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Simon Harcourt Smith
Author of The Last of Uptake or the Estranged Sisters
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- 9
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- 24
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When I saw this book at a used-book store in Kansas, I was not sure whether or not I had ever heard of Alberoni before. It turned out that I had come across Alberoni previously in a biography of the King Philip V - but I'd forgotten all about him. So it goes.
Simon Harcourt-Smith (1906-1982) was an author of popular history and biography who served in the British Foreign Service. "Cardinal of Spain" was published in 1944, which may help to explain some of the looseness and infelicities of its writing. In his preface to the book, Harcourt-Smith expresses regret that, due to the war, he was not able to carry out research on his subject in continental archives. As a result, much of the text seems to be "padded out" with tangential material about other figures from Alberoni's time.… (more)