   You won't find this guy listed up there with the Robert K. Massies and the Barbara Tuchmans of the world, but I remember as a boy of nine or ten years old, recovering slowly at home one spring from a serious bout of pneumonia devouring a slew of his books, burying myself in mediaeval history which he made as alive to me as the room I was in.  I've loved history ever since, and even if I am twenty years late finding out about it, well, I'm still sorry to finally hear of his passing.  If you've got kids, buy them his books.  They're magic.  