Know Your Enemy

"Slight, dry and dismally unoriginal though it is, Douglas Hurd’s oleaginous portrait of the Queen contains one stunning revelation. Uniquely among humankind, it would seem that she is afflicted by not a single moral defect. No suggestion that she falls short of the archangel Gabriel in perfection is allowed to pollute these pages. Her notorious rudeness and intellectual nullity? Not a whisper. The swollen coffers of this former tax dodger, some of whose subjects can scarcely feed their children? No comment. Her renowned ability to freeze a dandelion at 100 paces? All a misunderstanding. Hurd even manages to whitewash her curmudgeonly consort, a man who has 'unintentionally [sic] acquired a reputation for tactless, even brutal remarks', though he wisely draws the line at putting in a good word for Andrew and Edward."

Safe to say Terry Eagleton is unlikely to receive either a Christmas card from Douglas Hurd or a knighthood after this savaging of Hurd's book and its subject for the Guardian.