[1][10] Simon Roberts, from Cobham, Surrey, inherited the Job's Dairy milk business and also owned the United Kingdom franchise of Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets.
According to Roberts, the other key strategic mistake was the German declaration of war against the United States, which was announced only four days after the Pearl Harbor attacks despite the fact that the Nazi regime had no legal obligation to take such an action.
[3] In Roberts' opinion, Thatcher's insight to push the UK into a path in which it kept out of the euro currency concept, while still having strong ties to various European economies and otherwise engaging in international trade, has been validated by the Eurozone crisis in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
As an advocate for the general principle of democratic pluralism, he has argued that "[s]neered at for being 'simplistic' in his reaction to 9/11, Bush's visceral responses to the attacks of a fascistic, totalitarian death cult will be seen as having been substantially the right ones" in the long run.
[3] During the buildup to the Iraq War, Roberts supported the proposed invasion, arguing that anything less would be tantamount to appeasement, comparing Tony Blair to Winston Churchill in his "astonishing leadership".
He additionally argued that acting against Saddam Hussein was in line with the "Pax Americana realpolitik that has kept the Great Powers at peace since the Second World War, despite the collapse of Communism".
[18] In 2003, Roberts wrote: "For Churchill, apotheosis came in 1940; for Tony Blair, it will come when Iraq is successfully invaded and hundreds of weapons of mass destruction are unearthed from where they have been hidden by Saddam's henchmen.
"[19] When such weapons were not found, Roberts still defended the invasion for larger strategic reasons,[20] while arguing that his past views were based on credible assessments from intelligence services as well as other sources.
[22] The first of Roberts' books was the biography of the Earl of Halifax, foreign secretary to Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, entitled The Holy Fox, and published in 1991.
The Radio Times described the programme: "Forty years after Eden's decision to deploy troops against the Egyptians, Andrew Roberts argues that the former prime minister should be congratulated, not chastised, for fighting to protect British assets.
[19] Roberts remarked that he felt grateful for the BBC's support of his work and their unwillingness to cut corners when it came to exploring history in detail, quipping as well about the group's wardrobe policy, "Courtesy of this programme, I now have two Armani suits upstairs.
essays written by historians and journalists, including Robert Cowley, Antonia Fraser, Norman Stone, Amanda Foreman, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Conrad Black, and Anne Somerset.
[14] His A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, a sequel to the four-volume work of Churchill's biography, was published in September 2006,[14] and won the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Book Award.
It was compiled by a team of historians, including Robin Lane Fox, Tom Holland, John Julius Norwich, Jonathan Sumption, and Felipe Fernández-Armesto, working under the general editorship of Roberts.
A detailed look at the history of events behind the Second World War and various key elements within it such as the nature of Nazi Germany's rule, the book received large popular success[9] and reached number two in The Sunday Times bestseller list.
[27] Praise additionally came from fellow historian Jay Winik: "With his customary flair and keen historical eye, Andrew Roberts has delivered the goods again.
The book, as it needs to be, is massive, yet the pace is brisk and it's never overwhelmed by the scholarly research, which was plainly immense ... Roberts suggests looking at Europe for the Emperor's monument, but this magnificent biography is not a bad place to start.
For the Financial Times, Toni Barber wrote: "Anecdotes sparkle like gems throughout Roberts’s book, an exhaustive but fluent text that draws on a wider range of sources than the typical Churchill biography.
"[33] In The Observer, Andrew Rawnsley included the book among the 'Books of the Year' and said that "Roberts triumphed over my scepticism with his riveting account of the extraordinary life of the most remarkable individual to have lived at No 10.
A monarchist, Roberts described Prince Philip upon his death as "undoubtedly... one of the reasons that the overwhelming majority of Britons today feel blessed that their country is a monarchy".
[42] Although Roberts's 2006 work A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 won critical acclaim from some sections of the media,[43][44] The Economist drew attention to some historical, geographical, and typographical errors, as well as presenting a generally scathing review of the book.
[45] One claim made by Roberts in A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 was that Harvard historian Caroline Elkins had committed "blood-libels" in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book Imperial Reckoning on British actions during the Kenya Emergency.
[46] Elkins was subsequently vindicated when files released by the UK's National Archives showed that abuses were described as "distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia" by the Solicitor General of the time.
[47] The foreign secretary William Hague subsequently announced compensation for the first round of victims with statements that the British government "recognises that Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment" and "sincerely regrets that these abuses took place" during the Kenya Emergency.
[3][50] Roberts is married to businesswoman Susan Gilchrist,[51] CEO of the corporate communications firm Brunswick Group LLP and chairman of the South Bank Centre.