Final Word

This week's Final Word comes from the first of Clio's followers:

"'Soft countries,' he said, 'breed soft men. It is not the property of any one soil to produce fine fruits and good soldiers too.' The Persians had to admit that this was true and that Cyrus was wiser than they; so they left him, and chose rather to live in a rugged land and rule than to cultivate rich plains and be subject to others."

The winner of last week's competitionEmily Brontë's Wuthering Heights , is Howard Nicholson of Holt, Wiltshire.