On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

There’s still room to squeeze in a few more at the Great War Group Conference. Tickets available from www.greatwargroup.com/shop We’d love to see you there!

Portlanders — show off your corner of war-ravaged Portland below.

Why do the boxes in our storeroom look so worried all the time!?

Big moment! 😊 First time seeing @alexchurchill.bsky.social and I's book "Ring of Fire" in a bookstore in Denmark!!! So if your i Copenhagen, you can get it at @politiken.dk boghal!

Hey a thing I really don’t want to get lost here is that while Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, IT’S FINE TO BE AUTISTIC. Let’s not grant them the premise that autism should be eradicated in our way to correct the science, okay? Okay.

Our @thegreatwargroup.bsky.social conference is a month away! So many talks and seminars to choose from. @pikegrey1418.bsky.social will be giving an exclusive talk about the Battle of Galicia. This oft-ignored scrap in 1914 consumed a million casualties along a 200 mile front in three weeks!

Our conference is a month away! With many talks and seminars to choose from. Emmett Kelly is going to tackle the story of how Canada went from a tiny army/navy to mobilising men up to 11,000km to get them to war in 1914! Ticket details 👇

Our @thegreatwargroup.bsky.social conference is a month away! With many talks and seminars to choose from. From the Royal Logistics Corps Museum, Samantha Jolley is going to be telling us all about tank drivers from the Army Service Corps!

Our conference is a month away! With many talks and seminars to choose from. Phil Watson will be kicking off our Friday night on all things Haig by talking about the BEF chief’s command philosophy. Ticket details👇🏼

The spreadsheet is filling up nicely with old friends and new. Don’t be shy; we are a very friendly, inclusive and occasionally slightly bonkers group with masses of knowledge and enthusiasm to share. We’d love you to join us. Tickets are still available from www.greatwargroup.com/shop

In Swedish, a word for what you eat to bridge the gap between meals (or while waiting for the main course to cook) is stödmacka. It means "support sandwich." A similar word in Norwegian is ventepølse, or "waiting sausage."

The only problem with a Popular Front is that none of the people who would front it are that popular.

The flag of the last British High Commissioner for Palestine, General Sir Alan Cunningham. Flown from HMS Euralyus as Cunningham departed Haifa, May 1948. IWM FLA 6

Flag of the Arab Revolt, flown from a house occupied by Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al Hashemi in Damascus in September 1919, and given by Faisal to T E Lawrence. IWM FLA 592

Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert... etc All looks very familiar.

Love this. Humour with a historical sentiment.

Would the person who shelved the book on The Cockleshell Heroes under Natural History please take a bow!!

In sad withdrawal after We Have Ways? Join us at @thegreatwargroup.bsky.social for a whole (indoors) weekend of the prequel… @pikegrey1418.bsky.social @peterhart.bsky.social @bigandylock.bsky.social

Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.

This country's most celebrated achievement was to fight fascism. Now fascism itself has hijacked our national identity.

One of the strangest ironies of the last ten years has been watching Britain immersing itself as deeply as ever in memories of WW2 while proudly turning its back on the project that emerged from it.

Such a good approach. Make them irrelevant.

Dreams: A Jungian Approach A Talk by Dr Bernhard Kelley-Patterson Thurs 18th September, 7.30pm. £5 After the talk anyone who wants to stay behind can join in group discussions, led by Dr Kelley-Patterson, to which you are invited to bring a dream of your own to share. DM to book

NOTHING will prepare you for this 45-second story arc. From "I'm just doing this because I love the flag, it's totally grassroots, and I'm not part of anything political"... to who actually gave him the flags the night before. Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.

"Patriots" showing their true colours.

As the MSM remembers Charlie Kirk and speaks out against his horrific assassination, let’s recall the Minnesota Congresswoman who was assassinated on June 14th 2025 along with her husband and their dog. Do you even remember her name?!

Charlie Kirk was killed for saying things "that used to be simple common sense," says Boris Johnson. Here's a few of those things

If only basic critical thinking was still taught in school.

#Historians everywhere, read it and weep. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Serendipity-doodah 😀

You won't find a better all-encompassing history of the first months of the First World War than this. An outstanding work by two dedicated historians, using new sources and first-hand, personal accounts from across the globe. Available now from all good booksellers.

At a time when so much discourse is dark and negative, this is worth a read.

Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him

This is where the empty headed Flag shagging leads. Race hate.

“The reality is that the Israelis are fast destroying the remaining chances of Palestinian statehood and there is little the UK can do about it.” I wrote about the UK’s recognition of Palestine for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social

Let's start the morning with a Tolkien collectable. This is a rather fabulous Middle Earth map based on JRRT's original but illustrated by Pauline Baynes, who worked on both Tolkien and C S Lewis books. This copy is a little faded but it's nearly as old as me and I am more faded!

This should be headline news - the implications are horrifying …

Reform UK, which has a grand total of four MPs, was just given an uninterrupted platform for an hour and a half on the BBC and Sky News channels, in order to talk about its plans for mass deportations When was the last time the Greens (with four MPs) or the Lib Dems (with 72) were given the same?

Farage supporters sharing one nose, one pair of eyes, and at least five fingers and a thumb.

Jeez, no wonder it was hard to get my sister to read superhero comics back then.

So @pikegrey1418.bsky.social and I were overwhelmed by the warm welcome given to us & @thegreatwargroup.bsky.social by Kansas City last night to share our book with everyone this side of the atlantic. Massive thanks to everyone at the National WWI museum & of course our host @bartparish.bsky.social

If, like me, you weren’t able to be in Kansas City last night, or lacked the stamina to stay awake after midnight, you can watch the international book launch of Ring of Fire with authors @alexchurchill.bsky.social and @pikegrey1418.bsky.social now on YouTube www.youtube.com/live/-yGJivU...

My favourite international name for a Mr Men character will never not be the name for Mr Bump in Norwegian, which is Herr Dumpidump. Tragically, the books with that title are now out of print. I’ll therefore be spending much of my remaining time in Norway searching antique bookshops for an old copy.

A set of The Works of Shakespeare, 12 volumes, all in full leather with marbled endpapers and page edges. Published between 1842 and 1844 and edited by Charles Knight. Close to edible!

Don't see one of these very often: the magisterial Folio Society set of all 20 Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian

My full statement on the Gaza Famine :