Irreverence is the lifeblood of freedom.

But it struck me that the extreme violence and cruelty of the English Civil War had gone understated.

These men were very much in the minority, but of course, being the 'Elect', they expected to be in a minority - the party of redemption. In fact they glorified in the slightness of their numbers, the self-purifying troop of Gideon's army... stormtroopers in the front line of the Reformation.

There are some places where history just grabs you by the jugular. This is one of them.

I first read War And Peace about 100 years after Tolstoy wrote it.

The older I get, the more I want to do. It beats death, decay or golf in unfortunate trousers. Peace and quiet depress me.

In its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present.