It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgment on the past.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.