Mash note

Diarmaid MacCulloch's The Reformation was exactly the sort  of book I'd love to be able to write: sweeping without being over-simplified (quite the opposite, in fact), elegantly written, and remarkably engaging.  Or, as I said to Dad the Emeritus Historian of Graeco-Roman Egypt:

ME: I'm reading a really fun book about the Reformation.
DAD ETC.: The Reformation was fun?
ME: The book, not the Reformation. 

Now I want to grow up to be Diarmaid MacCulloch.  (Of course, that would require a sex change.  Not to mention a citizenship change.  And did I mention a specialization change? But you know what I mean.)