Profile: Simon Schama

He is a real toff- but a nice and likable one; he really knows his onions

Eberhard, Cardiff

Simon Schama is brilliant and he is certainly not run of the mill when it comes to historical interpretation. What is refreshing about Simon is his use of art and visuals to support historical events, facts and arguments. Above all it allows the viewer to establish empathy and context - a sense of being there – a skill that is very difficult to achieve successfully. He is one of the few historians that continues to make history interesting and very relevant in the modern day.

Much as I am enjoying Simon Schama's History of Britain I find some of his omissions unacceptable. I take particular exception to his description of Prestonpans as "a resounding victory". A massacre of redcoats who are given no quarter would only seem like a victory to a historian with no time for the English. Ditto: the programme on Cromwell. If you are going to spend all that time decrying Old Ironsides as a war criminal you might at least have the decency to include some references to royalist atrocities (The Rape of Birmingham would do for starters), and you could also mention the misdeeds of Irish troops on English soil, as well as the appalling behaviour of Langdale and Gerrard's armies. And why no mention of Leicester or Hopton Castle? I would have thought the story of soldiers and maids having there throats slit as a warning to others would provide a perfect illustration of how indiscriminate violence thrived on the Royalist side during the war of the Three Kingdoms!