Paul Addison

Paul Addison
Portrait photograph
Born	Paul Addison Wilson Walker (1943-05-03)3 May 1943 Whittington, Staffordshire, England, UK
Died	21 January 2020(2020-01-21) (aged 76) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Spouse	Rosy Sheehan ​ (m. 1979)​
Children	2
Academic background
A.J.P. Taylor
Academic work
Discipline	Political history
Sub-discipline	20th Century Britain and World War II
Institutions	University of Edinburgh
Notable students	Gordon Brown
Notable works	The Road to 1945 (1975)

Paul Addison,

Addison attended the King Edward VI Grammar School^[3] in Litchfield and subsequently studied at the University of Oxford. He completed his undergraduate degree at Pembroke College before moving to Nuffield College as a postgraduate. Alongside his studies, he assisted Randolph Churchill in preparing the papers of the late premier Winston Churchill for publication alongside other research students Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) and Cameron Hazlehurst.^[3]

Along with his contemporary

All three parties went to the polls in 1945 committed to principles of social and economic reconstruction which their leaders had endorsed as members of the Coalition. A massive new middle ground had emerged in politics. [...] When Labour swept to victory in 1945 the new consensus fell, like a branch of ripe plums, into the lap of Mr Attlee.

Addison's argument was that the "

Addison lectured at Pembroke College, Oxford before moving to the University of Edinburgh in 1967.^[3] He remained at Edinburgh for most of his career. He published several further works on British politics during the wartime and post-war periods. These included two noted biographies of Winston Churchill, namely Churchill on the Home Front (1992) and Churchill: The Unexpected Hero (2005).^[2]

From 1996, he was director of the Centre for Second World War Studies in Edinburgh. He worked alongside Jeremy Crang on a series of works exploring "the key role of propaganda, information and the state’s monitoring of civilian morale during the war" as well as the Blitz.^[3] He retired in 2005 and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2006.^[2]

Addison's students at Edinburgh included the future prime minister Gordon Brown who provided a tribute at Addison's funeral.^[2][3] It has been argued that Addison's influence led to Brown's decision to raise the top rate of income tax about 40% during his premiership.^[4]

Addison married Rosy Sheehan in 1979, and they had two children. He died from lung cancer at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on 21 January 2020, aged 76.^[1]

• The Road to 1945, Jonathan Cape, 1975,
  ISBN 978-0-7126-5932-1
• Now the War is Over: A Social History of Britain, 1945-1951, Jonathan Cape, 1985,
  ISBN 978-0-224-02325-2
• Churchill on the Home Front, Jonathan Cape, 1992,
  ISBN 978-0-224-01428-1
• Time to Kill: The Soldier's Experience of War in the West 1939-1945, Paul Addison,
  ISBN 0-7126-7376-8
• The Burning Blue: A New History of the Battle of Britain, Paul Addison, Jeremy Crang ed., Pimlico, 2000,
  ISBN 978-0-7126-6475-2
• Churchill: The Unexpected Hero, Oxford University Press, 2005,
  ISBN 978-0-19-927934-0
• Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945, Pimlico, Paul Addison, Jeremy Crang ed., Pimlico, 2006,
  ISBN 978-1-84413-928-6
• A Companion to Contemporary Britain, 1939-2000, Paul Addison, Harriet Jones ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2007,
  ISBN 978-1-4051-6730-7
• Winston Churchill, Oxford University Press, 2007,
  ISBN 978-0-19-921757-1
• No Turning Back: The Peacetime Revolutions of Post-War Britain, Oxford University Press, 2010,
  ISBN 978-0-19-219267-7

• doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000381737. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)
• Crang, Jeremy (4 March 2020). "Paul Addison obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
• Wood, Ian S. (12 February 2020). "Paul Addison, internationally-noted historian and biographer of Winston Churchill". The Scotsman. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
• "Paul Addison obituary". The Times. 23 March 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2021.