Professor Tom Devine's knighthood has been described as the first conferred on a historian of Scotland.
That would be to overlook Sir Walter Scott - as the newly knighted author and academic somewhat provocatively points out. Historical novelist Scott was once dismissed by a critic as "a dusty exhumer of chronicles".
Such a description could never be applied to Professor Devine, whose five-decade career has coincided with a flourishing of interest in the study of Scottish history and whose dozens of books have stimulated readers within Scotland and furth of these shores, both by their literary merit and their erudition. His frequent public appearances have enhanced the impact of his research. With a talent for engaging listeners and readers at all levels, Sir Tom preaches the value of taking time out for thought. In an age of instant reaction, this is a lesson all of us would do well to heed.
The honours system has become somewhat devalued of late, but this knighthood is merited. Professor Devine has done more than anyone to assert the importance and raise the profile of his subject, and the honour is therefore well deserved.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article