People sometimes ask me: what’s up with calling yourself A.J.B.? I agree it’s a little awkward, especially since I’m known to my friends as either John or J. But there’s a history to that use of the three initials. Back when I was studying History in university it seemed like it was the thing to do for historians to go by their initials. There was A.J.P. Taylor, J.H. Plumb, J.M.S. Careless and many more. And my father, on his business cards at least, was J.A.L. Johnston. My first term papers were written by Andrew John Johnston but over time I gradually adopted what I thought was the norm, just initials. I’ve been publishing with A.J.B. for so long now that I think I’ll just continue on.