Biographical Articles
Profiles and articles about David Irving from international newspapers and periodicals
Over the course of a career spanning more than sixty years, David Irving has been the subject of numerous profiles and feature articles in the international press. This page collects the most significant of these — from the early accolades of Der Spiegel in 1965 to the more complex assessments of later decades.
Der Spiegel Hausmitteilung (25 October 1965)
“In Heft 25/1963 berichtete der SPIEGEL zum erstenmal über eine Arbeit des britischen Historikers David Irving … Der SPIEGEL wird seinen neuen Autor im Auge behalten: Während sein Bericht in diesem Heft beginnt, reist Irving schon wieder durch Deutschland, um Material für eine neue Dokumentation zusammenzutragen.”
Der Spiegel, Nr 44/1965
In this internal editorial note (Hausmitteilung), Germany’s leading news magazine introduced its readers to Irving as the author of a new series on the British intelligence campaign against Germany’s V-weapons. The Spiegel had first reported on Irving’s work in 1963 (his research proving that the destruction of Dresden was a militarily pointless act of terror) and went on to serialise five of his books. The text is in German.
“Portrait of a Gentleman” — Susan Barnes, The Sunday Times (September 1970)
After the loss of the PQ.17 libel action in the High Court in February 1970, The Sunday Times sent the American journalist Susan Barnes to write a multi-page feature for their colour magazine. Irving later noted: “Readers will note the polite, almost fawning, tone of this 1970 article. With the publication of my pioneering biography of Adolf Hitler in 1977 all that changed; after thirty years, 1977 can safely be called the watershed in my career.”
Barnes — an attractive American journalist whose family owned the Baltimore Sun and who was the wife of British Cabinet minister Anthony Crosland — captured Irving at thirty-one in vivid detail. She described his “mystifyingly complex” personality, his Mayfair flat with its filing cabinets and tape recorders, his dedication to working 365 days a year, and his conviction that he was “going to the top.” The profile was later republished as the first chapter of her book Behind the Image (Jonathan Cape, London, 1974).
“Sleeping with the Enemy” — Nicholas Farrell, The Spectator (27 April 1996)
Nicholas Farrell’s profile for The Spectator took an unusual approach: he interviewed Benté Høgh, the young Danish woman who was Irving’s partner and the mother of his daughter Jessica, to explore how she reconciled living with him while disagreeing with him on virtually everything — “from Hitler to his diet.” The piece painted a domestic portrait: Irving insisting on preheated coffee cups, frosted beer glasses, three-course dinners with soup, and stamps stuck on envelopes completely straight. Høgh told Farrell: “I just find it interesting to be with him. It appeals to my sense of adventure. No day is the same.”
“Filled to Bursting” — Gina Thomas, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (22 March 2008)
On the occasion of Irving’s seventieth birthday, the FAZ’s London correspondent Gina Thomas wrote a substantial assessment. She noted that “even highly-regarded historians who criticize his writings for having become increasingly tendentious over the years agree that he has a magnificent nose for things, and that — whatever their reservations about his interpretation of the facts — their profession cannot ignore his books.” She quoted Gordon Craig’s observation that “students of the Hitler era owe more than they are willing to concede both to his energy as a researcher and to the scale and the élan of his publications.”
“Reflections on Intelligence” — R. V. Jones (1989)
In his book Reflections on Intelligence, Professor R. V. Jones — wartime Chief of Air Scientific Intelligence (ADI(Sc)) in MI6 — devoted a passage to his friendship with David Irving and the remarkable Enigma affair. While researching The Mare’s Nest, Irving had discovered through a former Bletchley Park NCO that the British had broken German Enigma traffic — still one of the most closely guarded secrets. GCHQ asked Jones to persuade Irving not to publish.
“When it is remembered what a ‘scoop’ he sacrificed, surely one of the biggest ever, he has a lasting right to our respect alongside Governor Dewey, who in 1944 and in similar circumstances sacrificed his chance of becoming President of the United States.”
R. V. Jones, Reflections on Intelligence (William Heinemann, 1989)
Jones also related a later meeting in about 1980, when Irving spotted him looking for a taxi in South Audley Street and drove him to Heathrow in his Rolls Royce. “Everyone gives way to a Rolls,” Irving commented as they charged into the traffic in Park Lane. Asked what had stopped him publishing the Enigma secret, Irving’s terse reply was: “Patriotism!”
Other Profiles and Articles
- Canadian Globe & Mail (1979) — A warm view of Mr Irving’s talents as historian and biographer
- Daily Mail (1982) — “Stunning blonde in the life of Hitler apologist David Irving”
- Roni Stauber, Tel Aviv University (1990s) — “From Revisionism to Holocaust Denial — David Irving as a Case Study”, published by the Steven Roth Institute for Racism and Anti-Semitism
- Norman Mailer (March 2007) — “A very good writer … he’s one hell of an interesting writer”
- The Independent (January 2009) — Profile: “David Irving: ‘I’m Hitler’s biographer’”
- Torpedo Running (1985) — A biographical brochure about Mr Irving and his role in exposing the fake Hitler Diaries scandal