Филип Гюделла: Баристер, тарихшы және жазушы өмірі

English barrister and historian

Philip Guedalla (12 March 1889 – 16 December 1944) was an English barrister, and a popular historical and travel writer and biographer. His wit and epigrams are well known, one example being "Even reviewers read a Preface". He also was the originator of a now common theory on Henry James, writing that "The work of Henry James has always seemed divisible by a simple dynastic arrangement into three reigns: James I, James II, and the Old Pretender."

Guedalla was born in Maida Vale, London, into a secular Jewish family of Spanish origin; in later life he embraced his Jewish identity. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he in 1911 was the President of the Oxford Union; and was published in Oxford Poetry 1910–1913. In 1919 he married Nellie Maude Reitlinger, the daughter of a banker. They never had children. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "My own pronunciation is gwuh dal'lah. I have very little doubt that this is wholly incorrect."

Having been called to the Bar by the Inner Temple, Guedalla practised as a barrister from 1913 to 1923, before turning to writing. During the First World War he organised and acted as secretary to the Flax Control Board and also served as legal adviser to the Contracts Departments of the War Office and the Ministry of Munitions. In the Autumn of 1936 a joint committee of the British Council, the Foreign Office, Overseas Trade Department, British Film Institute, and the Travel Association (the contemporary equivalent of VisitBritain) was set up under the Chairmanship of Guedalla, with the aim of selecting (and later producing) British documentaries for overseas distribution. When the Travel Association closed in 1939 (due to the United Kingdom joining the Second World War), the British Council took ownership of the committee's activities to establish the British Council's Film Department. Despite his role in the Royal Air Force, where he held the rank of Squadron Leader,

Guedalla died in hospital in London on 16 December 1944 at age 55, having contracted an illness during his service in the RAF.

In the play Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer, mystery writer Andrew Wyke says, "Do you agree that the detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds? I'm quoting from Philip Guedalla, a biographer of the thirties, that golden age when every Cabinet Minister had a thriller by his bedside and all detectives were titled."