of History" series.
• Age of Optimism (1974). editor, "Milestones of History" series.
• Royal England: A Gazetteer (1983). with Veronica Palmer.
• The Chancelleries of Europe: Hidden Diplomacy, 1814-1918 (1983).
• Crowned Cousins: The Anglo-German Royal Connection (1985).
• Banner of Battle: Story of the Crimean War (1987). ISBN 978-0-297-79042-6.
• The East End: Four Centuries of London Life (1989; reprinted 2000, 2004) ISBN 978-0-7195-4676-1.
• The Royal House of Greece (1990).
• The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire (1992). ISBN 978-0-71954-934-2.
  • (in German) Verfall und Untergang des Osmanischen Reiches (1997). ISBN 978-3-453-11768-6.
• Victory 1918 (1998).
• Northern Shores: A History of the Baltic Sea and Its Peoples (2005). ISBN 978-0-7195-6287-7.
  • US edition: The Baltic: A New History of the Region and Its People (2006). ISBN 978-0-7195-6299-0.
• The Salient: Ypres, 1914-18 (2007). ISBN 978-1-84119-633-6.

Reference works

• A Dictionary of Modern History, 1789–1945 (1962; reprinted 1964, 1972, 1984). reprinted as The Penguin Dictionary of Modern History.
• A Military Atlas of the First World War (1975). ISBN 0-3128-7096-5. with Arthur Banks.
• Quotations in History: A Dictionary of Historical Quotations c.800 to the present (1976; reprinted 1985). with Veronica Palmer.
• The Facts on File Dictionary of 20th Century History (1979; reprinted).
• Who's Who in Modern History (1980; reprinted).
• Who's Who in Shakespeare's England (1981). ISBN 0-3128-7096-5. with Veronica Palmer.
• The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth Century History (2nd ed., 1983). ISBN 0-1405-1131-8.
• An Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe (1984; reprinted 1998). ISBN 978-0094787001.
• Who's Who in Bloomsbury (1987). with Veronica Palmer.
• A Dictionary of Modern Politics (1993?).
• The Chronology of British History: from 250,000 BC to the present day (1995). with Veronica Palmer.
• Dictionary of the British Empire and Commonwealth (1996).
• Who's Who in World Politics (1996). Routledge "Who's Who" series.

References

1. History Study Centre: Retrieved 24 April 2012.; Faber author page: Retrieved 24 April 2012.
2. "Alan Palmer: 28 September 1926 – 25 March 2022". Sir Martin Gilbert. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
3. "Palmer, Alan Warwick". The Times. 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
4. "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.

External links

• Works by or about Alan Palmer at the Internet Archive

• 1926 births
• 2022 deaths
• Historians of Europe
• Information and reference writers
• English biographers
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
• People educated at Bancroft's School
• Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
• Historians of the Napoleonic Wars