I have just started to read the heavy tome Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy. Before attaining page 1 of the narrative we were made sadly aware of the fact that in the past, yay right up to 1955 when the author started researching his subject, letters, daily journals, diaries, memoirs were an integral part of life. Today the only record we will have of 2005 will not be so much a reflection of refined sensibility as what those thugs in Hollywood choose to feed to the upper classes (who are no longer patricians) as well as the plebes.