Debrett’s is, and has been from time immemorial (it was founded in 1769), part of the library furniture. Reviewing it is done against a background of familiarity bordering on reverence; it is hard to see it with fresh eyes and an open mind. “How DARE one presume to criticise!” But in iconoclastic mood and at the risk of causing apoplexy in the stately homes and in the hundred or so gentlemen’s clubs listed on page 28, let me opine that the book is too damn heavy, its paper ridiculously thin, its page layout execrable, and its contents confusing! I suspect, like other icons of the reference world, Britannica and the OED perhaps, people ‐ including librarians ‐ overplay their importance: lesser fare might be perfectly adequate and probably easier to understand. So what, exactly, is it that I shell out £250 or so every five years for?
Surprisingly, it is only a brief snippet on the cover blurb that bothers to tell me what this three thousand page leviathan covers: “Now published every five years, Debrett’s gives a definitive guide to the United Kingdom’s titled families, and with this edition, a complete picture of the aristocracy at the very end of the twentieth century”. Since the last edition there have been 109 deaths of hereditary peers (of which 13 titles have become dormant or extinct), and 78 of life peers. One hereditary peerage has gone into abeyance, but two have come out of abeyance. Of the Baronetage, 140 deaths are recorded (excluding peers who also hold baronetcies) and of these 19 have become dormant or extinct.
The book is divided into three separately paginated parts: prefatory matter and the Royal Family; The Peerage; and The Baronetage. The prefatory matter includes such features as ten pages of abbreviations; the aforementioned list of clubs referred to in the work; Her Majesty’s Officers of Arms; a table of general precedence; a guide to the wearing of orders, decorations, medals, etc.; historical and constitutional information about the Royal Family; background and detail about the peerage, baronetage and other dignities and ranks; orders of knighthood and chivalry; a listing of life peers, peeresses and law lords; and the order of succession. There are, in addition, two introductory essays: one on the monarchy in the twenty‐first century, the other on reform of the House of Lords and its effect on peerage successions.
Then follow the major sections on The Peerage and The Baronetage. “The scope of each article in The Peerage is designed to include information concerning every living male descendent in the male line from the first Peer and of all living females being issues of males so descended. Legitimated children are included, but are not normally in remainder, except for the Peerage of Scotland. Deceased female collaterals and their issue are not generally included”. Already, with “issue”, “in remainder” and “collaterals” we are entering the opacity for which Debrett’s, Burke’s (Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, 106th ed., 2 vols, 1999, RR 99/445) and others are famous. How we lay people wish for more introductory guidance on using these sources! (In the introduction to Burke’s, the editor has a section that usefully compares these two works. Burke’s lists peers and baronets together in one alphabetical sequence and is primarily a history of the family rather than a listing of current title holders. Burke’s is also a bigger publication, being in two volumes, but text presentation is marginally better. The drawback ‐ not noted by its editor! ‐ is that it is published only once every generation). Peerages are arranged alphabetically by title. The detail is highly structured, but easy enough to follow. As an example, DUNMORE, Earl of (Muray) (Earl S 1686) starts with a note of his full name, birth details and family; a line drawing of his coat of arms with a verbal description (in the argot of heraldry); a note of sons and daughters living; brothers living; aunts living; daughters living of the previous earls ‐ the tenth, ninth and eighth; widows living of the ninth and tenth earls; collateral branches living; and predecessors. At the end of this part is a listing of peers’ sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, widows of sons of peers, also grandchildren of dukes, marquesses and earls bearing courtesy titles.Thus we learn that the Hon. Mary M. Abbot is related to Baron Lindsay of Birker. The Baronetage section is similar in style as the Peerage part.
Debrett’s and Burke’s are unusual reference sources and need familiarity to convey their character. If they seem a touch anachronistic to the present‐day information scene, like Britannica and the OED noted at the start of this review, the public expect the larger reference libraries to have them. I would, however, exhort the publishers of Debrett’s to reconsider the poor physicality of the volume; to give us hard‐pressed and heraldically‐illiterate (untitled) librarians more help in using the book; and not expect us to continue the high level of expenditure indefinitely. A reference icon definitely on my jeopardy list.
