Hilary Mantel and David Starkey discuss the shared subject of their new books - Henry VIII. Filmed in location in the Upper Bell Tower in the Tower of London: the scene of John Fishers imprisonment prior to being martyred.
Most of my profs were bad communicators as well. I took a Greek and Roman history course once specifically because I thought it would be exciting and the prof stood behind his podium and recited names and dates for three months. The unfortunate result of this stuff is that a lot of people think history is boring, when we know it most certainly is not! I can get even the least historically inclined person fascinated by certain events if I throw out the academic jargon - or pretension, maybe.
"One of the reasons that so much academic writing is so complex is because the academics either don't understand it or don't want anyone else to." Starkey's point is something I always suspected when slugging my way through so many godawful boring and densely written university textbooks. Blech.
Yes, it's just that most of my textbooks consisted of inane descriptions of facts and no attempt to make history come alive - I never got the impression that these events happened to or were carried out by flesh and blood people. The narratives of even the most dramatic events were dull.
They are discussing the salient topic of provenance, primary sources, and the contemporary vilification of biography. It sheds light & perspective on our understanding of Henry VIII. Like Hilary said; 'the dark side of the moon'.
