Mind Your Language
Historians should remind themselves that quantity and quality are often very different things.
There’s a general consensus (at least among the people I speak to) that too many history books are too long. Reasons cited include a lack of editors, the desire to give readers value for money if they are shelling out £30 or more, and the influence of potboiler historical fiction. The gushing response to Hilary Mantel’s 900-page conclusion to her fictional trilogy on Thomas Cromwell – The Mirror and the Light – is unlikely to herald a trend towards economy. The Observer argued that Mantel had ‘redefined what the historical novel is capable of’, while the normally sober-minded Alexandra Harris wrote that: ‘Not since Bleak House has the present tense performed such magic.’
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