Featuring more than 300 books, articles, and academic papers, the bibliography in Thunder in The Mountains is worth the price of admission alone. So obviously I put it online FOC 🙄 www.thunderinthemountains.org.uk

It’s remarkable how closely the 1945 Minnesota Experiment mimicked the experience of some Austro-Hungarian troops in 1918. Similar caloric deficit, similar % weight loss, similar physical and psychological collapse. One Minnesota volunteer had a psychotic episode and chopped 3 of his fingers off.

My research into the effects of malnutrition on combat effectiveness makes me think we need to re-evaluate the Second Battle of the Piave. By “we” I mean me, and the seven other people who are vaguely interested in the 2BP.

A reminder, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, that there’s a Nazi concentration camp on Italian soil…the Risiera San Sabba in Trieste. It was originally a rice drying facility, with its own ovens.

Sorry, what??? And they want us to pay for this sort of content 🙄

My latest research rabbit-hole…feet. Specifically, how people can walk barefoot for hundreds of miles in freezing conditions without getting frostbite or hypothermia.

Come along and see actual me, in the flesh, talking about the FWW on the Italian Front. As a bonus, you get Peter, Alan and Nigel thrown in for good measure 👍

Today I have mostly been wasting my time composing limericks about WW1. Franz Conrad, the stupid old fool Thought fighting the Serbs would be cool The Austro-Hungarians Behaved like barbarians It was all predictably old-school

The trouble with writing about “the indomitable human spirit” is that it necessarily involves a lot of human misery as well. Circuit des Champs de Bataille…miserable WW1 in the mountains at -30°C…miserable The Great Retreat of 1915…miserable And yet I’m such a cheerful soul 😉

ICYMI, Thunder in The Mountains includes QR codes that link to hundreds of photos, dozens of maps, videos, a 300-entry bibliography, related articles, and advice for tourists. Have a poke around and see if you want to read the stories behind the photos. thunderinthemountains.org.uk

What? Sold out already?

I’d also like to say a big thank you to my legs. With a combined age of 130, they have propelled 85kg of sweating blubber (me) 1,200 miles along, and 210,000 vertical feet up, the Italian and Slovenian Alps, enduring terrible abuse along the way.

I couldn’t have written Thunder in The Mountains without the support of Emma, my wife of 36 years. She’s snowshoed over Dolomites, hiked up massive mountains, ridden a horse (and a bike) along the front lines, and trailed round countless museums. Bravissima, m’dear!

Apricity, coffee, and a good book. Kushty 👌

Bluesky starter packs are doing the rounds again, so… 😉

Everybody loves a bargain, don’t they. Grab yours now, by pre-ordering my new book with a massive discount 👊

My Latin teacher once said (as he handed back my rather disappointing essay in defence of Marcus Crassus) “Never mind, Isitt, we’ll all be dead in a hundred years.” I didn’t realise he meant our entire species.

I’ve seen a few of these “Introduce yourself with what almost killed you" posts. Having tested cars, motorbikes and powerboats for 20 years, my near-death experiences were many. But catastrophic errors while driving these two puts them top of the list.

Ottoman ski troops? Who knew 🤷‍♂️

Am currently considering Thunder in The Mountains merch*…coasters with photos of guns, placemats featuring battlefield maps, decorative cushions, and an action figure. Ka-ching! * not really

My family mocked me for wearing Crocs around the house, so I had a pair of opanci made for me instead. Who’s laughing now, eh?

I have to admit I never expected to be reading learned academic papers in the Journal of Thermal Biology. But it’s an absolute gold mine for researchers of mountain warfare.

This (The Sixth Day, by Rastko Petrović) may be a classic of Serbian WW1 literature, but OMG it’s hard work. His publisher refused to publish it because it’s too complicated and grim.

London “street food”: Faux Airstream caravan dispensing nuggets and chips for a tenner, chips for a fiver, and Gyros for £13 😂

Every time I see a call for papers on here, that bloke from The Shamen pops into my head saying “Anyone got any Veras?” Can’t believe that was 33 years ago.

Potential new side-hustle: Have you bought a book with terrible maps? Are you sick of the half-arsed cartography? Download my not-quite-as-shit maps, print and paste them into said book. Job’s a good ‘un 👌

That @matoxley.bsky.social bloke sure knows how to write a good book.

Regret to inform you that Thunder in The Mountains is not being published today. Publication date has been pushed back yet again, this time to January 15. Apologies to anyone hoping to get it in time for Christmas. Maybe next Christmas 🙄

Prepping to give a talk to the Royal Engineers Historical Society about sappers on the Italian Front of WW1. My imposter syndrome is strong 😬

It’s interesting that it takes a motorcylist, and a motorcycle designer, to explain why pro cyclists are ruining the handling of their bicycles. Chapeau to Cycling Weekly for publishing something insightful.

And the award for the worst use of typography on an underwhelming photo goes to…

Soon my tranquil corner of north London will be inundated with paralytically drunk darts fans in outlandish fancy dress costumes. It’s all very good natured and rather fun. And you never know who, or what, you’ll find in your front garden in the morning. #darts #AllyPally

As an experiential historian, I feel it’s my duty to strip naked, slather myself with goose fat, and attempt to build a pontoon bridge across the Piave river. Who’s with me?

That weird thing of getting an expensive electronic gadget and hoping you’ll never have to use it. See also: avalanche probe, snow shovel, and EPIRB.

I owe my kids an apology. Instead of encouraging them to be doctors and teachers, I should have steered them towards sports governance, where they could accept high-value gifts, go on expenses-paid junkets, take bribes, stay in 5 star hotels, and do around 15 hours actual work per week.

Not the Western Front Conference 2026 Following last years great conference will take place on Saturday 31st October in Wakefield West Yorkshire just of the M1. Tickets cost £29 including lunch.with 4 great speakers. www.trybooking.com/uk/FPHV

#TBT That time I wrote an article about the anthropomorphic menhirs on Corsica. I do love standing stones, particularly “family groups”.

After reading a passage from my forthcoming book, my wife turned to me and said: “You really are the Frankie Boyle of military history, aren’t you.” Should I… a) be mortified b) be embarrassed c) be secretly pleased d) use it as a quote on the cover

Walking the ground, Presena sector, WW1 (it’s what Richard Holmes would have wanted). There’s a lot of barbed wire still up there.

Every author’s worst nightmare…a book withdrawn from a library without anyone having read it. Not one of mine, I hasten to add.

#TBT Playing with a Bimota DB2, back in the early ’90s. It was a lovely (and very expensive) little thing.

Emma, after watching yet another programme about railways: “They really changed the world, didn’t they.” Me: “Absolutely, they enabled the spread of epidemics, made the Holocaust possible, and facilitated the exploitation of the Third World.” Emma: “WTF is wrong with you??” 😶

History says the Austro-Hungarian army was starving in 1918, but what does that actually mean? What was the effect of starvation on frontline soldiers? The Minnesota Experiment gives some answers, but few historians have attempted to analyse the effects of starvation. So I’m doing some science…

We have WW1 memorials for war horses, dogs, mules, even pigeons. But where are the ones for the oxen, eh? They are the perfect draught animal — strong, hardy, and when you’re done with them, they’re much more tasty than your average mule.

Another book I’ll never get round to writing.

The best view in WW1? An Austrian machine gun position on Lagazuoi Piccolo in the Dolomites.

The Castello, an Italian WW1 machine gun position on Costabella Ridge in the Dolomites.

Italian WW1 trench near Bosco Malo (Hudi Log) on the Carso, dug in summer 1917, untouched since then (except by brush fires in 2021).

Well that’s frustrating…I hiked for 2 days, crossed a glacier, and climbed to 3306m (10,846ft) ASL on an icy mountain to take a photo for the cover of my book, and people assume it’s a composite, or A.I. 😡