He is the rampant anti-Semite obsessed with Adolf Hitler and 'proving' that the Nazis were not nearly as bad as right-thinking people would have you believe.
She is the respected academic who was forced into defending historical truth itself - and won.
But now, 25 years on from her victory in the landmark libel trial brought by Holocaust denier David Irving, Deborah Lipstadt has admitted that she almost threw in the towel.
Professor Lipstadt, now 78, spoke to the Mail from the offices of law firm Mishcon de Reya with two of the star lawyers who plotted her original defence, Anthony Julius and James Libson.
The drama of the trial was depicted in 2016 film Denial, in which Lipstadt was portrayed by Rachel Weisz and Irving by Timothy Spall.
