That is, without a doubt, one of the finest obituaries of an historian that I have ever read. I have always been an admirer of Mackesy and my copy of his book on the Egyptian campaign was personally autographed by the man himself and he provided a very fine jacket quote for one my own books. Mackesy had a talent that I admire and that was to be able to write clear and lean prose, a dying art since the introduction of word processing.

I note that Duffy relied heavily on Mackesy's own notes for an obituary and that gives me an idea. I shall get to work on my own obit as I would hate the summation of my life and acheivements -- such as they are -- fall into the hands of some pewling, wingeing idiot who is a clandestine admirer of the Corsican runt.

Cheers
DG