Congrats to David Szalay on his 2025 Booker Prize (an interesting chat on BBC Today)...not the first émigré caught between worlds to win. I've dusted off an archive piece about Kazuo Ishiguro's early days. #writing @thebookerprizes.com @faberbooks.bsky.social grahampalmer.co.uk/we-are-all-b...

In 1886, Francis and Pollie Parsons printed Toby from the heart of London’s East End. They mocked corruption, defended workers and refused to be silenced. Graham Palmer tells their tale of satire, scandal and courage – worth rediscovering today. eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/hi...

In East Anglia Bylines this week I track down Toby, the Victorian ‘watchdog’ whose bark would land its owner in prison... eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/hi... @balhnews.bsky.social @historyworkshop.org.uk @britishlibrary.bsky.social @thebhp.bsky.social @bho.bsky.social

I was sad to hear that the inspirational music teacher Adrian Jacobs has passed away. A keystone of the original 1980s iteration of Royston Arts Festival, he is acknowledged by the the world-renowned trumpeter Alison Balsom as a seminal influence on her early days. @classicfm.com

'I had thought it was about writing what I knew, but after a time I discovered the more I acknowledged all that I didn't know, the closer to some truth I seemed to get.' - Richard Flanagan (First Person, 2017) @writerscentre.bsky.social @thebookerprizes.com

730 years ago, on the 23rd of October 1295, the kingdoms of France and Scotland formed the Auld Alliance against England. If either country were attacked by England, the other would invade English territory in turn. It was renewed in 1326 by Robert the Bruce but never formally revoked. #otd 🗃️

Forget the Beatles, the Liverpool poets told it as it was. Brian Patten may have shuffled off yesterday, but his 'length of time' lives on... @writerscentre.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEoB...

@roystonmuseum.bsky.social This might be useful to you... bsky.app/profile/brit...

My new best friend...

Is this how much we value knowledge? www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc....

Fantastic and heartfelt idea. This young woman should get a gong on the New year's honours list.. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I always knew Royston had its witches, but I don't think the locals memorialised them. 😀(Spotted on the Herts Memories website). @balhnews.bsky.social @roystonmuseum.bsky.social

A great lyricist and song writer. The pigeons finally got their own back. www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc....

I was lucky enough to hear this lady scat when she was well into her 80s and she blew me away. She will be missed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Last year I gave a talk at @roystonmuseum.bsky.social about an c18th proto sci-fi novel. The gist of 'Dr Who's Sea Legs' is now online. grahampalmer.co.uk/dr-whos-sea-...

Something to put a breeze under your wings this morning...

New to @bsky.app 👋🏾 No better time to join than to share this news: #TwelfthNight coming to #ShakespearesGlobe this summer. 🌦️

Brilliant performance by @janandjon.bsky.social at @folkbytheoak.bsky.social in Hatfield yesterday. Thanks guys!

It's always nice (and a surprise) to be featured in a Creative Hertfordshire newsletter. 😃

Jo Browning Wroe (bestselling author of 'A Terrible Kindness') shares thoughts on writing, the second book and the myth of the solitary author. #writingcommunity @faberbooks.bsky.social @societyofauthors.bsky.social @cambridgeindy.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social grahampalmer.co.uk/building-a-c...

Begs the question, who do I go to if don't want to be cremated but reincarnated instead?

I understand the potential benefits. but this is deeply worrying given concerns about data protection, the rights of the individual and the uses third parties might make of the information. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It would be truly refreshing if the media focused on the everyday people who get gongs for their hours of selfless service in their communities rather than 'named' who are just good at their jobs. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If I go on Dragon's Den with this, will it make my fortune?

Welcome to the archives.

To quote my distant friend Imran MacLeod, “A man with no culture has no identity”… —Hamid Shami, “Lost” published in Wish I Was Here: a Scottish multicultural anthology (pocketbooks, 2000) #poem #poetry www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/lost/

My research today has thrown up a bit of a surprise... (Cambridge Chronicle and Journal - Saturday 15 July 1843) #oneplacewednesday @roystonmuseum.bsky.social @sogorg.bsky.social @oneplacestudies.bsky.social @hertshistory.bsky.social

'Should a badger cross the path Which thou hast taken, then Good luck is thine, so it be said Beyond the luck of men.'

In this richly illustrated account, Letchworth Local History Research Group look in detail at the town's foundation in the early 1900s and the energetic organisation and administration that enabled it to get off the ground quickly and successfully. www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/book...

ONE WEEK ... and counting ... HUGE data launch coming on 5 June - nearly 70,000 records from English & Welsh railway companies, c.1855-1929! Looking forward to sharing this amazing resource with you - do spread the word, please!

Just had my first visit to a #RepairCafe. What brilliant people, all doing it gratis and helping save what would be landfill. More power to their elbows.

What an exciting life I lead...today I'm off to follow up clues on a highwayman, a victim of an industrial accident and a cross-dressing bigamist! (Not all the same man.) @roystonmuseum.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org @balhnews.bsky.social @sogorg.bsky.social @oneplacestudies.bsky.social

Your day may be going poorly, but it likely isn't quite as bad as Rorie's. '...it would Seem he hurt one of his Stones On the [horn] of the Sadle So as it is Sweld vastly And he was obleidged to come in this day in a chase...' Thinking of you today, Rorie.

Sadly, this is a lost clause.

Work like this, by David Carpenter and Nicholas Vincent (both Fellows @royalhistsoc.org), requires expertise, deep knowledge, judgement and analysis. Such work enriches us and culture. We should celebrate and value it as we do discoveries and breakthroughs in other walks of life #Skystorians

Miss out on our April talk on Revolting Royston by @grahampalmer.bsky.social? Do not fear! You can find out more in this fascinating read: buff.ly/hJZjAK1 And make sure you head to our website to book tickets to our May talk - a photographic tour of 1890s Royston with Phil Smith.

"It’s real and it happened and it was sad, and I’m sure it was awful but we’ve made it here." What a great episode of #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre with Layton Williams! What did everyone else think? #wdytya www.whodoyouthinkyouaremaga...

Is it just me, or should owners of such historic properties be forced to keep them in a better state for future generations or sell them to someone who will? @oneplacestudies.bsky.social @balhnews.bsky.social

What exactly was Royston's 'Bastille' and why did the locals hate it so? @oneplacestudies.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org @roystonmuseum.bsky.social @fakehistoryhunter.net @bho.bsky.social @enghistrev.bsky.social @thebhp.bsky.social @balhnews.bsky.social www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/hert...

Just ordinary folk. A musician/father (who served in WW1, then in the Home Guard), one son (who walked through the fires around St Paul's to aim the anti-aircraft guns), and a second in the Home Guard (who later join the elite Royal Marines). #LestWeForget #VEDay80

In the aftermath of my sell-out talk at Royston Museum, here's more riotous behaviour? @balhnews.bsky.social @thebhp.bsky.social @bho.bsky.social @sslh.bsky.social @hertshistory.bsky.social @hisjournalha.bsky.social @jennipinnock.com @roystoncrow.bsky.social grahampalmer.co.uk/revolting-ro...

A SHORT POEM FOR STAR WARS DAY Her name was Yoda, A showgirl she was.

Did you know that, due to a lack of small change, traders in the 17th century made their own tokens for customers to use instead? Royston had several, including this from grocer James Swan (Image © The Trustees of the British Museum). Find out more here: howtohistory.substack.com/p/trade-tokens

‪ Today is International Workers' Memorial Day. In the 1870s many lost their lives in the coprolite diggings of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and South Cambridgeshire. There is no memorial to them. #IWMD2025 www.cracked-voices.co.uk/poo-and-pick...

To celebrate Shakespeare Day, here’s a poem about being in an exam and panicking that you can’t remember any Shakespeare quotations.

Happy Easter! Come on historians/researchers...what's the origin of this strange custom? Are my family the only crazies out there who do this? @balhnews.bsky.social @sogorg.bsky.social @folkloresociety.bsky.social

"Two voices weave their songs between simple and spacious clarinet and piano... Palmer's stories and poems truly bring these cracked voices to life; Jenni Pinnock’s compositions take them to another level." - International Times Visit: www.cracked-voices.co.uk

Two of my pieces will be performed as part of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music next month. Organist Martyn Noble will perform Cassiopeia and Tanquinto as he opens the Festival's organ recital series on Friday 9th May, 6.45pm at St James's Sussex Gardens. lfccm.com/whatson/even...

Watch this great showcase of a brilliant new musical (music by my long-time collaborator @jennipinnock.com ) in development at Birmingham Hippodrome... @cambridgeindy.bsky.social @makingmusicuk.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkiU...

Huge thanks to @grahampalmer.bsky.social for tonight’s mind-blowing talk @roystonmuseum.bsky.social I’m ashamed to say that I knew nothing about the local response to Corn/Poor Laws etc… arson, agitation, and rioting - including women, children and clergy ✊