Brendon was educated at
Shrewsbury School and
Magdalene College,
Cambridge, where he read history. He received a
Ph.D. degree for his thesis,
Hurrell Froude and the Oxford Movement, which was published, with much modification, in 1974. From 1965 to 1978, he was lecturer in history, then principal lecturer and head of department, at what is now
Anglia Ruskin University. Since 1979, he has worked as a freelance writer of books,
journalism and for television. In 1995, he became a fellow of
Churchill College,
Cambridge and was keeper of the
Churchill Archives Centre from 1995 to 2001, in succession to
Correlli Barnett. Brendon was himself succeeded by
Allen Packwood. Brendon was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009. ==Works==