A FORMER Bolton School pupil's latest history book is being hailed as a masterpiece by scholars.

Professor Norman Davies spent years writing "Europe: A History", and its recent publication has met with widespread acclaim.

Professor Davies, born in Bolton in 1939, now lives in Oxford and teaches a London University course.

But the intellectual with a whole list of degrees, diplomas and visiting professorships says he is still indebted to his masters at Bolton School, where his love of learning was encouraged.

There he remembers the history master teaching his young charges Italian before taking them to Florence and the geography master using French text books.

As well as playing on the school soccer team he was notorious for entering himself for exams nobody else took.

Later, while studying at Oxford he was taken under the wing of the famous historian, A J P Taylor.

And now his own ambitious work discussing the history of Europe in 1,350 pages has been published.

A review in The Times recently described it as "a must - a sumptious mental feast" and it has been hailed as the first attempt to comprehensively examine the history of Europe for 60 years.

"The Davies testament will bring powerful ideas to all who read it," added The Times.

"If it has a similar impact on those who write history, then his triumph would be complete."

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