Edouard Perroy

I just want to laud one of my academic heroes for a moment. Edouard Perroy wrote the fantastic The Hundred Years War (in his own words:) 'uninterruptedly, during the winter of 1943-4, thanks to the precarious leisure granted to me during an exciting game of hide and seek with the Gestapo'. I have added the emphasis on the end so that we can all appreciate the that he wrote this without the benefit of a library or an office or anything "academic"; just previously-made notes and his memory and in a place occupied by invaders. The book was revised for publication but I maintain that Perroy is an incredible writer. That, and the fact that he used the word 'pettifogging' (see p.52).