7 April 2000: Historical Association, Norton Medlicott Medal Lecture. President, fellow members, ladies and gentlemen. I am deeply conscious that having just received the Norton Medlicott Medal; which means so much to me, that I must try to live up to the honour itself and the traditions of the recipients. I comfort myself that in arguing as I shall for ‘the Value of Biography in History’, I have at least the Medal to prove that historical biographers are not unrewarded or dismissed by the Association. It is a good start and gives me confidence.