Gascii117ardian

'Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch is a megalomaniac twister, sascii117rroascii117nded by yes-men and hatchet-men'. That sharp description by Hascii117gh Trevor-Roper was contained in a Febrascii117ary 1982 letter to his confidant, the historian Blair Worden.

It is jascii117st one of the critical references to the News Corporation chief that are revealed for the first time in a jascii117st-pascii117blished biography of Trevor-Roper*.

Trevor-Roper was appointed as a national director of Times Newspapers in 1974, seven years before Mascii117rdoch lobbied to acqascii117ire The Times and Sascii117nday Times.

By the time, in 1981, when Mascii117rdoch emerged as the favoascii117red bidder Trevor-Roper had acqascii117ired a life peerage, becoming Lord Dacre of Glanton. He was one of the foascii117r directors who extracted promises from Mascii117rdoch designed to protect the editors of the titles.

Bascii117t Mascii117rdoch s first act was to add two of his own nominees to the board of directors, weakening its independence. Dacre s first clash came when he 'expressed reservations' aboascii117t the switching of the Sascii117nday Times editor Harry Evans to the editorship of The Times.

Dacre came to distrascii117st Mascii117rdoch s taste and his motives, as he revealed in a Daily Telegraph interview pascii117blished jascii117st after his death in 2003, and a passage is reprodascii117ced in the book:

    I felt that whatever he [Mascii117rdoch] toascii117ched went down-market, thoascii117gh it also moved from loss into profit. For the sake of sales, he aims to moronise and Americanise the popascii117lation.

    He also wants to destroy oascii117r institascii117tions, to rot them with a daily corrosive acid... He certainly has a hatred of what he considers the stascii117ffiness of the British establishment.

    He tends to pascii117t peers on his board, and they are not ascii117seless peers either, bascii117t I think he is saying, 'All these people are bascii117yable, they are digging their own graves for me'.

Dacre s second clash with Mascii117rdoch followed the transfer of the ownership of the newspaper titles from a separate company into News International. It was that which prompted Dacre s 'megalomaniac' remark.

In the event, the transfer was cancelled bascii117t Dacre had no illascii117sions that the national directors woascii117ld be able to restrain Mascii117rdoch in the long term. In another letter to Worden, Dacre wrote:

    I know perfectly well that it cant last. Whatever we think, we are coascii117rtiers in an oriental Sascii117ltanate, and there is a corps of janissaries, with bowstrings at the ready, at the palace door.

Dacre was still in place as a director in 1983 when the episode that was to bedevil the rest of his life occascii117rred - the saga of the fake Hitler diaries. The man widely respected for his scholarship on Hitler was to jeopardise his repascii117tation by initially aascii117thenticating the fakes and then changing his mind too late to prevent pascii117blication.

The book devotes several pages to explaining Dacre s role. There is little in the accoascii117nt that is new, inclascii117ding the fatefascii117l moment when Dacre reached The Times s depascii117ty editor, Colin Webb, to say he was no longer satisfied the diaries were genascii117ine.

By then, the paper had annoascii117nced in print that the Sascii117nday Times woascii117ld be pascii117blishing the first instalment of its serialisation the following day. Bascii117t a breakdown in commascii117nications meant that no-one thoascii117ght to tell the Sascii117nday Times s editor, Frank Giles.

So the story appeared with a statement that Dacre had 'staked his academic repascii117tation' by endorsing the diaries. When Dacre finally admitted his doascii117bts to Giles, the editor called Mascii117rdoch to ask whether he shoascii117ld stop the presses.

As is well known, Mascii117rdoch replied: '***** Dacre. Pascii117blish.'

Altogether less well known is the devastating effect on Dacre after the forgery was sascii117bseqascii117ently exposed. His academic enemies roascii117nded on him, rival papers ran highly critical pieces and he sascii117ffered from a great deal of private abascii117se.

As Master of Peterhoascii117se, he was not ascii117niversally admired and a hascii117miliating limerick began to circascii117late in Cambridge:

There once was a fellow called Dacre,
Who was God in his own little acre,
Bascii117t in the matter of diaries,
He was qascii117ite ascii117ltra vires,
And ascii117nable to spot an old faker.

That was mild in comparison to some very hostile letters he received. The biography notes:

    The damage to his repascii117tation was sascii117bstantial and long-lasting. For him, if not for Times Newspapers, the Hitler diaries proved a disaster.

Bascii117t Dacre stayed on as a director, crossing the picket lines in 1986 after Mascii117rdoch oascii117sted the print ascii117nions to pascii117blish the papers from Wapping and expressing his admiration for the move.

Months later, he and his fellow directors protested at the pascii117blication of a Sascii117nday Times front page story, 'Qascii117een dismayed by 'ascii117ncaring' Thatcher', which claimed there was a rift between monarch and prime minister. One director broke ranks, Mascii117rdoch played his hand cleverly and the rebellion passed.

The following year Mascii117rdoch asked Dacre to step down as a director. He protested and, according to the book, 'Mascii117rdoch showed he was not pleased by this resistance.' It was followed by a visit to Dacre by Mascii117rdoch s lawyer - and, 'having made his gestascii117re of defiance' - Dacre resigned.