Miliband's tribute to 'extraordinary historian' Hobsbawm

Ed Miliband has paid tribute to Eric Hobsbawm, one of the leading historians of the 20th century, who has died at the age of 95.

The Labour leader said: "Eric Hobsbawm was an extraordinary historian, a man passionate about his politics and a great friend of my family.

"His historical works brought hundreds of years of British history to hundreds of thousands of people. He brought history out of the ivory tower and into people's lives."

A historian in the Marxist tradition, Hobsbawm was one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century and wrote more than 20 books including a celebrated three-volume series on the "long 19th century" - the Age of Revolution, the Age of Capital and Age of Empire, as well as a best-selling memoir.