Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

Like Alan, I read a lot of histories. Well. Narrative histories. Unlike Alan, who seems to have a theme and some actual focus to his reading, I’m an inveterate magpie and will flit from medieval England (Helen Castor’s books The Eagle and the Hart and She Wolves, are particular favourites), to a biography of J. Edgar Hoover (G-Man, Beverly Gage won a Pulitzer for that one), to the magnificent Höhenrausch by Harald Jähner (evoking, unforgettably, the interbellum in Germany), and many more. No obligation for me to go through a formal curriculum and do things like put in the actual, systematic, scholarly work. There are fantastic, conscientious writers who have done it all for me, and whose books I will happily, and gratefully, devour.

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