This is an admirable, relatively early biography of George V by a former diplomat who was very familiar with and lived through the political events of the latter half of the reign. It is, deliberately, mainly about the King's public and political role, because John Gore had previously been commissioned to write a more personal memoir. This biography was supplanted as the standard work by Kenneth Rose's more wide-ranging later work, but this one is still valuable. Nicolson admirably and generously disguises the fact that in some respects he despised his subject (eg for pursuing stamp collecting and game shooting as hobbies) and very different in his approach to life (the bisexual Nicolson had many affairs with men whereas George V said of another such person 'I thought men like that shot themselves') ( )

Harold Nicolson focus's on the Reign and less on his life of King George in this interesting book. This was specifically what he told Queen Mary what he would be doing when she asked him to write it as the personal life of the King had already been written .

I highly recommend this to historians or any person who is interested in the workings of Constitutional Monarcy . The content relating to interaction with his Prime Ministers is most interesting an thoroughly documented . Intestesting too is the Kings leadership during the Great War ,the birth of the Irish Republic . The section relating to Gandi is most interesting .

This is a excellent history and Nicholson certainly did an excellent job of it ( )

1427 King George the Fifth: His Life and Reign, by Harold Nicolson (read 16 Dec 1976) George V was born June 3, 1865, and died Jan 20, 1936. I remember when he died--I was seven years old and in the second grade. This is a good book, though dry at times and is quite "official" and laudatory. The book spent quite a bit of time on British Constitutional theory, and its development during George V's reign. Some of the matters discussed were new to me: the Depression and how it was handled; Ramsay McDonald's formation of a National Government, etc. Not a bad book. ( )