While we are on the topic of history, it’s worth noting that Winston Churchill has now pulled ahead in the BBC’s ‘greatest Briton’ contest, thanks in part to North American support and, now, the crucial endorsement of footballer (’soccer player’) David Beckham.

And while on the topic of Churchill, it’s impossible not to recommend Roy Jenkins’ epic new biography of the hero of 1940. It’s an astonishing and – to this Brit – frequently very moving read.

Like Churchill himself, Jenkins’ book is also often highly amusing. Rod, however, will be disappointed to discover that the great man may well not have been much of a Crunchy Con. Here is what he had to say in a letter of July 14, 1940:

“Almost all the food faddists I have ever known, nut-eaters and the like, have died young after a long period of senile decay…The way to lose the war is to try to force the British public into a diet of milk, oatmeal, potatoes etc, washed down on gala occasions with a little lime juice.”