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...

In this month's release for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, I've written on Cumberland woman Bridget Atkinson (1732-1814), shell collector and matriarch of a northern English imperial trading family. She was the first honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Visited my first love. Remember fondly that moment when 17 yo - a few months after visiting Athens- of seeing the Parthenon sculptures and wishing for the blue & sun of Greece again. One day!

PS I may return to this thread with practical examples of how counter-narratives work. In the meantime, listen to my three-part pod on Aesop. It is ALL about how narratives are constructed to access the inaccessible. Thank you for your attention to this matter. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

🧵 A remarkable discovery by Portico Library volunteer Rebecca Lamb has revealed that Charles Dickens signed the Library’s Strangers’ Book in May 1844 — confirming that one of the world’s most celebrated novelists once stepped inside Manchester’s oldest subscription library...

Some good news! In his victory speech, Mamdani said: New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and as of tonight, led by an immigrant. If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.

🏛️ PODYSSEY SEASON 2 - All the details! 📜 What. Where. When. 🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/6Aw1... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a... @sturdyalex.bsky.social

My day. Exciting but shattered now after installing @porticolibrary.bsky.social then a v atmospheric Polidori #Vampyre reading in the reading room with Byron’s vampire fragment on display.

The lady and I decided a ladder would have been easier for a museum heist but guess not much for a plot for Wallace & Gromit. V much recommend going to newly opened The Harris in Preston. Great to see it’s so busy too. Funded @heritagefunduk.bsky.social.

BBC News - How a Hollywood tour guide discovered an unknown celebrity grave www.bbc.com/news/article...

It is so very exciting to match one of Mary Severn’s letters to a portrait, especially one that was unknown! Read more in a new blog. #womenartists #archives www.debbiechallis.com/post/mary-se...

Got out a first edition of the life & work of Lord Byron (1832) @porticolibrary as it has the 1819 fragment of the Vampire in it for a slow reading session next week. Got caught smelling the book! 🤣

Went to a book event I did not run! Really interesting talk by @bschillace.brandyschillace.com at Social Refuge in Manchester on Intermediaries. New book about the sexologists and a trans woman in Weimar Republic in 1920s & what happened next. Unfortunately a warning for our times. 🏳️‍⚧️⚧️

On Friday I received a lovely birthday present from @0tralala.bsky.social. He had been waiting for Tate to take a photo of the only work by Mary Severn Newton in their collection entitled ‘View of Naples’ (T09845). But is it? www.debbiechallis.com/post/view-of...

It’s #worldmenopauseday and we’re here to welcome you. Or discuss hot flushes, shaving, anger, vertigo & sleep remedies. And our wisdom. Btw🔥this means something else to us. #menopause

Yesterday I was sad to read of the death of my Classics teacher Barbara Finney. She was one of the few teachers (in fact people) who did not see being clever and passionate as something to be laughed at or put down. Wrote up some memories of her on linked in: www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-deb...

🧵 A lovely and remarkable homecoming story for a Friday! An 1863 edition of The Art Journal has been returned to the Portico Library by retired architect Harman Scott, almost a century after it likely left our shelves...

Lovely time at Harmonicon worshiping all things stones in Tidmordrn with some old books from @porticolibrary.bsky.social.

On #worldmentalhealth day, am sharing a post about anxiety & burnout that I have had and reading it in the letters of Mary Severn. Doing a course on therapeutic concepts has also helped me realise how much trauma I & many many people carry: www.debbiechallis.com/post/but-now...

We've got another busy week ahead at The Portico... To mark this year's #BannedBooksWeek, we'll be exploring Machiavelli, whose work was banned across various states in Europe from the 15th to the 16th Centuries, and how his works have been reimagined today...

Mary Severn's 'Private Sketches' that depict moments in her working & home life 1859/60 made me LOL. Mary's ability to laugh at herself, her family & great artists - like G. F. Watts - & record it, is part of her immense talent. Uploaded the sketches in my blog www.debbiechallis.com/post/private...

Being a nosey parker is my favourite pastime. But I dress it up as being a historian. #archives #romantic www.debbiechallis.com/post/what-s-...

Drum roll, please.... We couldn't be more excited to share that historic transformation plans for The Portico Library have been submitted to Manchester City Council...

Satisfying couple of days installing @porticolibrary.bsky.social main exhibition & a pop up for #blackhistorymonth❤️🖤💚 . Am one of the 5 in portico with African diaspora- the one with guilt obvs - but did one section & used some of my archive too.

Well, bless my soul, another long, long post, this time Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders by Terrance Dicks, featuring Blackpool, Indiana Jones and Mr Toad. 0tralala.blogspot.com/2025/09/doct...

it's so nice to see what a functioning judiciary looks like "A transgender woman in the East African nation of Kenya has won a landmark court victory in which the judge not only found in her favour, but ordered the government to pass a Transgender Protection Rights Act." fuck yeah

Watched this & felt like I was in Star Wars watching that message from Princess Leia.

The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK and US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these time, beyond proving 'we have always been here'? Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures: www.historyworkshop....

This is beautifully written by @sturdyalex.bsky.social about ugly & dangerous events. No one tells me to ‘get back where I was born, yet, I was born in Kenya. When in Kenya in August I was, the first time for me, a minority. I was regularly welcomed back to my birth home. My actual home is shaming

I even have a Ulysses broach that I bought in Dublin. This is one of my favourite books - or parts of it are. Find out more about Banned Books Week on Index for Censorship: www.indexoncensorship.org/bannedbooksw...

2nd part of John J Johnstone’s alternate sexualities LGBTQ+ trail now online. Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Alexander the Great & Antinous & more #lgbtq #egypt #museum www.debbiechallis.com/post/beyond-...

And this is what I went to the PV of - the nature of gothic @blackburnmuseum.bsky.social. It is stunning - urge people to visit.

Oh, I’ve had a few tricky days & was spiralling downwards this morning. Decided to goth up to cheer up.

First part of John J Johnstone’s Alternate Sexualities in Ancient Egypt LGBTQ+ trail: www.debbiechallis.com/post/beyond-...

Have had a week of progress around the country (almost) to celebrate my half century. This included visiting Annie Darwin's grave. Anne, or Annie, was the eldest daughter of the scientist Charles Darwin & his wife Emma. www.debbiechallis.com/post/annie-s...

Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell. Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass. That, right there, is the problem.

I have never felt more strongly supportive of Angela Rayner in my life. Fuck these people.