Editing Hugh Trevor-Roper (section)

==="Hitler Diaries" hoax===
The [[nadir]] of his career came in 1983, when as a director of ''[[The Times]]'', Trevor-Roper (by now [[Baron Dacre]] of Glanton) made statements that authenticated the so-called [[Hitler Diaries]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Selling Hitler: The Extraordinary Story of the Con Job of the Century – The Faking of the Hitler "Diaries" |last= Harris |first= Robert |publisher= New York: Pantheon |date= 1986 |isbn= 9780394553368 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/sellinghitler00harr }}</ref> Others were unsure: holocaust denier [[David Irving]], for example, initially decried them as forgeries but subsequently changed his mind and declared that they could be genuine, before finally stating that they were a forgery. Historians [[Gerhard Weinberg]] and [[Eberhard Jäckel]] had also expressed doubt regarding the authenticity of the diaries.<ref>Richard J. Evans, ''Telling Lies About Hitler: The Holocaust, History and the David Irving Trial'' (London, 2002), p. 25.</ref>

Within two weeks, forensic scientist [[Julius Grant]] demonstrated that the diaries were forgeries. The ensuing fiasco gave Trevor-Roper's enemies the opportunity to criticise him openly, while Trevor-Roper's initial endorsement of the diaries raised questions about his integrity: ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', a newspaper to which he regularly contributed book reviews and of which he was an independent director, had already paid a considerable sum for the right to serialise the diaries if and only if they were genuine.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Trevor-Roper explained that he had been given assurances (that turned out to be false) about how the diaries had come into the possession of their "discoverer"{{who|date=December 2024}}, and about the age of the paper and ink used in them and of their authenticity. Nonetheless, this incident prompted the satirical magazine ''[[Private Eye]]'' to nickname him "Hugh Very-Ropey", "Lord Lucre of Claptout", or more concisely, "Lord Facre".

Despite the shadow this cast over his later career, he continued to write and publish and his work remained well received.<ref>''Rowse and Trevor-Roper defined'', [[Donald Adamson]], {{cite web|url=http://www.theroselandinstitute.co.uk/html/cornish_banner_publications_14.html|title=The Cornish Banner|date=August 2014|access-date=10 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101141837/http://www.theroselandinstitute.co.uk/html/cornish_banner_publications_14.html|archive-date=1 November 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>