The end of the book is nigh.

And Podyssey is back. Have massively missed doing this & can’t wait to get back to it once book am editing is finished!

This is a lovely exhibition @thejohnrylands.bsky.social online from my colleague Susana. Interesting on social media/ political uses too. www.digitalexhibitions.manchester.ac.uk/s/x-stands-f...

Trump Scolds Female Reporter For Being Adult

How to name a Dalek in Linnaean style (aka with some Greek) courtesy of @davehone.bsky.social with the help of @alexpodyssey.bsky.social. It amuses so much that political commentator @sturdyalex.bsky.social is now dr who canon. 🤣🤣🤣

On 12 February, Radio 4 Extra is repeating A Criminal Practice, a comic play by Terrance Dicks a year before he joined Doctor Who. I’ll share some background details nearer the time. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Excited about this - on now!

*PODYSSEY SEASON TWO IS HERE* New Bonus Episode: The Beast In Me Did the Ancient Greeks have pets? Well, it's quite complicated, often very sweet... and sometimes a little bit weird. @sturdyalex.bsky.social 🎧 LISTEN AND SHARE 🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/5U4O... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Lovely photo of our yoga class at the end of their practice today @porticolibrary.bsky.social. Taking inspiration from Christina Rossetti to get through January, got out a beautiful book published posthumously - sketch of her by her brother Dante Gabriel & edited by other brother William Michael.

Such a wonderful evening @porticolibrary.bsky.social listening to @poisonchallis.bsky.social talk about the history of the library and highlights from the collection. Never expected to meet a 1st edition of Jane Eyre, nor a 1st edition of the illustrated Frankenstein - such a special treat 🙂

On cold, wet, rainy English mornings, we like to spirit ourselves back to the sunny, bright, warm Agora in Athens 🌞 👍🏛️🍑 #MuseumBums

Clitoral Truth I have never had a climax No! I swear! It’s the clitoral truth. By Margaret S. Chalmers Spare Rib 39, September 1975 In Women’s Health, A Spare Rib Reader edited by Sue O’Sullivan Pandora Press, London 1987 howl-uk.org/the-disappea...

🧵 Last Wednesday, we took a big step forward in the Portico Reunited project...

‘Like the witch, the petroleuse was depicted as an older woman with a wild, savage look and uncombed hair. In her hands was the container of liquid she used to perpetuate her crimes.’ Oh, erm.

Took part in a reflective session on telling the story & legacies of eugenics to public through academic collections at Oxford in May 2023. Wrote up notes with indy Bhullar from LSE Library & Marius Turda. There is a personal & professional fragility here royalsocietypublishing.org/rsnr/article...

Historians: discuss.

Absolutely blown away by Lucio Fontana exhibition @guggenheim.bsky.social Venice. A joy to discover an artist had only heard of. The Medusa beautiful, the crucifixions mesmerisingly physical, the busts filled with personality & loved the spheres. Inspired for @alexpodyssey.bsky.social. 🤫 for now.

🔗 Just in case you missed our big news at the end of 2025, our plans to reunite and transform The Portico moved a step forward, following planning approval from Manchester City Council...

I'll be talking about 'These Isles: A People's History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales' at Manchester's wonderful @porticolibrary.bsky.social, Thurs Feb 26th 6pm (publication day), in conversation with Debbie Challis. Book here: www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

My article on "Wonder Woman: Saviour of Western Civilization" is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in May '26, thanks to A. Potter, @connieskibinski.bsky.social , & N. Swain! I argue the WW 2017 film is a reverse White Savior movie: a foreign woman saves the savage European hordes thru classical culture.

An escape from the scary double think of the world today in Venice in a garden behind a convent. It felt as if all was at peace.

New blog on Trieste & getting a steamer by Mary Severn Newton, Charles Thomas Newton and Gertrude Jekyll in 1863. Actually it’s mainly about Winckelmann. The museum is interesting on the trade routes & impact on collections of antiquities from eastern Med. www.debbiechallis.com/post/triest-...

On a pilgrimage today. Read a lot on Winckelmann when doing my MA & writing on sexuality & reception of Greek sculpture. He was murdered in Trieste for a ‘few medals’ but likely his murderer was also a man he ‘picked up.’ His monument has a naked antinous like figure with wings - very apt & sad.

The destruction of knowledge and history is haphazard & breathtaking. NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts.

Online talk for the Smithsonian — coming up on 23rd Jan, lunchtime ET smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...

In the dying light of the winter sun, the lady & I went on a mini pilgrimage to Jane Austen’s last house where she died, the new statue & her resting place. Lit a candle for grandads, Emily & socks too. The lady wrote ‘thanks Jane’ in the front of the book to her. #janeausten250 #janeausten

Exquisite ex at Arc on William, Jane & May Morris. Loved seeing Jane’s handwritten recipes - including Cornish pasties - & commonplace books w tiny writing. May’s flower watercolours almost dreamy. What struck me, though, was parallels between Morris’ warnings on creativity / not stealing art & AI

Happy Christmas you all from the Challis Guerriers.

For the first 5 months of 2025, I was focused on Mary Severn Newton - a Victorian Artist who kept her family afloat for 9 years. The day job has got in the way, but FINALLY blogging that there may be a portrait of a teenaged Mary by her father Joseph Severn. www.debbiechallis.com/post/a-portr...

This is a very good piece on the policy changes at the BBC Written Archives at Caversham, which have closed off most of the archive even to established researchers. It may seem a small thing, but it’s indicative of the wider assault on public institutions. Do read & sign the petition.

The point of sharing this was, even then & with the immense amount of respect for the archivists who worked there, it was overlooked by the bbc. The archives are sooooo important for the political, cultural & social history of the uk they should be part of the BL or TNA. Both have their issues obvs.

I worked freelance for the 1st team putting the archive online (2007 & 2009). A visit to WAC was a highlight. I noticed years ago that the written archives accompanying collections were no longer online. I worked on a Margaret Thatcher one & the written docs made news: www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/h...

Just up on the Telegraph, a thorough and thoughtful piece about the wrongheaded policy changes at WAC. Thanks to Kate Murphy, @illuminations.bsky.social, @unamccormack.bsky.social and @marklewisohn.bsky.social for giving up their time. Gift link here www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/65a1031...

Reflecting on my first ever experience of community outreach in 2000. There was so much wrong but there was willing. Feel like my fingertips are just about holding onto the will & passion for change. The political climate is so different now: www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-deb...

🧵 The Portico Library 2025 Wrapped! We have welcomed 21,000 visitors. We hosted 83 public events this year, with 2312 people coming to them...

Took my favourite book on Greece out for a walk from @porticolibrary.bsky.social for a talk to the Victorian society tonight. I gave the talk (not the book) & it definitely helped show what the architect Thomas Harrison copied. Lots & lots of questions. People loved seeing the book up close.

Planning approval is in! The Portico Library and Newsroom is one step closer to reuniting all three floors of our Grade II* building and creating a fully accessible, sustainable home for stories, reading and new ideas.

See? See?!

Some neighbours have given us lots of apples. What could possibly go wrong?

Part I of an enormous post on Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks, this one about why it *doesn’t* dovetail with Doctor Who and the Space War by Terrance’s pal Mac Hulke: 0tralala.blogspot.com/2025/12/doct... #booksky #books #doctorwho

Oh the luxury of spending an afternoon reading books in a library @ics.bsky.social, before giving a talk on Charles T Newton to the Anglo-Turkish Society. Mentioned Royal Anthropological Institute in writing c history of archaeology, esp around eugenics, but never visited - Galton et al on wall.

Bum Bum Bum 👍🏛️🍑 #MuseumBums Three Aphrodites in a row from @ArchMuseumofThessaloniki Thanks @poisonchallis.bsky.social for sharing 😁

Well hello Oxford!

BRAND NEW 🍏 How Do You Like Them Apples? 🍎 From the Garden of Hesperides to the Garden of Eden, from the Atalanta and the Trojan War to The Beatles and the iPhone, apples are laden with often conflicting symbolism. 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/70jw... 🎧 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

New blog on discovering objects of grief in the archives and to remember Emily who would have be 11 in 8 hours: www.debbiechallis.com/post/a-knot-...

‘It belongs in an archive!’, so proud of @0tralala.bsky.social role in getting Terrance Dicks’ work into the Borthwick. It’s also quite bizarre hearing how a biography iswritten & piecing together a life about someone I briefly met & bonded with over 19thC literature. I deal with long dead lives.

Reading Antiquities of Athens & Attica Vol. 2 - my fav book @porticolibrary.bsky.social as part of a movement workshop.

A little piece about mental health #suicideawareness #mentalhealth #poem @samaritans.bsky.social GIG FOR SAMARITANS 11am COLCHESTER SUNDAY www.redlionbooks.co.uk/product/poet...

Thought alot about doing this but ultimately glad I did share my menopause story: themenopausecharity.org/debbies-meno...

The trickiness of appearing too interested or even being too interested as a Victorian (& contemporary?) woman: I try to be so quiet and steady and think so much before I say or do anything. I am quite vexed to think I have not done what you would have liked. www.debbiechallis.com/post/be-frie...