There's nothing like the village WhatsApp when a utility goes down. Today, water – which feels highly ironic given how much of it is coming out of the sky

Spending my day, emotionally and textually, in 1920s Ireland, among the republicans burning down the big houses, and this seems a much more dignified place to be than today's world

The PM says how Mandy ‘lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein’, that 'what was not known' was 'the sheer depth' of it. But surely any association with him whatsoever – given that this was well known – ought to have disqualified him. Am I missing something?

She rather moved me with the way she talked about the estates – that they overwhelmed her, that dealing with 700 years of history at Bodorgan was just too, too much, that it stifled her creativity. And then Bird fixed it all. It's a lovely story if I may say www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/28cb19d...

Plenty said it would never happen – that the Meyricks would talk about Bodorgan, Hinton Admiral and Bournemouth. Well, they have now. Great Estates this week is with the very thoughtful and quite remarkable Candida Meyrick, accompanied by her Harris hawk, Bird www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/28cb19d...

Plenty said it would never happen – that the Meyricks would talk about Bodorgan, Hinton Admiral and Bournemouth. Well, they have now. Great Estates this week is with the very thoughtful and quite remarkable Candida Meyrick, accompanied by her Harris hawk, Bird www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/28cb19d...

There’s nothing like believing your train is 20 minutes later than it actually is until the moment you get in the car, 15 minutes away, to give a bit of vim to a Wednesday morning

This week’s Great Estates is on Hutton-in-the-Forest and Lord Inglewood who was definitely one of my most thoughtful interviewees of 2025, a good egg who talks sense on a lot of things – particularly on Lords reform, on which he is utterly clear-eyed. Do read it! www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ce233e6...

This week’s Great Estates is on Hutton-in-the-Forest and Lord Inglewood who was definitely one of my most thoughtful interviewees of 2025, a good egg who talks sense on a lot of things – particularly on Lords reform, on which he is utterly clear-eyed. Do read it! www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ce233e6...

I am super excited to say that my book HEIRS AND GRACES will be published in paperback on 11 June and here is the cover! I can only hope to be as cool as Donough Inchiquin! It remains available to buy in hardback/audio/ebook and you can pre-order the paperback now! www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305...

I am super excited to say that my book HEIRS AND GRACES will be published in paperback on 11 June and here is the cover! I can only hope to be as cool as Donough Inchiquin! It remains available to buy in hardback/audio/ebook and you can pre-order the paperback now! www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305...

Enjoying my quarterly-ish browse of FixMyStreet and particularly the effort that one near-ish neighbour has gone to in reporting a sunken manhole lid with five photographs featuring a giant spirit level and a metal tape measure. Hell hath no fury like a man with a noisy metal plate outside his house

ICYMI my profile of England’s newest cardinal, Timothy Radcliffe, which I don’t mind saying that I am rather pleased with – on women in the Catholic Church, his life as a Dominican and how despite it he fell in love with a woman, on ministering to men with HIV and much more

Ahead of this week’s extraordinary consistory at the Vatican, I went to Oxford to interview ‘don’t call me Cardinal’ Timothy Radcliffe: on women’s ordination, on ministering to those with HIV, what the Pope is like and whether he voted for himself at conclave www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/6ea3425...

What's so sad about when people get totally het up about one single line in a piece is that they miss the genuinely amazing bits. I'm feeling generous so this is one of them – the 3rd Lord Leconfield talking to the late Pamela Leconfield. Just outstanding. God bless the aristocracy, eh

A lot of people in the comments – which I have been reading with an amused smile and responding to, killing their fury with abject kindness – seem to have got totally the wrong end of the stick about him but oh well!! My job is so great! www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/fd78733...

It's a happy new year and a very happy new Great Estates which this week is at mighty Petworth with the wonderful Max Egremont who I had a lovely time with despite Thameslink's best efforts. Yes he wants to pay more tax! No he's not virtue signalling! He's great! www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/fd78733...

It's a happy new year and a very happy new Great Estates which this week is at mighty Petworth with the wonderful Max Egremont who I had a lovely time with despite Thameslink's best efforts. Yes he wants to pay more tax! No he's not virtue signalling! He's great! www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/fd78733...

Am I the grinch who stole New Year's Eve or is it weird to be hearing fireworks at SEVEN THIRTY? Isn't the whole point that they go off at midnight and then for about 15 minutes and no more?

And if you are an editor who wants someone who genuinely knows about Lords reform today and/or the general state of the upper class and is in touch with hundreds of peers, including – as in this piece – the biggest landowners in the country, then I’m your girl. There is always more to say about it!

In case you somehow missed it, I have recently written a whole book, HEIRS AND GRACES, on the modern aristocracy which you can buy in all good or bad bookshops! There is a whole chapter on the Lords in it and it is also very good, if I may so! All links here www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305...

I couldn’t resist including a reference to Wogan Milford here, the only Communist member of the Lords ever. After he made his maiden speech denouncing his own position Attlee stood up and said that it was ‘an advantage of hereditary representation’ that a Communist could sit in the Lords at all

The headline is rightly a bit glib but there is a serious point to be made about political independence and the role that the working hereds today have. The peer in this piece that said that people who defend heredity slowly go mad is right, but I’ll take that over modern prime ministerial patronage

I have written a lovely long essay on the end of the ‘hereds’ in the Lords for today’s Sunday Times which I am rather pleased with – and which I don’t mind saying is well worth reading! www.thetimes.com/article/a280...

I have written a lovely long essay on the end of the ‘hereds’ in the Lords for today’s Sunday Times which I am rather pleased with – and which I don’t mind saying is well worth reading! www.thetimes.com/article/a280...

Am I the only person to ask for a copy of the biography of Robert Birley for Christmas? I hope so, otherwise there’s another equally sad person in this world

Today is my 33rd birthday and I have just realised that I’ve had my top on inside out all day

I have written some great things this year but this is one of my favourites. For this week’s special Christmas Great Estates, I spent the day at a Trappist monastery – a historic house, yes, but one home to 14 monks with a brewery attached. It was totally amazing www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b5820b4...

I have written some great things this year but this is one of my favourites. For this week’s special Christmas Great Estates, I spent the day at a Trappist monastery – a historic house, yes, but one home to 14 monks with a brewery attached. It was totally amazing www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b5820b4...

Have you enjoyed this week’s Patreon episode? 🎧✨ Support the author, and me 📚❤️ by buying a copy of "Heirs and Graces" by @brushingboots.bsky.social through the History Rage Bookshop! 📖 Buy the book: uk.bookshop.org/a/10... Listen now 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #History #Podcast

🚨 THIS WEEK TO PATREON AND APPLE SUBS🚨Wentworth’s destruction wasn’t just architectural — it broke a family. 💔🏰 Hear @brushingboots.bsky.social recount this gripping story on History Rage. 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #HistoryRage #WentworthWoodhouse #Podcast

🚨 THIS WEEK ON PATREON & APPLE 🚨Mining at Wentworth Woodhouse came terrifyingly close to the back door. ⛏️💥 Hear @brushingboots.bsky.social tell the full story on History Rage. 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #HistoryRage #WentworthWoodhouse #BritishHistory

🚨 THIS WEEK TO PATREON AND APPLE SUBS🚨Aristocratic power today isn’t in Parliament — it’s in land and legacy. 🌿🏛️ Hear @brushingboots.bsky.social break it down on History Rage. 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #HistoryRage #SoftPower #Aristocracy #Podcast

🚨 THIS WEEK TO PATREON AND APPLE SUBS🚨TV has shaped our fantasies of aristocratic life… and not always honestly! 📺✨ On History Rage, @brushingboots.bsky.social exposes the gap between drama and reality. 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #HistoryRage #MediaMyths #BritishHistory #Podcast

🚨 THIS WEEK TO PATREON AND APPLE 🚨 Aristocratic life isn’t the fairytale people imagine. 💼💔 This week on History Rage, @brushingboots.bsky.social reveals the real grind behind the grandeur. 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #HistoryRage #Aristocracy #RealityCheck #Podcast

I had a fine day out in Bishop Auckland with Jonathan Ruffer, the man who predicted the credit crunch, who was earning the national average wage every six hours in 2015, who could buy Whistlejacket ten times over. This week's Great Estates is on Auckland Palace www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/0d6ac5c...

🚨 THIS WEEK FOR SUBSCRIBERS 🚨 Think the upper class disappeared? Think again! 👀🔥 This week on History Rage, Paul Bavill and @brushingboots.bsky.social uncover how the aristocracy still shapes Britain today. 🎧 www.patreon.com/post... #HistoryRage #Aristocracy #BritishHistory #Podcast

I had a fine day out in Bishop Auckland with Jonathan Ruffer, the man who predicted the credit crunch, who was earning the national average wage every six hours in 2015, who could buy Whistlejacket ten times over. This week's Great Estates is on Auckland Palace www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/0d6ac5c...

🚨NEXT WEEK FOR SUBSCRIBERS🚨 Paul Bavill dives in with journalist & author @brushingboots.bsky.social to rip apart the myths of Britain’s modern aristocracy 🏰🔥 Land, Wentworth Woodhouse, National Trust & what the upper class really looks like Early access: patreon.com/historyrage or Apple subs.

Officially made it now my book has been parodied in Private Eye! And yes this will be going in my downstairs loo. Amazing and hilarious and not at all mean – a bonus!

This week's Great Estates is on Salwey Lodge – a wholesome, wise tale this time, about love, loss and escaping the city for rural Shropshire www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b68fbb9...

Nice to see that the Desert Fox is now working for DPD

Sweet lord there is someone on this train talking about sovereignty and ‘taking back control’ and suddenly it is 2015 again

Highly recommended. Even I, an Irish socialist, found it engrossing and educational :)

Super excited to say that I’ll be at Hatchards Piccadilly tomorrow signing books for their Christmas customer evening! Come and buy a copy of HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy, from me! It makes a delicious Christmas present www.hatchards.co.uk/events/hatch...

Utterly amazed and delighted to discover that my book HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy, has been named one of the FT's history books of the year! I am positively vibrating with glee – how fabulous! Thank you so much @frederick65.ft.com www.ft.com/content/a7c7...

Bizarre transcribing moment of the morning. Extremely nice interviewee: 'Well done on being left-handed' Me: 'Ah yes, I'm a witch, they should have drowned me'. ????

Utterly amazed and delighted to discover that my book HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy, has been named one of the FT's history books of the year! I am positively vibrating with glee – how fabulous! Thank you so much @frederick65.ft.com www.ft.com/content/a7c7...

New favourite about page. www.vhely-hutchinson.com/about

If you want a challenge, let me recommend to you doing a talk on the history of the British aristocracy to a room full of sixth formers