Welcome to my website. You'll find all the details of my books here -- plus links to my latest articles and interviews below. "Lege feliciter," as the Venerable Bede would say -- may you read happily!
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (pictured)
Matthew spoke live to the historian Robert Lacey who has written books about the Saudi kingdom.
Listen Here
Born August 1924(?); died 23 January 2015 aged 90.
How Richard III’s DNA called into question 500 years of royal rule - After being found in a parking lot, Richard III’s bones have solved some royal mysteries and opened up a bigger one...
Robert Lacey, author of The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud, told the Daily Beast: "Quite a number of the brighter and more hard-working Saudi princes are fighter pilots - trained in Britain or America and happy to get up at dawn to go out on patrol. They see it as being in the tradition of their grandfather, Abdul Aziz, the great warrior of the desert who created the Kingdom. He built it with camels. They defend it with Typhoons and F-15s."
Eileen Ford (born 25 March 1922) died at Morristown Medical Center, New Jersey, yesterday, Wednesday 9th July. She was 92.
Peopled with an extraordinary cast of characters, Grace is a rich and riveting story. ‘Racy, crammed with gossip and anecdotes’ said Cosmopolitan. Robert Lacey is the first author to penetrate the storybook façade. Through hundreds of interviews with Grace’s family and friends, he weaves the tale of a complex and surprisingly conflicted woman who created a dream for herself and lived it. Read more at hollywood.org.uk
Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco, was sheer magic. She was an enchanting confection of charm, vulnerability and exhilarating blonde ambition, and I am delighted that the modern magic of digital technology has made it possible for Apostrophe Books to update GRACE, my 1994 story of her life and loves, with direct links to a unique portfolio of historic newsreels, movie trailers and a brilliant collection of fresh images that have been specially researched and assembled for this first e-book edition. My aim in GRACE, the book, was to bring this inspiring and extraordinary woman alive with words on the page. Now here are the moving pictures that can bring her beauty and vitality alive on your own screen!
Movie legend, princess, tragic heroine. The moment Grace Kelly stepped into the spotlight in 1950, the world was entranced.
In this definitive biography of Hollywood’s sweetheart, Robert Lacey looks behind the fairytale facade to reveal the real story of Princess Grace of Monaco, as she became.
Gaining unprecedented access to her family and friends, he tells the story of a complex and conflicted woman determined to live her dream.
Click here for the publisher’s brief as a download.
9/11 gave birth to many conspiracy theories - among them the suspicion that Islamic charities were knowing and willing vehicles for Islamic terrorism. Robert Lacey examines this accusation with his co-editor Jonathan Benthall, a leading analyst of Islamic philanthropy, and a host of international academics and experts - the proceedings of a conference at Kings College, Cambridge, convened by the Gulf Research Council in the summer of 2012.
Available from any academic bookshop worldwide or from the publisher directly - all contact details on the publisher's brief
The mobile phone is proving to be an unexpected tool of female liberation in the Arab world. In conversation with Dame Ann Leslie, veteran foreign correspondent, Fawziah Bakr Al-Bark, a professor of education at the country's King Saud University, and I debate the state of women in Saudi Arabia.
The conversation is available on the BBC website through the excellent listen again service.
