Passions

don't often get ignited by historians, but I can recall contemporaries at Oxford becoming incandescent and incoherent in denouncing Hobsbawm's perspective, while for my part I don't think he got it all wrong. I've just spent a weekend immersed in Henry Miller's "Colossus of Maroussi" (a thoughtful present from a son) - another igniter of passions. Another who didn't get it all wrong.

Who are the dissenters and igniters of today ? Not that many in Manchester this week, perhaps; or maybe I'm letting the media filter obscure them from view.