DIY, cricket, automobile repair. I could study it for a lifetime and not produce a word on the carburettor.

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

I felt New York was a big, more stylish, more metropolitan Golders Green. I was thrilled.

Charlie Hebdo: Satire was the father of true political freedom, born in the 18th century; the scourge of bigots and tyrants. Sing its praises.

Irreverence is the lifeblood of freedom.

Nations don't start out. There is not a particular moment when they unveil the essence of themselves. They are always a work in progress.

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