Quotes by Saul David - Page 1

Henry Kissinger is perhaps the best-known American statesman of the 20th century.
Saul David /
Perhaps
Statesman
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The people who read the history books tend to have a natural zeal and are alarmingly well-read.
Saul David /
History Books
Natural
Zeal
History People Who
Books
Read
Tend
Well-Read
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Those who read the fiction assume that, because I'm also a historian, I know what I'm talking about.
Saul David /
Historian
Assume
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I was brought up with a whole bunch of cousins in the Wye Valley during the hippy days of the 1970s.
Saul David /
Bunch
Brought
Hippy
Valley
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If I'm at a book signing, and someone decides to take me to task, it can make for quite a sticky moment.
Saul David /
Signing
Sticky
Task
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Even a moderniser like Alexander II - who emancipated the serfs in 1861 - had no intention of devolving real power.
Saul David /
Intention
Real Power
Alexander
No Intention
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No campaign of the First World War better justifies the poets' view of the conflict as futile and pitiless than Gallipoli.
Saul David /
Conflict
First World War
War World View
Campaign
First World
Futile
Justifies
Poets
World War
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Winter horseshoes are equipped with little spikes that give a horse traction on snow and ice and prevent it from slipping.
Saul David /
Horse
Ice
Slipping
Snow
Winter
Equipped
Prevent
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Ever since World War I, superior force is no longer measured in terms of men or horses, but in the means to wreak destruction.
Saul David /
Destruction
World War I
War Men World
Horses
Measured
Superior
World War
Wreak
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History tells us that a general can move and feed an army as efficiently as he likes, but the real litmus test is the battlefield.
Saul David /
Army
Likes
Battlefield
Feed
Efficiently
Litmus Test
Test
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Historical facts are the vital framework around which non-fiction writers construct their narratives; they are, quite simply, indispensable.
Saul David /
Framework
Indispensable
Non Fiction
Construct
Narratives
Vital
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I worked hard at my four-year M.A., but got a 2.1. That was a big disappointment, as I wanted to write about history and thought I needed a First.
Saul David /
Disappointment
Four-Year
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By 1917, thanks to the new munitions factories and the women that worked in them, the British Empire was supplying more than 50 million shells a year.
Saul David /
British Empire
Factories
Shells
Thanks
Empire
Supplying
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In March 1915, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the British fired more shells in a single 35-minute bombardment than they had during the whole Boer War.
Saul David /
Battle
March
Shells
War More Than
Fired
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By Vietnam, the Jeep had given way to the helicopter, and it is hard to imagine a modern army fighting a war without this supremely adaptable workhorse.
Saul David /
Adaptable
Army
Vietnam
Helicopter
Supremely
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Few remember that the battle of Rorke's Drift was fought on the same day that the British Army suffered its most humiliating defeat at nearby Isandlwana.
Saul David /
Army
Battle
British
Defeat
Humiliating
Remember
Same
Suffered
Drift
Few
Fought
Nearby
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My great-great-grandfather, who made his money in the jute trade, had at one time 600 houses in London, and within three generations, the money was gone.
Saul David /
Generations
One Time
Houses
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It is surely no coincidence that Napoleon's two greatest heroes were Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. In certain respects, he would outdo them both.
Saul David /
Coincidence
Julius
Heroes
Alexander
Caesar
Napoleon
Outdo
Respects
Surely
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At school, there were more Davids than any other name: more than 20 of us cousins out of 40 pupils. When my older cousins moved on, the school had to close.
Saul David /
Moved On
Pupils
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The first Romanov ruler was just 16 when he was crowned Tsar Michael I in Moscow in 1613, thus ending the 'Time of Troubles' sparked by Ivan the Terrible's death.
Saul David /
Moscow
Crowned
Michael
Ending
Ruler
Thus
Troubles
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We've all faced the charge that our novels are history lite, and to some extent, that's true. Yet for some, historical fiction is a way into reading history proper.
Saul David /
Historical Fiction
Charge
Extent
Proper
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My forebears were fantastically wealthy Armenians who came to England from India in the 19th century and did what foreign types do - they married into a penniless but well-bred local family.
Saul David /
Armenians
Wealthy
Types
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When I was six or seven, we went to the nearest English primary school, St Weonards, about seven miles away. The teaching was good, and this was the start of my beginning to shine as a student.
Saul David /
Miles
Primary School
Nearest
Shine
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By the time Napoleon abandoned his army to its fate in Poland - arriving back in Paris on 5 December - it numbered fewer than 10,000 effectives. It was a disaster from which he would never recover.
Saul David /
Abandoned
Army
December
Disaster
Fate
Fewer
Poland
By The Time
Napoleon
Numbered
Recover
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Given the gruesome fate of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family, and the fact that five of the previous 12 Romanov rulers were also murdered, it is easy to regard Russia's imperial dynasty as cursed.
Saul David /
Cursed
Dynasty
Fate
Regard
Rulers
Russia
Gruesome
Imperial
Previous
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It is not enough just to get your forces from A to B - you have to keep them fed and watered as they go. The art of movement, therefore, is one of the most complex and vital that any commander must master if he is going to win.
Saul David /
Commander
Master
Fed
Forces
Vital
Watered
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I passed the 11-plus, but it was decided that I should take the Common Entrance exam to Monmouth School, the nearest independent. I was never entirely comfortable there, as they didn't have girls, and they played rugby instead of football.
Saul David /
Comfortable
Decided
Exam
Independent
Rugby
Entirely
Nearest
Passed
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In the early hours of 16 December 1944, the Germans launched their last great offensive of the Second World War against weakly held U.S. positions in the Ardennes Forest, the site of their original Blitzkrieg success against the French in 1940.
Saul David /
December
Offensive
Second World War
Site
Success War Great
Forest
Germans
Held
Positions
World War
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From 1801, Napoleon began an ambitious programme of civil reform to standardise law and justice, centralise education, introduce uniform weights and measures and a fully functioning internal market. That achievement alone makes him one of the giants of history.
Saul David /
Achievement
Giants
Internal
Introduce
Weights
Measures
Napoleon
Programme
Uniform
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If getting a contract was relatively straightforward, writing fiction was far harder than I could have imagined, and there were moments during the long and torturous edit process when it seemed that 'Zulu Hart,' the first of the trilogy, would never be fit for public consumption.
Saul David /
Consumption
Hart
Straightforward
Contract
Edit
Relatively
Trilogy
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There were about 30 children at one stage, running around like savages at a place called Callow Hill, near Monmouth, which was owned by my grandparents. They lived in the big house, but my dad had five brothers and a sister, and they all lived in various houses scattered on the hill.
Saul David /
Sister
Savages
Stage
Big House
Brothers
Houses
Near
Owned
Scattered
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Historians turning their hands to fiction are all the rage. Since Alison Weir led the way in 2006, an ever-growing number of established non-fiction writers - Giles Milton, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Harry Sidebottom, Patrick Bishop, Ian Mortimer and myself included - have written historical novels.
Saul David /
Fiction Writers
Milton
Non Fiction
Alison
Established
Bishop
Turning
Harry
Historians
Included
Led
Simon
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Saul David Quotes - Page 1

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