It is a mark of how utterly fascinating the next interview that I am due to write up is that I am actively choosing to do the transcribing for it on a Sunday evening. Writing is the best, huh?

The very first hint of the sun today has just come, at this late hour of... 15:43. Great!

Fancy just taking a job at Oxford to get over a bad ex – or school, in this case

This week's Great Estates is on Weston Park – that great house with a genuinely fantastic collection that Richard Bradford gave to the nation in 1986, after so much heartache, and thanks to punitive death duties. Almost 40 years on, how is it doing now? www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...

This week's Great Estates is on Weston Park – that great house with a genuinely fantastic collection that Richard Bradford gave to the nation in 1986, after so much heartache, and thanks to punitive death duties. Almost 40 years on, how is it doing now? www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...

Pls no, not Amal Rajan

Saturday at home book(plate) signing for Hatchards! If you want one for your own copy or for one you’re buying someone for Christmas, let me know and I will post you one! I love signing stuff

This is such a generous, lovely essay by Simon Heffer about my book HEIRS AND GRACES and the subject of it, the British aristocracy – in this month's New Criterion. And what a headline! Best headline I've ever seen on this subject, I reckon newcriterion.com/article/lord...

For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...

I just said ‘I’m so so sorry’ to my dog and am now inexplicably thinking about Nick Clegg. It’s amazing what sticks

I should add that for this piece I interviewed my first cardinal – Cardinal Radcliffe – which was an enormous pleasure. He was absolutely fantastic – very thoughtful, very interesting, very calm. Could have talked to him all day. I recommend it to you on that basis alone

I should add that for this piece I interviewed my first cardinal – Cardinal Radcliffe – which was an enormous pleasure. He was absolutely fantastic – very thoughtful, very interesting, very calm. Could have talked to him all day. I recommend it to you on that basis alone

For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...

I interviewed 'the wolf man' Paul Lister, MFI heir and owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland about bringing wolves back to Scotland, the value of land in the UK, and why rich people like him keep buying estates. It was all quite bonkers and extremely good fun www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...

I interviewed 'the wolf man' Paul Lister, MFI heir and owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland about bringing wolves back to Scotland, the value of land in the UK, and why rich people like him keep buying estates. It was all quite bonkers and extremely good fun www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...

Sunday at the county tip = the innermost circle of hell. People who can't park, half an orchard stuffed in the back of a Ford Focus, TVs being carried by kids. Deliciously awful

Sorry to whoever I mortally wounded in a past life that felt this strongly about my apparently appalling book! Very sorry! Very sorry indeed!

Not giving them up, just not using them. news.sky.com/story/prince...

Glad to have committed a small patch of news at Cheltenham yesterday

I did a really exciting thing! It was excellent! I recommend speaking at literary festivals to all! Everyone I spoke to was just really nice and said gorgeous things about my book and well, what more could you want? Plus, Starburst in the green room

So pathetically excited to be going to the Cheltenham festival today as a speaker and not a punter – if you’re in town I’m speaking at 1pm about my book HEIRS AND GRACES alongside the Duke of Beaufort www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-c...

I think it every single day but I maintain that the schedule send option on Gmail is the very best innovation of the last decade

Halloween has come early to the driveway

I haven't much to add about the Nobel Prize but this. Bobbety Salisbury was once showing some American senators around Hatfield when they came upon a picture of Bob Cecil, one of the architects of the League of Nations. They said how amazing it must be to have a Nobel Prize winner in the family...

I am utterly thrilled to find my piece on the aristocracy and racing on the front of today’s Racing Post – truly, little could be more thrilling! What a fun piece to write, pegged to the publication of my book HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy

I wrote a bit for @thehousemag.bsky.social about the last of the hereditary peers and it was great fun! www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

It was my huge pleasure – after years of trying – to interview the Earl of Iveagh at Elveden for this week's Great Estates. On being a Guinness and that famous name, on sitting in the Lords as an Irishman, on the brewery, his lovely pa and more, he was fantastic www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/1cfb8b6...

It was my huge pleasure – after years of trying – to interview the Earl of Iveagh at Elveden for this week's Great Estates. On being a Guinness and that famous name, on sitting in the Lords as an Irishman, on the brewery, his lovely pa and more, he was fantastic www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/1cfb8b6...

How bad do we think this will be?

Love my optimism for planning my evening dog walk around the sunset on a day when the sun does not actually appear to have actually risen at all

Truly this was the best way to spend a Friday afternoon! I absolutely loved it!

Big thanks to "Heirs and Graces" author @brushingboots.bsky.social for raging today that the aristocracy still exist, keeping their houses from the National Trust! We covered snobbery, death duties, class, and Wentworth Woodhouse's ruin. 🔥 Patreon, Dec 15!

How lovely to see a review of my book HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy in this month's Critic by Adrian Tinniswood. It’s also online here! How nice! (I'm not sure I am actually 'besotted', as much as a serious scholar of a serious subject) thecritic.co.uk/bobo-boofy-a...

This time in a fortnight I will be ON A STAGE at the Cheltenham Festival with the Duke of Beaufort, Lady Violet Manners and the Countess of Harrowby talking about the aristocracy and my book! It's going to be really good! Do come! Tickets here www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-c...

I just described to someone how I would put something 'in the morning post' for them and wow, I really do live in the 20th century, don't I

Growth is making your own ham and cheese roll for the train and wrapping it in foil rather than buying an inferior toastie that will burn your mouth at the station for £4.99

How funny that a book about the aristocracy should have in it… loads of information about the aristocracy!! V sorry Guardian! (This is actually a very nice review despite the page furniture – and given the paper’s natural disinclination towards the subject, so I am not complaining, just amused)

Just a reminder that if you enjoy a book, please leave a quick review on Amazon or Bookshop dot org, or wherever. Even if it's only a sentence, it really, really helps get the word out to other readers.

Superb description from lovely John Sandoe’s listing of my book johnsandoe.com/product/heir...

‘Am I too late?’ I say to the friendly neighbourhood chippy that closes at 7pm, at… 6:57pm. ‘No, he says. A hero of our time

Public service announcement! If you have very kindly bought or if you pre-ordered a copy of my book Heirs and Graces and would like it signed or dedicated I have some Penguin bookplates! DM me and I will post you one with your requested message

Am newly very into doing book tour events at bookshops where they feed you wine, but I in my three-glasses-and-no-dinner enthusiasm I nearly just got on a train to Weymouth rather than Paddington so it’s swings and roundabouts

Strongly recommend train travel with a little spaniel for the simple reason that simply everyone is just that bit nicer and smilier to you when you have a wiggly dog on your lap

Truly, what a rollercoaster this Guardian review of my book by @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social is!! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Truly, what a rollercoaster this Guardian review of my book by @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social is!! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

West Country folk! My book tour continues tomorrow at Topping in Bath and there are still tickets available! www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/...

This week's Great Estates is on Kelvedon Hall in Essex, home of the Channon family since 1937, when Sir Henry "Chips" Channon bought it with his wife's Guinness family money. But there's much more to it than that – and this makes for a moving read (gift link) www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/c09cc3b...

Delighted to have finally started this wonderful book by @brushingboots.bsky.social Loving it so far.

It’s Saturday so why not treat yourself to a new book? I can recommend mine, Heirs and Graces, a history of the modern aristocracy! It is very good – and really excellent value as it is quite long! All formats available here, pass it on! ⭐️ www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305...

V sorry to hear that Field Marshal Lord Guthrie has died. I went to interview him in 2022 and he was so charming – the first and certainly the last Field Marshal I'll ever interview. His wife Kate reckoned that she had attended 40 Trooping the Colours – remarkable www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...