Michael Bloch

For the Queen's Counsel, see Michael Bloch (barrister).

Michael Anthony Bloch (born 24 September 1953) is an author and historian.

Educated at Portadown College and St John's College, Cambridge, he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1978 and in 1979 became an assistant to Maître Suzanne Blum, the Parisian lawyer of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Bloch's books include several about the Duke and Duchess, an authorized biography of James Lees-Milne, a study of the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, and a biography of Frederick Matthias Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique. Bloch was once the lover of Lees-Milne, writing in 2009: "I thought he was quite simply the most wonderful person I had ever met". In a review, it was noted that Bloch in his biography of Lees-Milne had a "laudable objectivity" about him, despite being one of his "most loyal and long-term late-in-life amours".

Books

• Michael Bloch, The Duke of Windsor's War (Weidenfeld, 1982) ISBN 0-297-77947-8
• Michael Bloch, Operation Willi (Weidenfeld, 1984)
  • Wallis and Edward: The Intimate Correspondence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Weidenfeld, 1986) ISBN 0-671-61209-3
• Michael Bloch, The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor (Bantam Press, 1988) ISBN 0-593-01667-X
• Michael Bloch, The Reign and Abdication of Edward VIII (Bantam Press, 1990)
• Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop (Bantam Press, 1992)
• Michael Bloch, The Duchess of Windsor (Weidenfeld, 1996), ISBN 978-0297835905
• Michael Bloch, FM: The Life of Frederick Matthias Alexander, Founder of the Alexander Technique (Little Brown, 2004)
• Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne: The Life (John Murray, 2009) ISBN 978-0719565502
• Michael Bloch, Jeremy Thorpe (Little Brown, 2014)
• Michael Bloch, Closet Queens: Some 20th Century British Politicians (Little Brown, 2015)

Bloch edited the later diaries of James Lees-Milne for publication by John Murray: Deep Romantic Chasm, 1979-81 (2000); Holy Dread, 1982-84 (2001); Beneath a Waning Moon, 1985-97 (2003); Ceaseless Turmoil, 1988-92 (2004); The Milk of Paradise, 1993-97 (2005). He also abridged the original 12-volume series in 3 volumes: Diaries, 1942-54 (2006); Diaries, 1971-83(2007); Diaries, 1984-97 (2008).