The ivory tower?

I was disappointed by C Alexander’s letter (February) castigating you for devoting four pages of the magazine to an interview with Philippa Langley [about her book

The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case] “when she is just an amateur historian”. Presumably only professional historians should write books – or perhaps you should only review books by such professionals? We would all be the poorer if that was the case.

Having seen the TV programme detailing her research into the fate of the two princes in the Tower, and having read your article, I immediately put the book on my birthday list. Langley’s research in Europe appears to be faultless, and strongly suggests that the princes were alive after they vanished from the tower – in which case they were not murdered on the instructions of Richard III. Of course, after all this period of time, there may be other explanations for what Langley’s researchers found – but given that there is absolutely no proof that the two boys were murdered, it is at the very least interesting to look at alternatives. Langley does us all a favour by doing so.

There are too many closed minds in academe, and too many people who guard their disciplines from outsiders for fear that a different approach may prove received wisdom wrong and leave them undermined. Amateurs can come at history without preconceived ideas; surely that is to be welcomed? History is littered with discoveries by amateurs. Long may that continue. Robert Britnell, Canterbury