Some archives and record offices are housed in your local museum or library; others have their own stand-alone building. Wherever they are, they are a treasure trove.

The British Museum was our first real museum, the property of the public rather than the monarch or the church.

Anglo-Saxon kings often used to favour their sister's son to their own - for at least you could guarantee there was your own blood in your sister's son!

The 19th century became the age of the museum. Objects were scrambled for, specimens seized, and friezes and antiques grasped.

As historians, we spend days in archives, gazing at account books. We train would-be historians in the arts of deciphering letters and documents, early Latin, scribal handwriting, medieval French.

While 'Babel' is a foreign-language film in some countries, in others, it is a local film.