- published: 27 Jan 2007
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Sir Alistair Allan Horne (born 9 November 1925) is a British historian of modern France. He is the son of Sir James Horne and Lady Auriol Horne (formerly Auriol Hay).
As a boy during World War II, he was sent to live in the United States. He attended Millbrook School, where he befriended William F. Buckley, Jr., who remained a lifelong friend until Buckley's death on 27 February 2008. Horne served in the RAF in 1943–44 and with the Coldstream Guards from 1944–1947. He worked as a foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph from 1952–1955. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford.
Horne is the biographer of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a work originally published in two volumes. In early June 2008 he finished a soon-to-be-published authorised biography of former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (author's statement, Paris, 13 June 2008).
As a result of the Iraq War, his 1977 book A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 has recently been of interest to American military officers. It was also recommended to U.S. President George W. Bush by former United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. In October, 2006 the book was republished and in January 2007, by phone from his home in England, Alistair Horne was part of an Iraq War discussion panel on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS.
"Cheese-eating surrender monkeys", sometimes shortened to "surrender monkeys", is a derogatory description of French people that was coined in 1995 by Ken Keeler, then-writer for the television series The Simpsons. The phrase has since entered two Oxford quotation dictionaries. After being popularized by National Review journalist Jonah Goldberg, it has frequently been used by journalists and academics. The phrase was particularly used in the run-up to the Iraq War, since France was opposed to military intervention in Iraq.
The phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" first appeared in the American animated television series The Simpsons. In the plot of the 1995 episode "'Round Springfield", budget cuts at Springfield Elementary School force the janitor Groundskeeper Willie to become a French teacher. Expressing his disdain for the French people, he exclaims to his class in his Scottish accent: "Bonjour, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys." On the audio commentary for the episode, executive producer Al Jean said the line was "probably" written by The Simpsons staff writer Ken Keeler. Keeler confirmed this in an interview in 2012 and stated that he considers it be his best contribution to the show. Jean commented that the staff did not expect the phrase to become widely used and never intended it as any kind of genuine political statement. When "'Round Springfield" was dubbed in French, the word "surrender" was omitted and the line became "singes mangeurs de fromage" ("cheese-eating monkeys").