John Grigg (writer)

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John Edward Poynder Grigg (April 15, 1924 – December 31, 2001) was a British writer, historian and politician. He was the 2nd Baron Altrincham from 1955 until he disclaimed that title under the Peerage Act on the day it received the Royal Assent in 1963.

He was the son of Edward Grigg, a Times journalist associated with the imperialist circle of Joseph Chamberlain, Conservative MP, governor of Kenya, and member of Churchill's wartime government, who was created first Baron Altrincham in 1945. After Eton, John Grigg attended New College, Oxford. He edited the English And National Review (1954-60) as his father had done. He was a liberal Tory but was defeated at the 1951 and 1955 general elections.

He was a columnist for the Guardian (1960-70), the Times (1986-93) and occasionally for the Spectator. He left the Conservative party for the SDP in 1982.

As historian Grigg argued that Wilhelmine Germany had been aggressive, militaristic, anti-democratic and bent on the domination of Europe, and had indeed been responsible for the war that began in 1914. His masterpiece was a four-volume biography, The Young Lloyd George (1973), Lloyd George: The People's Champion (1978, winner of the Whitbread Award for biography), Lloyd George, From Peace To War 1912-1916 (1983, winner of the Wolfson prize), and the posthumous Lloyd George: War Leader, 1916-1918 (2002). Grigg showed a remarkable sympathy, and even affinity, for the Welsh wizard, despite the fact that their domestic personalities were very different.