1 AUGUST 1981, page 20

Truth And Fact

Douglas Johnson The Origins of History Herbert Butterfield (Eyre Methuen pp. 252, £12.50) Historians are a fidgetty lot. In their smart but sullen craft they are for ever......

Taxing Ingenuity

Peter Paterson The Vestey Affair Phillip Knightley (Macdonald pp. 159, £7.95) There used to be a crude working-class joke about — presumably — the Prince Consort being the......