a first class honours BA degree in modern history. Roberts began his career in corporate finance as an investment banker and private company director with the London merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., where he worked from 1985 to 1988. He published his first historical book in 1991. Personal life Roberts is divorced from his first wife, Camilla Henderson, with whom he had two children. Roberts is married to businesswoman Susan Gilchrist, CEO of the corporate communications firm Brunswick Group LLP and chairman of the South Bank Centre, and they live in London. Roberts has worked with think tank organisations such as the Centre for Policy Studies and the Centre for Social Cohesion. He has additionally maintained personal friendships with several British political and social figures such as David Cameron, Michael Gove, and Oliver Letwin. In February 2016, he was appointed president of the Cambridge University Conservative Association. It was announced on 14 October 2022, that as part of Boris Johnson's 2022 Political Honours, Roberts would be appointed a life peer. On 1 November 2022, he was created Baron Roberts of Belgravia, of Belgravia in the City of Westminster. Historical and socio-political viewpoints Commentary on history In the context of the First World War, Roberts has determined that the treaty obligations imposed on the Kaiserreich should've been significantly tougher. He has specifically proclaimed that the victorious powers of the Entente alliance should've broken up Germany into component sub-national territories akin to the disorganised situation prior to the unification of Germany in the mid-1800s. Ultranationalism was eventually "burned out of the German soul", in Roberts' opinion, at a truly devastating cost. Roberts' analysis of the Second World War has convinced him that the Nazi German government had significant advantages in military organisation and economic power early in the war. He has argued that, if someone other than the dictator Adolf Hitler had control of the nation's military strategy, the country would likely have forgone a costly direct invasion of Soviet territory, which occurred through Operation Barbarossa, and instead would have swept through Mediterranean territories before trying to seal off British-controlled Middle East areas. Roberts has concluded that the likely morale-building victories against the comparatively weak forces to the southeast could have allowed Hitler to essentially win the war. According to Roberts, the other key strategic mistake was the German declaration of war against the United States, which happened only four days