The Observer newspaper yesterday carried an article by Oliver Moore entitled “They’re too cool for school: meet the new history boys and girls” extolling the virtues of Dan Jones, Claudia Renton, Ben Wilson, John Bew, Francesca Beauman and Simon Reid-Henry as a group of fashionable young writers of history revitalising the subject (after the expiry of theory) through a mixture of strong narratives, exciting personalities and quirky facts. The only danger according to Georgina Capel of the Literary Agency, Capel and Land, which represents four of the six, is that they might be regarded as “too pretty” to be taken seriously. They are apparently highly regarded by the academic establishment although three of them have worked as actors, artists and journalists and one, Claudia Renton, is about to train as a lawyer. Moore’s article is amusing but it is difficult to take it seriously. I have yet to meet a “hip young historian” and, although I agree that “dullness” is to be avoided whenever possible, I suspect that there will be strenuous efforts to rescue ‘theory’ from the scepticism of resolute empiricists. Beauty may, moreover, be in the eye of the beholder but, the girls apart, I very much doubt if anyone could consider the four boys as “too pretty”.
