Дэвид Прайс-Джонс: Британдық тарихшы және саяси комментатор өмірі мен шығармалары

British conservative author, historian and commentator

David Eugene Henry Pryce Jones (born 15 February 1936) is a British conservative author and commentator.

Pryce Jones was born on 15 February 1936, in Vienna, Austria. He was educated at Eton and earned a degree in history at Magdalen College, Oxford. He is the son of writer Alan Payan Pryce Jones (1908–2000) by his first wife (married 1934), Therese "Poppy" Fould Springer (1914–1953) of the Fould family. Therese was a daughter of Baron Eugène Fould Springer, a French born banker who was a cousin of Achille Fould, and Marie Cecile or Mitzi Springer, later Mrs Frank Wooster or Mary Wooster, whose father was the industrialist Baron Gustav Springer (1842–1920) son of Baron Max Springer. She also had a brother, Baron Max Fould Springer (1906–1999), and two sisters Helene Propper de Callejón (1907–1997), wife of Spanish diplomat Eduardo Propper de Callejón and grandmother of actress Helena Bonham Carter, and Baroness Liliane de Rothschild (1916–2003). His parents married in 1934 in Vienna, where Pryce Jones was born. His mother's Jewish background made it unwise to remain in Vienna and the family moved to England at the end of 1937. In 1940, a four year old Pryce Jones was stranded with his nanny in Dieppe, Normandy and was rescued from the invading German army by his mother's brother in law Eduardo Propper de Callejón. He acknowledged his uncle by marriage's efforts in saving his own life when Propper de Callejón retired from Spanish diplomatic service. Pryce Jones is a first cousin of Elena Propper de Callejón, wife of late banker Raymond Bonham Carter and mother of actress Helena Bonham Carter. Another cousin is Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild, only son of the better known Baron Élie de Rothschild.

Pryce Jones did his National Service in the Coldstream Guards, in which he was commissioned in 1955, promoted lieutenant in 1956, and served in the British Army of the Rhine. In 1956, Pryce Jones lectured the men under his command about the necessity of the Suez War, but admits that he did not believe what he was saying. At the time, he believed that the Islamic world would soon progress after decolonization, and was disappointed when this did not happen. Pryce Jones considers as an additional retarding factor in Arab society the influence of Islam, which hinders efforts to build a Western style society where the family and clan are not the dominant political unit. In his book, Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews, he has accused the French government of being anti Semitic and pro Arab, and of consistently siding against Israel in the hope of winning the favour of the Islamic world. The book's premise has been likened to Bat Ye'or's Eurabia theory, which has been praised by Pryce Jones as "prophetic". The American diplomat Philip Gordon gave a highly unfavorable review of Betrayal in Foreign Affairs, describing the book as a French bashing "polemic" disguised as a work of history. Gordon accused Pryce Jones of hypocrisy, noting that he took successive French governments to task for supporting Middle Eastern dictators like President Saddam Hussein of Iraq while failing to note that both the United States and the United Kingdom have also supported Middle Eastern dictators. Gordon wrote that Pryce Jones's claim that French President Jacques Chirac was guilty of "perfidy" towards the West by opposing the Iraq War in 2003 was unfair, writing in 2007 that much of what happened in Iraq since 2003 appeared to justify Chirac's predictions of a debacle if the United States invaded. Pryce Jones wrote a biography, Evelyn Waugh and His World (1973). It was rather notorious for digging up conflict among the married Mitford siblings, with Pamela accusing Jessica of revealing private correspondence concerning their sister the Duchess of Devonshire. The 1976 biography Unity Mitford: A Quest followed, despite alleged efforts by some of Unity Mitford's sisters to prevent Pryce Jones from doing his research and publishing the book.

He married Clarissa Caccia, daughter of diplomat Harold Caccia, Baron Caccia, in 1959. They have three surviving children, (one deceased, Sonia: 1970–1972), Jessica, Candida and Adam, and live in London. Jessica is married to the BBC journalist David Shukman.