Leading historian, and former Oxford don, John Roberts, who has died after a long illness, was able to bring history to a wide public through books and television.

Dr Roberts, who was 75, had a long association with the University, gaining first class honours in Modern History in 1948 after winning a scholarship to Keble College.

He was a prolific and ambitious writer, and his History of the World, published originally by Hutchinson in 1976, and later by Penguin, sold half a million copies worldwide.

From it came The Triumph of the West, a linked book and 13-part BBC television series in 1985, which had taken seven years to complete.

From Keble, he went on to serve as a Fellow and Tutor at Merton College from 1953 to 1979.

After two periods as Acting Warden he was appointed Warden of Merton in 1984, a post he held for the next decade. He was also a Senior Proctor of the University from 1967 to 1968.

His wider range of other responsibilities included being a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1984 to 1998, and a Governor of the BBC from 1988 to 1993.

Dr Roberts is survived by his wife, Judith, and three children.