Clean-living launch

Television historians clashed in Oxford this week as Tristram Hunt and Simon Schama launched their latest books.

Dr Hunt is well known for his literalism: during his BBC series on the English civil war he appeared in a barber's shop to demonstrate what a clean-shaven lot the Roundheads were. He promoted his book on the civil war and how Cromwell launched the Commonwealth in Coffee Republic on the first floor of Blackwells. Not two minutes down the road at Waterstones, where wine is served, Professor Schama was set to launch the third volume of his History of Britain series.