It's a full life, if a trifle banal

I forgive you. In fact, I take a morbid interest in discovering where exactly lies the generation gap between me and e.g. my students. Trying to discuss the miners' strike in class now most often gets me blank or pitying looks. My own historical expertise is the more usual 19th century stuff, although I suspect that these days I'm better on the history of Gondor during the rule of the Stewards. The oath of Cirion and Eorl a speciality.