Amanda Foreman in biography row

Best-selling author Amanda Foreman.

While not supporting her attack on Foreman, historian Andrew Roberts concurs. In the current issue of The Literary Review, he wrote: "The whole history brand is being contaminated by publishers commissioning history books from people who seem to know nothing about any other period than a sliver about the one on which they are writing," He added: "No way am I going to slit my own throat by naming names. I wouldn't pose naked - but solely because the British public is not ready to see a naked Andrew Roberts."

Foreman appears to have taken Hughes's accusations to heart. "Biography is changing," she says. "Biographers are challenging our conception of the genre in extremely exciting ways. In fact I believe we could be approaching a golden age." ·