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{{Short description|British writer}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
'''Christopher Hugh Sykes''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|FRSL}} (17 November 1907 – 8 December 1986) was an English
▲{{Refimprove|date=September 2014}}
▲'''Christopher Hugh Sykes''' FRSL (17 November 1907 – 8 December 1986) was an English author. Born into a well-off [[Northern England|northern English]] landowning [[Sykes family of Sledmere|family]], he was the second son of the diplomat [[Mark Sykes|Sir Mark Sykes]] (1879–1919), and his wife, Edith (née Gorst). His sister was [[Angela Sykes]], the sculptor. His uncle, also Christopher Sykes, was, for a time, a close friend of [[Edward VII]].<ref name="records">[http://records.ancestry.com/christopher_hugh_sykes_records.ashx?pid=28400766 Profile], records.ancestry.com. Retrieved 4 September 2014.</ref>
==Life and career==
Educated at [[Downside School]] and [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], Sykes was, for a time in his youth, in the Foreign Office, including a stint as an attaché (1928–29) in the [[British Embassy in Berlin]], where [[Harold Nicolson]] was then Counsellor. This was followed by a year (1930–31) at the [[British Legation in Teheran]]. An early hero was [[Aubrey Herbert]], remembered now as the man who inspired [[John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir|John Buchan]]'s classic thriller, ''[[Greenmantle]]''. {{citation needed|date=September 2014}}
Though Sykes
Sykes had an eventful war. Having held, like his famous father, a [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] commission in [[The Green Howards]] in 1927–30, he was commissioned in 1939 as a reserve officer in the regiment's newly formed 7th Battalion. In June 1940, Sykes joined [[Special Operations 1 - Propaganda|SO1]] (later [[Special Operations Executive]
During October 1941, Sykes was sent out to Tehran as Deputy Director of Special Propaganda under diplomatic cover (Second Secretary at the British Legation) in the aftermath of the [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran]], where he remained until November 1942, when he was transferred to Cairo. Out of a job because his department had been wound up, Sykes found time to write a light novel, ''High Minded Murder'' (1944), something of a ''roman à clef'', set in wartime Cairo where Graham Greene's sister Elizabeth was living (Sykes repeatedly mentions Greene in his biography of Waugh). Meanwhile, after failing to find any position as an intelligence officer in the Middle East, Sykes returned to the UK in May 1943, volunteered for the [[Special Air Service]] (SAS), and was posted to the Commando Training Depot at [[Achnacarry Castle]], Invernesshire on 1 July 1943.
Sykes will be especially remembered for his [[memoir]] of his friend [[Evelyn Waugh]], whom he met after the success of Waugh's ''[[Vile Bodies]]'', 1930. He introduced Waugh, as a matter of course, to [[Lady Diana Cooper]]. Waugh would create one of his great personalities drawn from her characteristics and ways, [[Mrs. Stitch|Julia Stitch]], [[Scoop]] 1938. Sykes praised ''[[Brideshead Revisited|Brideshead]]'', Waugh's Catholic epic (the two were both Catholics, but with the notable difference—mentioned by Waugh's son [[Auberon Waugh|Auberon]] when reviewing Sykes's book in the November 1975 issue of ''Books and Bookmen'' – that whereas Waugh converted to Roman Catholicism in his twenties, Sykes was a cradle Catholic) though admitting to his dislike of the character Julia Flyte, noting that nobody had then yet identified a base identity for her in the contemporary life. Sykes makes some interesting comparisons between scenes in Waugh's books and those of William M Thackeray - the fox hunting scene in a ''Handful of Dust'' is compared to that in ''Barry Lyndon.''▼
As an SAS officer, Sykes, who spoke fluent French but could not pass as a native, undertook extremely hazardous work with the [[French Resistance]]. His experiences in this regard were, like his friendship with Byron, depicted in ''Four Studies in Loyalty'' (dedicated to the town of Vosges), this time in that book's last chapter.<ref name="Kew">See HS 9/1433/9, The National Archives, Kew. This is Sykes' (D/N11) SOE personnel file, which outlines his military career.</ref>
▲Sykes will be especially remembered for his
After 1945 Sykes worked for many years in [[BBC Radio]], where he helped to get Waugh's broadcast on P G Wodehouse, who was captured in Le Touquet by the Germnas, on air, as well as writing for several British and American periodicals, including ''[[The New Republic]]'', ''[[The Spectator]]'', ''Books and Bookmen'', ''[[The Observer]]'' and the short-lived ''English Review Magazine''. He was invested as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]. {{citation needed|date=September 2014}}▼
Sykes is also remembered to a lesser extent, for his history of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]], ''Crossroads to Israel'' (1965). Of his half-dozen novels, none attained great popularity or fame.
In general Sykes was better suited to non-fiction. Other biographies by him included a life of [[Orde Wingate]] (published 1959), which drew attention to Wingate as the possible basis for Waugh's character Brigadier Ritchie-Hook in ''The Sword of Honour'' trilogy. Sometimes Wingate was referred to as "[[Thomas Edward Lawrence|Lawrence]] of Judea" (a phrase that Wingate deplored).
Two subsequent Sykes biographies which achieved substantial renown dealt with, respectively, [[Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor|Lady Astor]] and [[Adam von Trott zu Solz]]. Lady Astor, born in Virginia, was one of the first women to sit in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]]; while Trott zu Solz met a tragic and early death, judicially murdered by the Nazis for having taken part in the failed [[20 July plot|1944 plot]] to assassinate Hitler.
▲After 1945 Sykes worked for many years in [[BBC Radio]], where he helped to get Waugh's broadcast
==Marriage and family==
He married Camilla Georgiana, daughter of Sir [[Thomas Wentworth Russell]] (great-grandson of the
==Bibliography==
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* ''A Song of a Shirt'', a novel (1953)
* "Two Studies in Virtue", two essays (1955)
* ''[[Noblesse Oblige (book)|Noblesse Oblige]]'' (1956), [[Noblesse Oblige (book)#"What U-Future?" by Christopher Sykes|contribution]]
* ''Orde Wingate'', a biography (1959)
* ''Crossroads to Israel'' (1965)
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==Sources==
* ''Dictionary of National Biography''
* [[Artemis Cooper|Cooper, Artemis]], ''Cairo in the War,
==References==
{{reflist|}}
== External links ==
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.sykes|Christopher Sykes Papers]]. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
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[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:Younger sons of baronets]]
[[Category:English biographers]]
[[Category:English journalists]]
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[[Category:People educated at Downside School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of SOAS
[[Category:Special Air Service soldiers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]
[[Category:20th-century British biographers]]
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