Michael Bloch
{{Short description|British author and historian (born 1953)}}
{{For|the Queen's Counsel|Michael Bloch (barrister)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Michael Bloch
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1953|09|24|df=y}}
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| occupation = Author, historian
| language = English
| alma_mater = St John's College, Cambridge
| genre = Biography
| subject = British Biographies
| notable_works = List
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Michael Anthony Bloch (born 24 September 1953) is an author and historian.{{cite web|title=Michael Bloch|url=http://www.johnsonandalcock.co.uk/michael-bloch/|website=Johnson & Alcock|accessdate=19 March 2018}}
Educated at Portadown College and St John's College, Cambridge,{{cite book |last1=Ltd |first1=Debretts Peerage |last2=Hume |first2=Lucy |title=Debretts People of Today 2017 |date=5 December 2016 |publisher=Debretts Peerage Limited |isbn=978-0-9929348-7-3 |page=130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvOzAQAACAAJ |access-date=21 September 2023 |language=en}} he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1978 and in 1979 became an assistant to Maître Suzanne Blum, the Parisian lawyer of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.{{cite book |last1=Bloch |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael Bloch |title=Jeremy Thorpe |date=16 December 2014 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-4087-0694-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fujSBQAAQBAJ |access-date=21 September 2023 |language=en}}
Bloch's books include several about the Duke and Duchess, an authorized biography of James Lees-Milne, a study of the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, and a biography of Frederick Matthias Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique.{{cite book |last1=Bloch |first1=Michael |title=F.M.: The Life Of Frederick Matthias Alexander: Founder of the Alexander Technique |date=15 December 2011 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-4055-1361-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9An_7wWFogC |access-date=21 September 2023 |language=en}} Bloch was once the lover of Lees-Milne, writing in 2009: "I thought he was quite simply the most wonderful person I had ever met".{{cite news |title=The man in the Panama hat |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2009/11/19/the-man-in-the-panama-hat |access-date=15 November 2021 |publisher=The Economist |date=21 November 2009}} In a review, it was noted that Bloch in his biography of Lees-Milne had a "laudable objectivity" about him, despite being one of his "most loyal and long-term late-in-life amours".
Books
- The Duke of Windsor's War (Weidenfeld, 1982) {{ISBN|0-297-77947-8}}
- Operation Willi (Weidenfeld, 1984)
- Wallis and Edward: The Intimate Correspondence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Weidenfeld, 1986) {{ISBN|0-671-61209-3}}
- The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor (Bantam Press, 1988) {{ISBN|0-593-01667-X}}
- The Reign and Abdication of Edward VIII (Bantam Press, 1990)
- Ribbentrop (Bantam Press, 1992)
- The Duchess of Windsor (Weidenfeld, 1996), {{ISBN|978-0297835905}}
- FM: The Life of Frederick Matthias Alexander, Founder of the Alexander Technique (Little Brown, 2004)
- James Lees-Milne: The Life (John Murray, 2009) {{ISBN|978-0719565502}}
- Jeremy Thorpe (Little Brown, 2014)
- Closet Queens: Some 20th Century British Politicians (Little Brown, 2015)
Bloch edited the later diaries of James Lees-Milne for publication by John Murray: Deep Romantic Chasm, 1979-81 (2000); Holy Dread, 1982-84 (2001); Beneath a Waning Moon, 1985-97 (2003); Ceaseless Turmoil, 1988-92 (2004); The Milk of Paradise, 1993-97 (2005). He also abridged the original 12-volume series in 3 volumes: Diaries, 1942-54 (2006); Diaries, 1971-83 (2007); Diaries, 1984-97 (2008).
Notes
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Category:People educated at Portadown College