John,
How about for once in your life dropping the ‘I’m a straight-talking regional stereotype’ act? Let's remind ourselves of how the review you’ve lashed out at so furiously actually opened and closed, since there are some bits you seem to have missed:
'… many more photographs and the quality of their reproduction has been improved significantly … the two authors have invested an enormous amount of effort through several decades in the execution of this extremely demanding project … putting together even an update of a study this broad and ambitious might have become a totally exhausting task …
'… there is a great deal here to be most grateful for in this large, beautifully produced and most handsomely illustrated volume, but regrettably the many slips still included mean this is unlikely to be regarded as the final definitive account. Excellent but still, unfortunately, an opportunity missed.'
To me your vehement response — and we all know just how much you appreciate good, honest plain-speaking — is more reminiscent of some self-regarding theatrical who can only accept unqualified adulation than it is of a serious historian. Some examples of what you were able to summon by way of a reasoned rebuttal to a few politely-stated criticisms:
’an apologist for the Third Reich! ‘
‘ I'm calling you out, Nazi.’
‘Take me on, coward!’
‘You're just a shit-stirring clown.’
‘You'll crap yourself.’
‘And who are you, coward? Still smacks of a Nazi sympathiser through and through’
‘Are you famous? Or just a no-mark?’
Tell us, were those words intended to provide insight into events in 1940 or into the recesses of your own character?
By contrast, here are comments you made recently about another author whose work you disliked:
‘… all I got was that e-mail loaded with accusations’
‘Here is someone who, IMO, is not interested in accepting that others can point out errors in her book.’
‘I do take exception to an individual who, because I posted the truth about the content of her book, turned on me and started laying false allegations against me.’
‘… do you think her reply would be all sweetness and light?’
‘They (the posts) have been honest. And that is what she apparently does not like. As someone said in the last day or so, “If you cannot take the heat, get out of the kitchen”.’
‘You put it out there, and you take the bouquets and brickbats equally. The fact she did not take kindly to some of the objective criticism speaks volumes.’
Given those statements, can you honestly claim to be meeting your own high standards for resilience in the face of criticism?