Talk:Max Hastings

message: There seem to be a lot of Australians editing the page because of a remark Max Hastings made, as I am an inexperienced member I would ask that a moderator monitor this page.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Portcullis (talk • contribs) 20:56, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, I've had a go (see above). No offence is intended. Hope my firewall survives. BTW, one of the references (Fox) doesn't work for me. Folks at 137 22:44, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

text: I've just removed this section. The 'controversy' lasted for about two days (a slow news Sunday and Monday) and it's inclusion in the article seemed to be a case of Wikipedia:Recentism. It might be worth including in an article on the book, but it doesn't seem significant enough  to include in Hastings' biography. Most bookshops I've visited recently have multiple copies of the book, which tends to suggest that it's selling well and hasn't caused widespead outrage in Australia. --Nick Dowling (talk) 00:15, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: On second thoughts, I've chopped it back to one sentence as it is cited in reliable sources, caused a bit of a splash and, perhaps most significantly, led a historian at the Australian War Memorial to (mildly) criticise Hastings' work as a historian. I still suspect that it's not worth including though as it wasn't really that big a deal. --Nick Dowling (talk) 00:24, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

text: Do you have any useful reference other than your personal assurance? Hohum (talk) 17:45, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Australian "slur"

message: "Hastings lives with his second wife Penny (née Levinson), with whom he had two children, in west Berkshire." -  not true.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.146.245.33 (talk) 12:00, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you have any useful reference other than your personal assurance? Hohum (talk) 17:45, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Errata 

message: "...who became his abiding ally.[1] Thus he set off for the United States..." sounds like Tom Brown's Schooldays or one of Frank Richards' novels about Greyfriars with no disrespect intended to those most entertaining books.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.149.24.147 (talk) 12:55, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a meaningless statement anyway: Whilst most of his immediate family were educated at Stonyhurst College, it was his cousin Sir Stephen Hastings who became his abiding ally. Valetude (talk) 16:59, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hagiography and adventure novel language 

message: Has some third party vetted this yet?
http://20committee.com/2015/03/30/plagiarism-is-not-cool/
Hcobb (talk) 21:53, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Very interesting. It meshes with my little discovery, discussed two headings above. The problem is the same, that Hastings or one or more of his assistants are apparently plagiarizing without attribution. Binksternet (talk) 22:54, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Isn't it a bit dubious having this allegation in the article when the only sources (the one above, and the one in the article) are written by the man claiming to have been plagiarised? —Simon Harley (Talk | Library). 15:58, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plagiarism charge 

message: If Len Deighton wrote "The Battle of Britain", why is Max Hastings' name there as well? RASAM (talk) 17:17, 1 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Len Deighton 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Military history has a description of the subject that does not seem to fit Hastings being a military historian. He has no academic qualifications in the subject. Nor does he seem to fit the description in WP:HISTRS. I suggest that he is simply a writer in military history. His training is simply as a journalist.
Looking at some of the controversy on this page and elsewhere about some of his work, I note that he seems to gain support from other journalists, but not from academic historians. That might support the point I am making. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 16:45, 3 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: With no answer to citation needed in article, I have edited that out.ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 19:02, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have added a citation but, per WP:CITELEAD, this is not best practice.  Being a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and winning multiple prizes should have sufficed but so it goes.  Andrew🐉(talk) 13:41, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  What qualifies Hastings as a military historian? 

message: Sir Max had a section in The Times "Notebook" (diary, page 30) yesterday with a good moan: "...when I once telephoned Wikipedia to correct some ridiculous errors in my own entry - even about such things as how many children I have - they declined to accept this intervention as legitimate.  They said that I must produce citations and evidence from others. "But surely I know the facts of my own life", I exclaimed.  They refused to budge.  The errors persist, presumably until I employ image managers." Johnbod (talk) 17:32, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I wonder how recently Sir Max has checked his article - the mention of how many children he has seems to match the piece on him in the Times. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 18:02, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Indeed - see also here. Of course, actually saying how many there are would make things too easy. Johnbod (talk) 20:57, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  The subject writes