New Christmas episode up now! Asterix and the Roman Agent - and LOADS more Asterix books - with Louie Stowell, Robert Shearman, Una McCormack & Andy Miller. 🎄📚🎅 @robertshearman.bsky.social @louiestowell.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/6mIn...

New on the blog this week, Part 2 of my BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2025 - favourites from a year of reading. Featuring books by Rosamond Lehmann, Eileen Chang, Leonora Carrington, Barbara Trapido, Romain Gary & more! #BookSky #Books 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/m...

The final Fortnightly of 2025. Books of the Year. juliangirdham.substack.com/p/197-books-...

#speirgorm if you are in the Clonliffe Road area please keep an eye out for our lovely former foster boy Ernie

RIP John Carey. On Petrarch:

197: Books of 2025 open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

Coming on Saturday: the last 'Fortnightly' of 2025 is the annual Books of the Year edition. Lots of ideas for Christmas reading and shopping. juliangirdham.com/the-fortnigh...

Breda O'Brien: Comparing AI to Wikipedia is like saying a bicycle is similar to a self-driving car

Here is my Personal Anthology of twelve short stories, including Bruce calling from Mulholland, a daughter leaving for Rhodesia, a washed-up hack in Hollywood (by a washed-up hack in Hollywood) and a story from the Dubliners of 20C Jewish-American life. Ta @jonathangibbs.bsky.social for asking me.

A chase across Paris; the madness of Ted Hughes; a painter goes off-grid in New Zealand; the hunt for a president's love letters; an odd woman and the city; hooptedoodle-free crime; and more. Me on twelve of the best reissued books of the year:

196: Three weeks of fondant bloom! The latest Fortnightly, and the final regular one in 2025. open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with historian @robertsaunders.bsky.social about the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher. What is the meaning of Thatcherism in the twenty-first century? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

A splendid BBCRadio3 celebration of #Advent 1—in the form of a whole schedule of programmes today devoted to the performance of carol-singing, traditional & new, across the UK. Maintenance & revival of regional #carols a true glory of Insular music-making www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

1. Thread. Ed tech and the best lesson I taught this year. The best Ed tech in the world for my subject is a book. It is the ideal delivery method because the effort of concentrating on it helps people learn what's in it.

Many thanks to Conor Pope for featuring us in this list of 100 Irish websites to shop with this Christmas. He has all avenues covered with Irish retailers listed for clothes, toys, food and drink, beauty, jewellery and more in this brilliant guide. www.irishtimes.com/your-money/2...

Now in my early 60s I have only just started reading Middlemarch (blame the education system…), so I am immensely grateful to @adamroberts.bsky.social for this wonderfully perceptive exploration of the epigrams at the head of each chapter. open.substack.com/pub/profadam...

Fortnightly 195: Directing Shakespeare in school, E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’, Claire-Louise Bennett, ‘Testimony’ on the Magdalene Laundries, Vic Goddard on leading schools, ‘Anatomy of a Cancellation’, @backlisted.bsky.social on Rachel Cusk. juliangirdham.substack.com/p/195-mine-o...

(New). On directing Shakespeare in school: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/directi...

Okay, so let's do officially do this! a slow-read of Macbeth with Sunday discussion threads starting November 23rd! #SundayMacbethChat Everyone's welcome! And just like Beloved, I am definitely going to be looking at this with very-fresh (i.e. humble) eyes! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The Occasional 10: excellent newsletters. open.substack.com/pub/juliangi...

The Fortnightly continues its break until Saturday 22nd, when issue 195 will be out. Tomorrow morning there’s the 10th edition of its close-cousin, The Occasional, for paid subscribers: really good newsletters I subscribe to. juliangirdham.substack.com

(New). On E.M. Forster's 1909 story 'The Machine Stops', eerily prescient about our online world. 'The Machine develops - but not on our lines. The Machine Proceeds - but not to our goal.' www.juliangirdham.com/blog/em-fors...

Love this piece by @ruthpadel.bsky.social in @financialtimes.com about the 'The Poems of Seamus Heaney', a new book of collected and previously unpublished poems released by @faberbooks.bsky.social @seamusheaneyestate.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/d562...

[noises off] Hamlet: what NOW? Norwegians incoming. www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Because he CAN, Branagh shows the Norwegian army arriving at Elsinore in his 1996 film. With Rufus Sewell as Fortinbras in a nice shiny breastplate. #InkyCloak #SlowShakespeare is in its 14th month. Days to go.

Fortnightly 194: @inotenews.bsky.social '25 | AI in schools | CPD with @clanavtra.bsky.social: 'Macbeth', @carlhendrick.substack.com & the science of learning, | Anne Enright interviewed by Martin Doyle | @oldfortunatus.bsky.social on Hamlet. And more. juliangirdham.substack.com/p/194-begin-...

Webinar for teachers of Leaving Certificate English on revising the play leading up to the exam. Tuesday 18th November, 7.00pm-8.00pm. Free registration via @clanavtra.bsky.social www.edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-... #edchatie

New on the blog today, I've written about ten excellent novellas I highly recommend. Featuring books by Anita Brookner, William Trevor. Muriel Spark and many more! #BookSky #Novellas #NovNov 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...

(New). On the DEY 'Guidance on Artificial Intelligence in Schools' (October 2025). Summary: fine in places, naive about AI ethics, unreasonable in expectations of schools and individual teachers. And there is a LOT of 'ensuring'. www.juliangirdham.com/blog/guidanc...

My Anne Enright interview: “I am fed up saying I have a problem with authority, and that is why I do not write realism. Naturalistic fiction is a lie – and a dull one at that. This is me changing the narrative from your ‘broken’ to my ‘honest’ or even ‘smart’.” www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

At the start of half-term, The Fortnightly is taking a week off: back next Saturday with issue 194. juliangirdham.substack.com

🚀 Teachers! Ready to transform your teaching in 2026? Join our 3-part Science of Learning webinar series with Dr. Carl Hendrick – turn cognitive science into classroom impact! 🗓 Jan 7, 14 & 21 🕖 7–8:30 PM | 💻 Live on Zoom 🔥 Limited places – book now! 👉 zoom.us/webinar/regi...

(new) On the 2025 @inotenews.bsky.social conference: www.juliangirdham.com/blog/inote-2...

Teaching Claire Keegan's 'Small Things Like These': free webinar (repeat) on Monday 20th October, starting 7.00pm. via @clanavtra.bsky.social Registration: edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-... #edchatie

Teaching Claire Keegan's 'Small Things Like These': free webinar (repeat) on Monday 20th October, starting 7.00pm. via @clanavtra.bsky.social Registration: edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-... #edchatie

Fortnightly 193: Helen Lewis & the genius myth, John Tomsett & truly great secondary teachers, John Keats in autumn, Vona Groarke, The Poems of Seamus Heaney, J.L. Carr, @dtwuva.bsky.social on 'Mind the Gap', Gore Vidal, @inotenews.bsky.social conference. www.juliangirdham.com/blog/fortnig...

So many people I'd like to thank in Ireland for championing Leonard and Hungry Paul @ronanhession.bsky.social Here's a few @jackielynam.bsky.social @kitdewaal.com Donal Ryan. @martindoyle.bsky.social @rickoshea.bsky.social And all the booksellers & Librarians! www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Fortnightly 193 is out in the morning: The genius myth, truly great secondary teachers, John Keats in autumn, Vona Groarke, The Poems of Seamus Heaney, J.L. Carr's life, Daniel Willingham, Rachel Ruysch, Gore Vidal. And more. juliangirdham.substack.com

Nobel winner for Literature 2025: László Krasznahorkai.

RIP Brian Patten.

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

Tony Harrison RIP I taught Long Distance, his beautiful & honest poem about bereavement to my students for decades. Eventually, it provided consolation to me as well.

Fortnightly 192: Nicholas Carr's 'Superbloom' | Rachel Cusk | @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social on reading in crisis | @conorsmurf.bsky.social on Shakespeare | @timothysnyder.bsky.social on Ukraine and kindness | AI guidelines from @irishsciteach.bsky.social juliangirdham.substack.com/p/192-wherev...

Fortnightly 192 is out in the morning. Free sub link: juliangirdham.substack.com

(New). On Nicholas Carr's 'Superbloom: how technologies of connection tear us apart.' "We spend our days sharing information, connected as never before, but the more we communicate, the worse things seem to get." www.juliangirdham.com/blog/nichola...

“The night Robert Redford met Dickie Rock, and other moments from a Hollywood giant’s life.” Me on a great (and also on Robert Redford). www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

(New). On Nicholas Carr's 'Superbloom: how technologies of connection tear us apart.' www.juliangirdham.com/blog/nichola...

Fortnightly 191 is now out: Molly Twomey, William Wall, Michael Longley’s final book, @fotoole.bsky.social on Easter 1916 with @ppfideas.bsky.social, teaching 'Othello' via @clanavtra.bsky.social, Deborah Levy, Alan Jacobs, @tom-richmond.com on AI. juliangirdham.substack.com/p/191-carob-...

📢 Post-Primary TYEnglish Teachers! ➡️ TY English Ideas 📅 Tues 16 Sept 2025 | ⏲️ 7–8pm | 💻 Zoom | 💰 FREE 🗣️ Claire Cotter shares creative TY strategies: 🎶 songs, 🎬 film, 🎙️ podcasts, & project-based learning to spark curiosity! 👉 zoom.us/webinar/regi...