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The Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking
One day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor-Roper received a curious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalene College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor-Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert Parkin plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest and imposter extraordinaire.
The Professor and the Parson traces the strange career of one of Britain's most eccentric criminals. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters' lied, stole and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York, Singapore and South Africa. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, his trail of destruction included seven marriages (three of which were bigamous), an investigation by the FBI and a disastrous appearance on Mastermind.
Based on Trevor-Roper's own detailed 'file on Peters', The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming account of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction.
The Professor and the Parson traces the strange career of one of Britain's most eccentric criminals. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters' lied, stole and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York, Singapore and South Africa. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, his trail of destruction included seven marriages (three of which were bigamous), an investigation by the FBI and a disastrous appearance on Mastermind.
Based on Trevor-Roper's own detailed 'file on Peters', The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming account of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction.
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First published May 3, 2019
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About the author
Adam Sisman
17 books57 followersAdam Sisman is the author of various biographies, all well received by critics.
His first book, published in 1994, was a life of Trevor-Roper's colleague and rival, A.J.P. Taylor. In 2006, Sisman published a much-admired study of the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge. He has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography/Autobiography
His first book, published in 1994, was a life of Trevor-Roper's colleague and rival, A.J.P. Taylor. In 2006, Sisman published a much-admired study of the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge. He has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography/Autobiography
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
June 9, 2020
This is an absurd tale! Page after page, the deceptions and forgeries of the "Parson" unfold in a mad chase around the globe. I kept thinking, "This has to be the end of it. At some point the author will have to double back, or the tone of the story will change." But no! 200 pages of the same shenanigans: ecclesiastical fraud, falsified credential, pretended or stolen scholarship, posturing, threatened litigations, and flights, over and over. Parson Peters, by whatever alias, never became a sympathetic figure to me; for that matter, neither did his primary nemesis. But there's some raw fascination, and something rather unsettling in this tale.
The book is written as a mix of history and historiography--the author's sources are themselves a significant part of the tale. We wish the miscreant minister had an authoritative biography, and perhaps one day he will. This is not that. But every weakness or disappointment in this book is more than adequately offset by the bizarre nature of its unfolding narrative.
The book is written as a mix of history and historiography--the author's sources are themselves a significant part of the tale. We wish the miscreant minister had an authoritative biography, and perhaps one day he will. This is not that. But every weakness or disappointment in this book is more than adequately offset by the bizarre nature of its unfolding narrative.
October 17, 2019
Confidence tricksters/fraudsters are often fascinating characters and Robert Peters certainly fits the bill. He managed to live a lie for fifty plus years, never seeking financial gain but constantly trying to make himself more successful and powerful than he actually was. This was most obvious in his attempts to trick his way into senior ecclesiastical positions where he obviously delighted in the opportunity to dress up in elaborate vestments. The fact that he was always found out but simply moved on to con his way on to the next job or university course has to be admired. His attitude towards women, less so, especially his seven or eight marriages, several of them bigamous.
It’s a gift for Adam Sisman that Hugh Trevor-Roper and many others were equally fascinated by Peters and kept records of his fraudulent progress which has allowed him to track it in so much detail.
It’s a gift for Adam Sisman that Hugh Trevor-Roper and many others were equally fascinated by Peters and kept records of his fraudulent progress which has allowed him to track it in so much detail.
January 1, 2020
An interesting read on Robert Peters, a man whose whole life was one huge fraud. He had numerous wives (a few at the same time) and constantly misrepresented himself by falsifying his credentials and degrees earned to obtain positions in religious academia. Invariably the truth would catch up with him, once landing him in jail and several times causing him to be deported from the USA. Generally, when the truth would close in on him he would just pick-up and leave, either to another part of the UK or to an entirely different country.
Author Adam Sisman summed Peters up as a textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder.
Unfortunately for American Evangelicalism, I have noted Peters traits, in varying degrees, in many of the religious Evangelical pastors I have blogged about.
I first heard of this book when Carl Trueman recommended it on his podcast "Mortification of Spin." I recommend it for all Christians. It may help remove the blinders regarding some of our "Celebrity Christian leaders" whom far to many think can do no wrong.
"These questions culminated with the one he considered most significant: 'why on earth did he do it?' Had Gibson poured an equivalent amount of energy and ingenuity into legitimate pursuits, he would surely have achieved much. As with Gibson, so with Backhouse: the question was unanswerable in rational terms. 'You ask how many such characters there are,' he continued. 'I believe that they are legion.'"
Page 143
"On the contrary, it seems clear that what Peters wanted most was not money but status. He sought the outward signs of this, as a minister of religion or a doctor of philosophy, in order to obtain respect, admiration, or even, one could say, adulation, from his flock, no matter how small in numbers they might be. He demanded submission from his devotees, and was suspicious of the least sign of independence."
Page 201
"It seems that, for him, other people existed merely to serve his needs. He did not recognize forgery as criminal or plagiarism as theft."
Page 203
Author Adam Sisman summed Peters up as a textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder.
Unfortunately for American Evangelicalism, I have noted Peters traits, in varying degrees, in many of the religious Evangelical pastors I have blogged about.
I first heard of this book when Carl Trueman recommended it on his podcast "Mortification of Spin." I recommend it for all Christians. It may help remove the blinders regarding some of our "Celebrity Christian leaders" whom far to many think can do no wrong.
"These questions culminated with the one he considered most significant: 'why on earth did he do it?' Had Gibson poured an equivalent amount of energy and ingenuity into legitimate pursuits, he would surely have achieved much. As with Gibson, so with Backhouse: the question was unanswerable in rational terms. 'You ask how many such characters there are,' he continued. 'I believe that they are legion.'"
Page 143
"On the contrary, it seems clear that what Peters wanted most was not money but status. He sought the outward signs of this, as a minister of religion or a doctor of philosophy, in order to obtain respect, admiration, or even, one could say, adulation, from his flock, no matter how small in numbers they might be. He demanded submission from his devotees, and was suspicious of the least sign of independence."
Page 201
"It seems that, for him, other people existed merely to serve his needs. He did not recognize forgery as criminal or plagiarism as theft."
Page 203
August 31, 2023
The extraordinary tale of an unfrocked cleric who was a serial con man, bigamist and fantasist. His motives were not financial, and – despite his unprepossessing appearance – he seems to have wormed his way into the loyalty and affections of at least eight “wives” – at least for as long as each thought she was his only spouse. At the end of the book there is a chapter which shows how Peters’s actions fit a particular variety of narcissistic personality disorder. This to me was entirely convincing.
The author was also the official biographer of Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, whose path crossed with Peters’s a couple of times, and who was fascinated by him and kept a dossier on him. And this itself is a curiosity, because Trevor-Roper starts off in a position of strength, as a distinguished academic keeping tabs on an unpleasant fraud, only to end up with his own reputation trashed for being taken in by the obviously fake “Hitler Diaries.” And, of course, Trevor-Roper was one of the those waspish dons who was utterly hated by almost all of his fellow academics. One senses Trevor-Roper’s discomfort and loss of interest in Peters: there is no fun in exposing a hateful fake when lots of your colleagues think – with some justification - that is what you are yourself.
This may all be a fascinating tale but it is not a very edifying one – for all concerned – and one is left with a certain distaste and sense of sadness, though for all the people Peters duped rather than for the man himself. For, despite the fact that he was essentially mentally ill, I found it impossible to summon up any sympathy for him at all, and it is a mystery to me how anyone could have ever been taken in by him.
The author was also the official biographer of Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, whose path crossed with Peters’s a couple of times, and who was fascinated by him and kept a dossier on him. And this itself is a curiosity, because Trevor-Roper starts off in a position of strength, as a distinguished academic keeping tabs on an unpleasant fraud, only to end up with his own reputation trashed for being taken in by the obviously fake “Hitler Diaries.” And, of course, Trevor-Roper was one of the those waspish dons who was utterly hated by almost all of his fellow academics. One senses Trevor-Roper’s discomfort and loss of interest in Peters: there is no fun in exposing a hateful fake when lots of your colleagues think – with some justification - that is what you are yourself.
This may all be a fascinating tale but it is not a very edifying one – for all concerned – and one is left with a certain distaste and sense of sadness, though for all the people Peters duped rather than for the man himself. For, despite the fact that he was essentially mentally ill, I found it impossible to summon up any sympathy for him at all, and it is a mystery to me how anyone could have ever been taken in by him.
January 23, 2020
This is a deeply weird story, but a very engaging book. The events related therein boggle belief, and yet I absolutely believe that this sort of thing can happen anywhere. It is hard to describe this book, and I don't think the tagline does it any favours - the defrocking isn't really that scandalous, and desire is by no means the main motive. But as a look into academia, and how the system can go wrong, it is interesting, and as an account of a person who keeps making bigger and bigger gambles, knowing he must fail, and yet continuing on and on, it is a fascinating way to spend an afternoon.
August 4, 2020
A brilliant story, but unconvincingly told. What could have been a labyrinth of lies and deceit unraveled instead became a list of: 'who, what where, when.' The details were all there, but the heart of the story wasn't. Nonetheless, the subject matter would be perfect for a Hollywood adaptation someday, preferably with the combined talents of Bill Nighy as Trevor-Roper and Timothy Spall as Peters. But then again, that might just be wishful thinking....
May 11, 2020
I really enjoyed reading this book,and it only took me 2 days. Because,I just could not put it down once I started. I just could not believe how Professor Parsons just never gave up his quest for "status",no matter how many times his cover was blown. All I could say was..Wow, he really did not stop trying all the way up until he breathed his final breath.
June 27, 2020
This high-spirited, over-the-top funny account of a charlatan never flags. The priest (1918-2005) (unfrocked in 1955, but that never stopped him) is failed theological PhD aspirant Robert Peters; the professor is Hugh Trevor-Roper (1914-2003), the distinguished author of The Last Days of Hitler. After Peters with a concocted hard-luck story applied in 1958 to Trevor-Roper for assistance, the Regius professor rapidly saw through the sham yet became fascinated by the supplicant’s outrageousness and skill, and the doggedness with which he sought academic and ecclesiastical appointments.
Peters’s cons are dizzyingly outrageous and extreme—multiple instances of plagiarism, brash lies, bigamous marriages, and blustering absurdities. That Peters succeeded as often as he did damns academe in England, Canada, the US, and Australia. Yet as Trevor-Roper, who kept notes and records of Peters’s activities up to 1983, notes, many of Peters’s ineptnesses are no worse than what passes for standard fare in universities at conferences, seminars, talks, and lectures. On the other hand, he was found out.
The last pages of the book offer an explanation of Peters as a classic “narcissistic personality.” (The list of personality characteristics will remind a reader of today’s narcissist-in-chief.) If I have any gripe about this racy, riotous romp, which I thoroughly enjoyed, it is that I would like to have seen some further penetration into mindset. There was an opportunity for Sisman to have done such probing. Hugh Trevor-Roper follows Peters’s career with almost obsessive closeness, suggesting both an attraction and a revulsion toward Peters. Are the wellsprings of the two men in some way identical? What made one become a respected historian and the other a flimflam man?
Maybe motivation can never be satisfactorily answered. The Professor and the Parson took me on such a giddy ride and had me laughing so often that not until I finished the book did such questions come to mind.
Peters’s cons are dizzyingly outrageous and extreme—multiple instances of plagiarism, brash lies, bigamous marriages, and blustering absurdities. That Peters succeeded as often as he did damns academe in England, Canada, the US, and Australia. Yet as Trevor-Roper, who kept notes and records of Peters’s activities up to 1983, notes, many of Peters’s ineptnesses are no worse than what passes for standard fare in universities at conferences, seminars, talks, and lectures. On the other hand, he was found out.
The last pages of the book offer an explanation of Peters as a classic “narcissistic personality.” (The list of personality characteristics will remind a reader of today’s narcissist-in-chief.) If I have any gripe about this racy, riotous romp, which I thoroughly enjoyed, it is that I would like to have seen some further penetration into mindset. There was an opportunity for Sisman to have done such probing. Hugh Trevor-Roper follows Peters’s career with almost obsessive closeness, suggesting both an attraction and a revulsion toward Peters. Are the wellsprings of the two men in some way identical? What made one become a respected historian and the other a flimflam man?
Maybe motivation can never be satisfactorily answered. The Professor and the Parson took me on such a giddy ride and had me laughing so often that not until I finished the book did such questions come to mind.
April 13, 2021
This book had some rather lukewarm reviews when it appeared, but I enjoyed it very much. Hugh Trevor-Roper maintained a file on Robert Peters or Parkins as he surfaced over the years trying to obtain academic posts and other jobs, and the author has used the dossier as a basis for further investigation. Peters was a serial liar, a fantasist who claimed any number of academic qualifications which he did not have and was often successful in obtaining posts on the back of them. He married bigamously several times. He was genuinely ordained as an Anglican deacon and priest but was unfrocked early on (although he sneaked back into a number of clerical positions too). He forged references, possibly stole research, and committed fraud. Oxford and Cambridge Universities in particular attract this sort of thing (I'll never forget the first time I met someone claiming to be an Oxford graduate who had clearly never been near the place!) and the Church of England also has, or had, murky corners in which it was possible to hide and conceal a dodgy past. Oh joy, this one even went to ground at St. Deiniol's Library, where I lived for a year - and his later attempts at setting up his own "colleges" sound as if they were inspired partly by that institution. Lots of unanswered questions remain, but the main lesson perhaps is that of credulity. We do tend to believe people when they say they were at a certain university or have held certain positions. Great fun.
February 18, 2020
I couldn't get into this book. The writing style is horrendous. It's really too bad as it sure sounded intriguing. I only lasted a few pages with it, and then quit.
February 24, 2020
More a sad commentary on the state of higher education than a "thriller."
March 7, 2020
Detailed recap of a long-running con by fake academic/fake priest/bigamist/book stealer [he accumulated an impressive library by acquiring books on credit and then skipping town without paying the bills -- i wonder if barnes and noble would tempt fate by extending "credit" in that manner].
Author ends up concluding he was a narcissist, but I'd throw in a side of sociopath -- the 8 wives despite never really getting anywhere in his academic life and having to move a million times to stay ahead of people's finding out he was not really a priest or what have you are telling. Said to have been a dumpy-looking guy [the 1950's black and white photos inconclusive to me on that score, but at minimum he was no young Paul Newman or anything] and yet in stop after stop quickly able to attract devoted attention of younger women. Must have had the "superficial charm" Cleckley thought was a core psychopathic feature. And for sure the lack of conscience.
The rageful indignation when he'd be caught out is certainly consistent with narcissism.
Anyway, diagnosis aside, it's a page-turner, and if you pay close attention you can find info on almost any university you know. He starts with Oxford but truly gets around. My own employer came within a hair of hiring him in the late 1960's until reference check imploded his candidacy. good lesson in always checking references before sealing the deal, as apparently in-person interviewers he was always able to con.
The "professor" part of it was sort of boring to me -- it's just Hugh Trevor-Roper, famous [i.e., even i have heard of him, and i don't read a lot of academic history] British historian, becoming aware of this guy early on and developing an obsessive interest, compiling a "dossier" about his cons over decades. He warned some people off the "reverend doctor....." but otherwise didn't really get involved, only met him once, and doesn't have a lot to do with the underlying story. Author of this book wrote a bio of Trevor-Roper, and as far as I can tell that connection is only reason to make T-R so prominent in this account. He functions, IMO, as an unnecessary mediator between story of the con artist and the reader.
Finally, I could have used a bit more analysis of whether this would be universal, or if there's something about the realms in which this guy traveled that made it feasible for him to get so many jobs. To be sure, he lost them fast too, and when push would come to shove at least some people upheld standards [e.g., he flunked orals in one of many efforts at securing a legit PhD], and other groups of students mutinied at his content-free BS lectures. But getting in the door in the first place seemed endlessly doable based on his interview blarney alone. I wonder if that would work now, or would have worked back in the 50's/60's had he been claiming, for instance, engineering expertise rather than history.
I didn't approach it this way, but if you do read it and want to follow the twists and turns, the timeline in back is essential. Otherwise, the details and chronology sort of wash over you as the con drifts from place to place, starts new schools, and so on.
Author ends up concluding he was a narcissist, but I'd throw in a side of sociopath -- the 8 wives despite never really getting anywhere in his academic life and having to move a million times to stay ahead of people's finding out he was not really a priest or what have you are telling. Said to have been a dumpy-looking guy [the 1950's black and white photos inconclusive to me on that score, but at minimum he was no young Paul Newman or anything] and yet in stop after stop quickly able to attract devoted attention of younger women. Must have had the "superficial charm" Cleckley thought was a core psychopathic feature. And for sure the lack of conscience.
The rageful indignation when he'd be caught out is certainly consistent with narcissism.
Anyway, diagnosis aside, it's a page-turner, and if you pay close attention you can find info on almost any university you know. He starts with Oxford but truly gets around. My own employer came within a hair of hiring him in the late 1960's until reference check imploded his candidacy. good lesson in always checking references before sealing the deal, as apparently in-person interviewers he was always able to con.
The "professor" part of it was sort of boring to me -- it's just Hugh Trevor-Roper, famous [i.e., even i have heard of him, and i don't read a lot of academic history] British historian, becoming aware of this guy early on and developing an obsessive interest, compiling a "dossier" about his cons over decades. He warned some people off the "reverend doctor....." but otherwise didn't really get involved, only met him once, and doesn't have a lot to do with the underlying story. Author of this book wrote a bio of Trevor-Roper, and as far as I can tell that connection is only reason to make T-R so prominent in this account. He functions, IMO, as an unnecessary mediator between story of the con artist and the reader.
Finally, I could have used a bit more analysis of whether this would be universal, or if there's something about the realms in which this guy traveled that made it feasible for him to get so many jobs. To be sure, he lost them fast too, and when push would come to shove at least some people upheld standards [e.g., he flunked orals in one of many efforts at securing a legit PhD], and other groups of students mutinied at his content-free BS lectures. But getting in the door in the first place seemed endlessly doable based on his interview blarney alone. I wonder if that would work now, or would have worked back in the 50's/60's had he been claiming, for instance, engineering expertise rather than history.
I didn't approach it this way, but if you do read it and want to follow the twists and turns, the timeline in back is essential. Otherwise, the details and chronology sort of wash over you as the con drifts from place to place, starts new schools, and so on.
May 15, 2019
For those of us who are shame-faced and rather inadequate liars, it's rather fun to meet someone who is utterly unabashed in claiming degrees and references he never had, ecclesiastical patrons who had never heard of him (or even worse, had) and wives, possibly eight, when he had the small inconvenience of an existing marriage. The story of Robert Peters is that of a con man not out for money but status to which he felt entitled - hard not to see him as a narcissistic fantastist, forever spluttering outrage when his credentials were questioned. This tale intersects with that of Prof Hugh Trevor-Roper, who was fascinated by the sheer gall of Peters and who really quite relished the embarrassment this could dish out to academic institutions all over the world. Or the church - not that Peters confined himself to one. As his credit ran out in Anglicanism, he assayed the Old Catholics, Roman Catholicism and the Old Polish Catholics, plus ecumenical and charismatic colleges. And he was irrepressible. Every time he was found out, he bolted and set up somewhere else. Fun and astonishing.
December 13, 2021
I was intrigued by a review of this book in the NYT so I checked it out from the library. It ended up being much more academic than I expected. If I'd gone into it with that mindset I think I would have enjoyed it more, but since I was expecting more of a "madcap romp" sort of thing I ended up being disappointed. It's well done for what it is, but not at all what I was expecting. It is remarkable/pathetic (yes, both) that Peters managed to defraud so many smart people, but I also think this book shows that there's some truth behind the stereotype of absent-minded (or perhaps self-absorbed is a better term) professors.
September 22, 2019
Excellent portrayal of a bigamist and fantasist. Peters duped initially the likes of Hugh Trevor-Roper who should have done more to halt his academic career earlier. Instead academics seemed reluctant to act. Part of problem was due to Church who would not allow access to Lambeth Palace files and who still choose to 'forget' reported abuse and misdemeanours.
March 2, 2025
Didn't finish. Boring. There is a chronology at the end of the book. The book was, more or less, a reading of the chronology but not is organized. I stuck it out to about 40% and gave up.
Read
January 7, 2025This book highlights people can lie about anything and with enough brashness, self-belief and aggressive defense, it is possible to mostly get away with it. This is a sad tale of a man determined to get the recognition he believed he deserved not by pursuing legitimate channels but by deception. The fact that he was repeatedly lecherous with women and a bigamist is depressing. Why were so many people taken in by him?
August 26, 2025
This book does not exhibit most of the characteristics of a four star publication, but it does have one that earns the rating: it maintained my interest. There is no action to speak of. It is rather redundant in telling the story of Robert Parkins Peters, and yet intriguing enough to make one wonder what's coming next. The book is not without subtle humor which adds spice to the reading.
Four stars waning
Four stars waning
January 16, 2024
Highly entertaining, though the balance skews far more Parson than Professor, possibly bc Sisman has also written a full-blown biography of Hugh Trevor-Roper--which I'm keen to read next.
March 23, 2020
While reading, I kept thinking I had heard this story before. How a man could weave such a huge web of deceit without getting caught earlier is almost too much to believe.
March 24, 2020
This slim volume was born almost as an afterthought to the author's biography of the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (the "professor" of the title), and much of the material presented here came originally from HTR's own file on Robert Parkin Peters. What a character! This man, ordained somewhere in the 1940s, and subsequently defrocked, spent a half-century ping-ponging from church to church, from college to college, from university to university. He seems to have been driven by an inexplicable desire to pass himself off as an intellectual, a scholar, and was indefatigable in applying for academic and clerical jobs with false degrees and faked letters of recommendation. By sheer dint of persistence, he did manage to get a couple of posts as chaplain or lecturer, but usually not for long. Either his incompetence got him fired or his inappropriate behavior towards women students did. He also tried to be accepted as a student at various institutes of higher education, especially the more prestigious ones. Towards the end of his life, after having been deported from the US and most of the countries in the Commonwealth, he started his own (unaccredited) school of theology in a country farmhouse in England. There, he seems to have realized some of his dream of being the Intellectual-In-Chief and ruler of a small scholarly fiefdom. Along the way, he
I found the book interesting for several reasons. First of all, I had no idea how many universities and colleges and theological seminaries and the like existed ! It was just fascinating to see how energetically this unprepossessing little parson continued to pursue a career in academia, despite being known all over the English-speaking world. That brings me to the second reason why I enjoyed the book : it was interesting to see how the various academic leaders tried to warn each other about this roving wanna-be scholar. But since this was done by letter, in those days, the warnings often came too late. One or two misguided souls did try to help Robert Peters get an advanced degree, or support him in trying to get a minor academic post, but they were soon disillusioned.
The third reason why I liked the book is that HTR had an acerbic wit, and some of the extracts of his letters are fun to read. It's interesting to speculate what HTR might have come up with, had he been able to write his projected book on Robert Parkin Peters. The truth is probably, that after HTR had become embroiled in the case of the fake Hitler diaries, he was in no position to write a book about an impostor and con man.
Finally, Robert Parkin Peters remains a mystery, and it's not clear what drove him. Most of his deceptions and fraud were of the academic and amorous kind. Between his faked degrees and his numerous wives, not a few of whom were married bigamously, he seems to have created a bizarre world of his own, one where the academic world never gave him his due, where his true worth was never recognized. He did run out on a couple of bills, typically for books, but his primary goal seems to have been to pass himself off as an academic and/or a priest.
This is not a true crime book, as we tend to think of them. Nor is it a psychological character study. It's more like a bemused retracing of a strange character's wanderings in the academic world, from Oxford to Ontario, from Nigeria to Australia.
I found the book interesting for several reasons. First of all, I had no idea how many universities and colleges and theological seminaries and the like existed ! It was just fascinating to see how energetically this unprepossessing little parson continued to pursue a career in academia, despite being known all over the English-speaking world. That brings me to the second reason why I enjoyed the book : it was interesting to see how the various academic leaders tried to warn each other about this roving wanna-be scholar. But since this was done by letter, in those days, the warnings often came too late. One or two misguided souls did try to help Robert Peters get an advanced degree, or support him in trying to get a minor academic post, but they were soon disillusioned.
The third reason why I liked the book is that HTR had an acerbic wit, and some of the extracts of his letters are fun to read. It's interesting to speculate what HTR might have come up with, had he been able to write his projected book on Robert Parkin Peters. The truth is probably, that after HTR had become embroiled in the case of the fake Hitler diaries, he was in no position to write a book about an impostor and con man.
Finally, Robert Parkin Peters remains a mystery, and it's not clear what drove him. Most of his deceptions and fraud were of the academic and amorous kind. Between his faked degrees and his numerous wives, not a few of whom were married bigamously, he seems to have created a bizarre world of his own, one where the academic world never gave him his due, where his true worth was never recognized. He did run out on a couple of bills, typically for books, but his primary goal seems to have been to pass himself off as an academic and/or a priest.
This is not a true crime book, as we tend to think of them. Nor is it a psychological character study. It's more like a bemused retracing of a strange character's wanderings in the academic world, from Oxford to Ontario, from Nigeria to Australia.
February 16, 2020
I’ve been on a streak of books that don’t really hook me until around page 100, and this was no exception. Starts off a bit slowly, but becomes an amusing read with some surprising cameos from church historians of note (including one that I *really* wasn’t expecting, an old Yale professor of mine...).
In short, it’s the story of a sad and really quite terrible fellow who literally made a career out of tricking his way into a series of academic and ecclesiastical posts. It wouldn’t have been quite so amusing, I’m sure, if not for the deadpan storytelling, including that of historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (the author’s original research subject). A couple quotes that made me laugh out loud:
After running up a shocking bill at a Cambridge bookshop: “Some years later [...] Peters found himself seated next to the manager of Bowes and Bowes, who had not forgotten the gigantic bill. Peters extracted himself from this difficulty with a plea of non compos mentis, arguing that no sane person would have run up such an account.”
Trevor-Roper: “Could we not let [Peters] nestle for a time in some cosy clerical chair—not at Oxford, of course [...] but in some solemn, high-minded institution whose subsequent loss of face we can bear with equanimity? I have no doubt that he will give lectures which will be no less stimulating, and perhaps no more erroneous, than many you and I have heard and safely forgotten [...] Altogether, the appointment will add to the gaiety of nations, and who will suffer?”
In short, it’s the story of a sad and really quite terrible fellow who literally made a career out of tricking his way into a series of academic and ecclesiastical posts. It wouldn’t have been quite so amusing, I’m sure, if not for the deadpan storytelling, including that of historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (the author’s original research subject). A couple quotes that made me laugh out loud:
After running up a shocking bill at a Cambridge bookshop: “Some years later [...] Peters found himself seated next to the manager of Bowes and Bowes, who had not forgotten the gigantic bill. Peters extracted himself from this difficulty with a plea of non compos mentis, arguing that no sane person would have run up such an account.”
Trevor-Roper: “Could we not let [Peters] nestle for a time in some cosy clerical chair—not at Oxford, of course [...] but in some solemn, high-minded institution whose subsequent loss of face we can bear with equanimity? I have no doubt that he will give lectures which will be no less stimulating, and perhaps no more erroneous, than many you and I have heard and safely forgotten [...] Altogether, the appointment will add to the gaiety of nations, and who will suffer?”
May 29, 2020
This is a book by an academic biographer, who -- upon writing the biography of a certain Trevor-Roper -- found a treasure trove of notes outlining the career of a flim-flam man who evaded any serious jail time or consequences for a life of living on the edges of higher education and religious institutions. Via forgery of various letters of recommendation, lying about his qualifications, and a sense of entitlement marked by narcissistic outbursts of indignation when questioned, Peters managed over 60 years to continue to gain employment as a chaplain, teacher, and editor of academic works.
The book's title is one of two questionable elements about the book, which is otherwise a dignified tome of research which does bring some life to bring its subject(s) -- as both the con man known as Robert Parkins Peters and the previously mentioned Trevor-Roper feature in the book.
Robert Peters, known by various related aliases, has his career illumined in a long and linear recounting based mainly on the notes from Trevor-Roper which the author has filled in with newspaper articles and some notes from Trevor-Roper's colleagues who were also beguiled and befuddled by Peters consistently turning back up in academic circles. Trevor-Roper appears as the main source of the story, and provides some of the human interest as we see Peters career through his eyes. The title promises "a story of desire, deceit and defrocking" which implies some sort of build up and climax of the con-man's life, but instead the defrocking happens early on and the real story is that Peters continued his behaviors for his entire life, ceasing only after he finally passed.
Peters' behaviors showed a long pattern of lying about his credentials, seeking attention and position in academic and church positions including teaching, editing, and serving as a chaplain - which he continued to do even after defrocked. He generally would steal various stationary, forge letters of recommendation and claim degrees and affiliations he never had. During all this time, he was banned from teaching at girl's schools, and eventually was charged and tried for bigamy and found guilty. Despite this he continued to get married, legally and illegally, and generally used his wives (and sometimes his students) as free labor.
One thing of interest to me that was NOT well covered in the book was that abuse of women. It seemed an aside to the author, as well as to Trevor-Roper, who were fascinated by and beguiled by Peters' consistent and indefatigable career as a con-man, and seemed to see the abuse of his wives and female students merely as just another sign of his criminal character, but I wonder. Perhaps it was even his central motivation.
The lack of importance the author places on this abuse is systematic to the book. In one account, Peters is said to have abandoned one of his victims, a wife in a bigamist marriage, on a train. WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? The fate of wives is often unknown or dismissed with a sentence or two. In a career that latest from the 50s to early part of this century, including several wives and innumerable female students as well as secretaries and other clerical workers in churches and schools, how many women did he abuse and what was the affect of his actions on their lives? Near the end, where more sources were readily found, Sisman does include the words of some of the female students in his colleges who were subject to his advances - so the voices of the victims are not fully lost, yet definitely muted and buried.
Besides the misleading title, and yes -- I did pick it up because I thought it would be a good "true crime" read with some intersection with history as well, two of my favorite things -- comes the questionable conclusions at the end. Yes, I do agree that likely Peters was a narcissistic personality, I don't question that at all - but he also has a hard time believing that Peters had no religious conviction at all, stating, "... it is hard to believe that a lifetime of religious observance was only for show." I wonder why that is so hard to believe. I don't find it hard to believe at all.
As far as his motives, which did not generally include greed -- the pay in this field is not that great -- the obvious includes the drive for control, power, and ego. And as to why choose the academic and religious world for his playground of crime - because he could. Over and over and over again he succeeded. Without a trace of an self-consciousness of the reason this conman could fester in those overlapping worlds (likely the author's world), Sisman still manages to demonstrated this in his scholarly and well laid out work. Although I didn't get the thrills the title misleadingly promised, I did get a well written account of the life and cons of Peters. Although lacking in any analysis of the abuse of women, and somewhat seemingly blind to the many faults in the academic/religious community that allowed this criminal to flourish, it was actually a clearly written, well documented, and fairly interesting biographical type of work.
If you like nicely written and well documented pieces of scholarship and are curious about the career of Robert Peters Parkins or Robert Parkins Peters - or whatever alias he was using at the time -- you may enjoy this book. I am left with one other question - did the reviewer on the book jacket who promised me "an utterly mad delightful story of chicanery and fantasy" actually read the book, or was he merely revelled with the best bits of it over let's say -- (in my imaginary British drawing room) -- brandy and cigars? I'm guessing the later.
Overall, I liked it, I didn't love it. I did learn who Trevor-Roper was, which I didn't know when I picked up the book, and now I know a bit more about another example of a sociopathic narcissist who preyed on women - unfortunately I know of too many more examples in real life to really need more illustrations, and yet - it was a book about true crime and about history in a way, that although it left something to be desired, at least had some well written prose, nicely organized timelines, and a little peak into the character of Trevor-Roper as well as into Peters career.
It would be great if someone wrote another book about Peters, with more information on his childhood (apparently the only source for it was Peters himself who cannot be trusted) and include some delving into his crimes against women which would make this a fuller picture, along with some analysis of why and how this particular part of the world - academia/religion - was so vulnerable to his 60 year flim-flam career.
The book's title is one of two questionable elements about the book, which is otherwise a dignified tome of research which does bring some life to bring its subject(s) -- as both the con man known as Robert Parkins Peters and the previously mentioned Trevor-Roper feature in the book.
Robert Peters, known by various related aliases, has his career illumined in a long and linear recounting based mainly on the notes from Trevor-Roper which the author has filled in with newspaper articles and some notes from Trevor-Roper's colleagues who were also beguiled and befuddled by Peters consistently turning back up in academic circles. Trevor-Roper appears as the main source of the story, and provides some of the human interest as we see Peters career through his eyes. The title promises "a story of desire, deceit and defrocking" which implies some sort of build up and climax of the con-man's life, but instead the defrocking happens early on and the real story is that Peters continued his behaviors for his entire life, ceasing only after he finally passed.
Peters' behaviors showed a long pattern of lying about his credentials, seeking attention and position in academic and church positions including teaching, editing, and serving as a chaplain - which he continued to do even after defrocked. He generally would steal various stationary, forge letters of recommendation and claim degrees and affiliations he never had. During all this time, he was banned from teaching at girl's schools, and eventually was charged and tried for bigamy and found guilty. Despite this he continued to get married, legally and illegally, and generally used his wives (and sometimes his students) as free labor.
One thing of interest to me that was NOT well covered in the book was that abuse of women. It seemed an aside to the author, as well as to Trevor-Roper, who were fascinated by and beguiled by Peters' consistent and indefatigable career as a con-man, and seemed to see the abuse of his wives and female students merely as just another sign of his criminal character, but I wonder. Perhaps it was even his central motivation.
The lack of importance the author places on this abuse is systematic to the book. In one account, Peters is said to have abandoned one of his victims, a wife in a bigamist marriage, on a train. WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? The fate of wives is often unknown or dismissed with a sentence or two. In a career that latest from the 50s to early part of this century, including several wives and innumerable female students as well as secretaries and other clerical workers in churches and schools, how many women did he abuse and what was the affect of his actions on their lives? Near the end, where more sources were readily found, Sisman does include the words of some of the female students in his colleges who were subject to his advances - so the voices of the victims are not fully lost, yet definitely muted and buried.
Besides the misleading title, and yes -- I did pick it up because I thought it would be a good "true crime" read with some intersection with history as well, two of my favorite things -- comes the questionable conclusions at the end. Yes, I do agree that likely Peters was a narcissistic personality, I don't question that at all - but he also has a hard time believing that Peters had no religious conviction at all, stating, "... it is hard to believe that a lifetime of religious observance was only for show." I wonder why that is so hard to believe. I don't find it hard to believe at all.
As far as his motives, which did not generally include greed -- the pay in this field is not that great -- the obvious includes the drive for control, power, and ego. And as to why choose the academic and religious world for his playground of crime - because he could. Over and over and over again he succeeded. Without a trace of an self-consciousness of the reason this conman could fester in those overlapping worlds (likely the author's world), Sisman still manages to demonstrated this in his scholarly and well laid out work. Although I didn't get the thrills the title misleadingly promised, I did get a well written account of the life and cons of Peters. Although lacking in any analysis of the abuse of women, and somewhat seemingly blind to the many faults in the academic/religious community that allowed this criminal to flourish, it was actually a clearly written, well documented, and fairly interesting biographical type of work.
If you like nicely written and well documented pieces of scholarship and are curious about the career of Robert Peters Parkins or Robert Parkins Peters - or whatever alias he was using at the time -- you may enjoy this book. I am left with one other question - did the reviewer on the book jacket who promised me "an utterly mad delightful story of chicanery and fantasy" actually read the book, or was he merely revelled with the best bits of it over let's say -- (in my imaginary British drawing room) -- brandy and cigars? I'm guessing the later.
Overall, I liked it, I didn't love it. I did learn who Trevor-Roper was, which I didn't know when I picked up the book, and now I know a bit more about another example of a sociopathic narcissist who preyed on women - unfortunately I know of too many more examples in real life to really need more illustrations, and yet - it was a book about true crime and about history in a way, that although it left something to be desired, at least had some well written prose, nicely organized timelines, and a little peak into the character of Trevor-Roper as well as into Peters career.
It would be great if someone wrote another book about Peters, with more information on his childhood (apparently the only source for it was Peters himself who cannot be trusted) and include some delving into his crimes against women which would make this a fuller picture, along with some analysis of why and how this particular part of the world - academia/religion - was so vulnerable to his 60 year flim-flam career.
April 14, 2020
Robert Peters was a serial con artist, obsessed with ecclesiastical status and academic reputation, whose falsified CV and fabricated life history (in its shifting manifestations) earned him positions in a bewildering series of institutions. He even founded two theological colleges and appeared in several academic journals. Here, Adam Sisman draws together the evidence of private dossiers held by several concerned individuals, foremost among them being the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. The whole story is absurd, and the number of individuals who either believed him or almost fell for his story is baffling. Sisman's aim is not to provide a psychological study or a cautionary tale, but merely to entertain with the story's eccentricities, and in that he's successful. Or, I suppose Parson Peters was successful, and Sisman just shows us how much he got away with, and how bold he was in unsuccessfully attempting much more.
February 2, 2021
I read the dead-tree version from my library, so I do not show up as a purchaser.
The "parson" was a grifter, bigamist, married 4 times, defrocked as an Anglican clergyman but kept showing up around the world giving sermons and getting jobs in academia by claiming degrees from various Oxford colleges or Univ. of London, all of them nonexistant.
The book was written only because Hugh Trevor-Roper, the celebrated professor of history at Oxford and Cambridge, realized the "parson" was a fraud and kept a file on him, which Sisman used for this book. Mr. Sisman might have mentioned another fraud which Trevor-Roper swallowed hook, line, and sinker, the "Hitler Diaries," which he authenticated, a pronouncement that lasted all of two weeks before others proved them a hoax. I rarely fail to finish a book, but this one was a snoozer.
The "parson" was a grifter, bigamist, married 4 times, defrocked as an Anglican clergyman but kept showing up around the world giving sermons and getting jobs in academia by claiming degrees from various Oxford colleges or Univ. of London, all of them nonexistant.
The book was written only because Hugh Trevor-Roper, the celebrated professor of history at Oxford and Cambridge, realized the "parson" was a fraud and kept a file on him, which Sisman used for this book. Mr. Sisman might have mentioned another fraud which Trevor-Roper swallowed hook, line, and sinker, the "Hitler Diaries," which he authenticated, a pronouncement that lasted all of two weeks before others proved them a hoax. I rarely fail to finish a book, but this one was a snoozer.
April 27, 2020
Hugh Trevor Roper used to live nearby, at a time when his reputation as an academic and historian of WW2 was ruined by his endorsement of the bogus Hitler diaries, which I think is why I bought the book. This is an account of an odd character he came across - and in this case he wasn't deceived: a real life man who was a plagiarist, bigamist, imposter and de-frocked priest. Interesting, but not exactly a page turner.
May 26, 2021
This was entertaining, especially to someone like me who's very familiar with both the academy and the church. Robert Peters is an academic/clerical version of the character played by Leonardo diCaprio in "Catch Me If You Can," or Geoffrey Wolff's father in "The Duke of Deception." The catalog of his lies and impostures is dazzling, if repetitive. Reading the narrative became boring at times because of this repetition, but Sisman's dry humor helps keep it going.
November 28, 2019
Intriguing read, and it makes me wonder how the fake university lecturer/professor managed to get away with so much for most of his life.
February 25, 2020
What fun! What a character! Great read!
March 15, 2020
The fascinating true story of a remakably successful con man who managed to perpetrate frauds in academia for decades.
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