Lockdown has been generally good for authors in terms of book sales, but the closure of archives and libraries for research has been a problem. Had Pitt the Elder taken a course of allopurinol and arcoxia, he would not have had to resign in 1768 and thus wreck the best hope of our keeping the American colonies. George III’s only truly brilliant prime ministers (out of the 14 he appointed) were the two Pitts, both of whom suffered from it terribly, not helped by Dr Addington prescribing them port and no exercise. It seemed somehow appropriate, considering quite how many of the people in my book suffered from this horrid disease, which for some reason people still persist in finding funny. A party that I hope passed every invitee’s Gove Test was my publication party at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, in which I got a serious gout attack just as the first guests arrived. In our house it’s called ‘the Gove Test’, as it’s amazing how often one accepts things that one doesn’t really want to go to simply because they seem a long way off. Michael Gove has a rule when asked to a social occasion far in the future: only to accept if he would want to attend it that same evening. But at least he hasn’t been called a racist.
‘More and more of it, funnily enough,’ he replied. As ‘Winston’ and I walked to the tent, a lady dressed as a suffragette - complete with purple-and-green sash and big hat - shouted angrily: ‘When are you going to give women the franchise, you old bastard?’ ‘Do you get much of that kind of thing?’ I asked Stan. With the typical panache that has gained her a quarter of a million Instagram followers, Fiona Carnarvon arranged for a Winston Churchill lookalike called Stan Streather to introduce me to the audience at the Highclere Castle History Festival on October 9, which was packed with hundreds of re-enactors. Of course they are referring to its clause about Native Americans, but I’m going to try to persuade Americans that it’s also true of 26 out of the 28 clauses lambasting the poor old king. The National Archives in Washington is threatening to put up a sign next to the Declaration of Independence stating that some of its views are ‘outdated, biased, and offensive’. I’m a lot kinder about their Founding Fathers than the woke crowd in the States, though. I suspect the second part will be tougher than the first, as Americans understandably hold a less charitable view of King George III. I’m on a book tour which involves 65 speeches in 60 days in Britain, Washington, Philadelphia, Virginia, Mexico, California and New York.
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