Norman Davies: Nothing Lasts Forever

When I arrive (late) for lunch at St Antony’s College, Oxford, Professor Norman Davies is reading a fan letter. It is from someone who claims to have been at school with him and he shows me the first line: “Dear Dr Davies, Please don’t be unduly alarmed at receiving a letter from someone writing from HMP Wandsworth…” It is a long letter, and it turns out to be from an armed robber. “Plenty of time on his hands, then, I suppose,” Davies observes, tucking the letter away for later.