What he said: historians under siege

From today's letters, Hugh McMillan sums up my attitude to Robert Service's piece in Saturday's Guardian far better than I ever could:

I really felt for Robert Service (Comment, 24 April) after reading about the turmoil caused to him and his family by someone calling his book crap. News stories of poverty, war and starvation often overshadow the intense difficulties faced by academic historians. I'm sure I'm not alone in finding how he stoically continued to eat sea bass and go jogging while his wife went to yoga during that terrible fortnight to be truly inspirational.

God bless the stiff upper lip!