Richard Toye
Richard John Toye (born 1973) is a British historian and academic. He is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He was previously a Fellow and Director of Studies for History at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, from 2002 to 2007, and before that he taught at University of Manchester from 2000. Early life. Toye was born in 1973 in Cambridge, but subsequently moved to Swansea and then to Hove, Sussex. He took a BA in history and then an MPhil at the University of Birmingham. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree by the  University of Cambridge in 1999. His doctoral thesis was titled "The Labour Party and the planned economy 1931-1951". Biography. His book "Lloyd George and Churchill: Rivals for Greatness" was the winner of the Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year Award in 2007. One of the judges, June Purvis, professor of women's and gender history at Portsmouth University, said: "This is an extremely readable, lively book that explores the complex personal and political relationship between two great male politicians who helped to shape 20th-century Britain. The changing shades and hues of their relationship are documented in  fascinating detail." It received widespread critical acclaim from a number of newspaper reviews for its "nuanced" approach. He has written extensively on Winston Churchill: his book "Churchill's Empire: The World that Made Him and the World He Made" was critically acclaimed. His most recent book is "The Roar of the Lion: The Untold Story of Churchill's World War II Speeches". Toye has also written on Rhetoric. In late 2018 he appeared in the documentary "Churchill's mistress" discussing the fate of Dora, Lady Castlerosse broadcast on Yesterday television. At Exeter he specialises in teaching and researching Churchill and  all aspects of party politics during the period of the Third British Empire. Commensurate with his role as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society he was one of the signatories to a letter that strongly defended the Historical Association: government attempts to depoliticise the teaching profession have been largely unsuccessful.