Historians

History in all its forms is more popular nowadays than ever. History programmes on television can attract audiences in the millions, as do top heritage sites, while growing numbers of people pursue family and local history and join historical re-enactment societies. A bestselling history book can nowadays outsell a popular novel, something almost unimaginable fifty years ago.

Who are the men and women who have helped make the past of such absorbing interest to the present, and how have th...