The absolute differentiation of England from the continent was achieved in the aftermath of the great transformation which we call the Henrician Reformation, and it was in the end achieved with conscious recognition and even deliberation.

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'England and the Continent in the Sixteenth Century', introduction to Derek Baker (ed.), Reform and Reformation: England and the Continent (1979), quoted in G. R. Elton, Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government, Volume Three: Papers and Reviews 1973–1981 (1983), p. 308

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One of the chief tests of the quality of historical work lies in its readability. History, even serious history, is interesting, and the historian who makes it dull deserves the pillory.

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We historians are, in a way, fighting for our lives. Certainly, we are fighting for the lives of innocent young people beset by devilish tempters who claim to offer higher forms of thought and deeper truths and insights – the intellectual equivalent of crack, in fact. Any acceptance of these theories – even the most gentle or modest bow in their direction – can prove fatal.

On postmodernism; Return to Essentials (1991)

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The absolute differentiation of England from the continent was achieved in the aftermath of the great transformation which we call the Henrician Reformation, and it was in the end achieved with conscious recognition and even deliberation.

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