Jeopardy: doing a broadcast Zoom call with a broken desk chair that is liable to make me sink rapidly out of view at any point.

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. Includes our obituary for Dick Cheney, discussion of his life and legacy and the day's other stuff with @terrystiastny.bsky.social and Robin Brant, and @claireyorke.bsky.social on her new book on the value of empathy in politics. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

Remember remember the 5th of November, which is traditionally the day we put that guy Faulks on top of the Bonfire (of the Vanities) 🔥🎇 #BonfireNight #GuyFawkes

Top line of the Connections grid at start today: ‘Only Connect olive branch’ !

Yeah, that’s me, she said, emptying the dishwasher and putting the milk bottles out.

Lupin strikes again

Now we’re talking #totp

Order James’s book now so that in the New Year you’ll be able to understand how we got here!

That’s for Thomas Mann! That’s for Matisse! That’s for Picasso! And that’s for me!

If this great thread has crossed your timeline as it has mine, then you might enjoy this clip from SOE agent Harry Rée's interview with the Imperial War Museum. He describes his fistfight with a German of the Sicherheitsdienst, or SS Security Service. Full interview: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

That’s for Thomas Mann! That’s for Matisse! That’s for Picasso! And that’s for me!

Oh Canada! This week we're chasing Nazis from the Atlantic to the Pacific as we watch Powell and Pressburger's Oscar-winning 49th Parallel. Will @DuncanWeldon.bsky.social crash the pod simply to annoy @RobertHutton.co.uk? Will @terrystiastny.bsky.social be able to make peace?

If you read one thread on Bluesky today, make it this - amazing!

Oh, man.

Reappointed PM at 10pm on a Friday night. Who’d be in politics?

Woburn deer: as fearsome now as they were in WW2 #BelievableLies

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @terrystiastny.bsky.social and @phmarliere.bsky.social on the day's stuff, plus @drewhinshaw.bsky.social and Joe Parkinson of @wsj.com on "Swap", their new book about prisoner exchanges - including one that involved one of their colleagues. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

The Hacks christening episode is properly slapstick funny.

Here be bears! A Nordic bear from Hereford’s 14th century Mappa Mundi. Spotted after a great panel on world events at the inaugural Hereford Military History Festival.

French President Emmanuel Macron called President Donald Trump after being stopped at a New York street blocked off for his US counterpart's motorcade during the UN General Assembly reut.rs/42acMSC

And I made it! A clean sweep of #1 in military, UK, European AND social & cultural history! Thanks to sharers and purchasers. (And it’s still a very good bargain.)

Hard on the heels of Max Hastings in UK history as well:

I say, chaps! Number one bestseller in Military History! What do you mean you’ve not bought it yet? Only 99p today. #BelievableLies

It’s Saturday lunchtime, you might be at a loose end. Read this! (or just buy it…) Cheaper than a sandwich and contains more scandals.

FILL YOUR BOOTS! Believable Lies is only 99p all day on a Daily Deal! 500 pages of black propaganda, thrills and spills for less than a pound! What’s stopping you?

Love this thread! (And let’s only think of happy Oetzi going off into the mountains…)

At the Imperial War Museum planning for my tour on 25th September. The book’s already in excellent company; you can be too. Get tickets here: iwm.org.uk/events/my-iwm-…

Stand aside, Coleen Rooney.

‘She rekindled the relationship at the funeral’, the article continues…

If anyone’s wondering where all the Lime bikes are, they’re here. (Covent Garden)

It was great fun talking to Al Murray about Believable Lies, wartime propaganda and secret radio stations. Sign up at www.patreon.com/wehaveways to listen now:

It was great fun talking to Al Murray about Believable Lies, wartime propaganda and secret radio stations. Sign up at www.patreon.com/wehaveways to listen now:

Should we talk about the government? Can we do all today’s politics through the medium of REM lyrics?

‘Just form vowels and syllables, and mean it’: a principle to live by

Will people please stop mucking about with all the puzzles. That’s the minor issue I’m choosing to be irritated about today. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Looking forward to this in Ilkley on 18th October:

@questingvole.bsky.social I’m reading Haunted Wood and just wanted to say at this early stage how much it is moving me and bringing back memories. You had me at the great grey-green greasy Limpopo, but I had forgotten Merrow Down, where I grew up walking. Thank you!

Come on an after-hours tour of the Imperial War Museum with me and Dr James Bulgin! September 25th Tickets here: www.iwm.org.uk/events/my-iw...

Come and hear me and @charlieenglish1.bsky.social talk psychological warfare on Saturday 18th October.

I used the BBC Written Archives in researching Believable Lies, and the staff there were helpful and knowledgeable. It’s dreadful to think that access to their holdings might be limited.

Cezanne’s famous ‘Portrait of Mark Rylance’

There’s something so quaint about the French evening TV news still being called the ‘televised newspaper’.

Spark titles are the best titles though! (Having nicked mine, Believable Lies, from her.)

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @terrystiastny.bsky.social and Justin Quirk on the day's stuff, and Tom Webb discusses festival wellness with Rob Da Bank. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

About to watch My Beautiful Laundrette with a Select spritz at the Garden Cinema and this is a good approximation of my best life. I will not be taking questions.

Only just noticed that I made the Times diary column. In a good way, fortunately.

Great to talk to Michael Binyon on @listentotimesradio.bsky.social about #believablelies , with a quick pivot to Starmer and Trump as well.

A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience… m.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5o...

Step up and shake the hand/ of someone you can’t stand