View from my seat the other day. This new programme is going to be really, really fun! :-) #medieval

My computer has just tried to change 'more irate' to 'irater'. This ubiquitous AI word salad is making me iraterer by the minute . . .

Hilarious! The philosopher G A Cohen on his supervisor at university, Gilbert Ryle.

I was immensely pleased to participate in this debate to argue for the survival of museums - places where we appreciate that we all have far more in common navigating this life than what we are encouraged to believe divides us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUsV...

It's 10 years since Brexit. The biggest debate in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland is whether or not to remain in the British union. It's not just the Tory-Labour hegemony that's passing. It's the c19th/20th structure of what the United Kingdom is and what it stands for.

How the Falkland Islanda came to be British, and the full story of the militarily astonishing achievement of a decisive sea-air-land war (Op Corporate) fought 9,000 miles from Britain, April-June 1982. All in 'Anatomy Of A Nation', now a steal on Amazon!

Join me with Iain Dale on LBC radio at 9pm tonight to discuss all things Saint George! Special to England, Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, Catalonia and Aragon, Moscow, Beirut, etc. Yet now a polarizing figure in the British culture wars.

ChatGPT has invented a new way of saying “I’m spouting ripe tosh”. When challenged it replies “You’re right. My previous answer was too categorical.” What bilge. It was not “too categorical”. It was arrant cobblers.

Trump threatening the pope is nothing new. In 1303 Philip IV of France kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII over an argument. It killed the pope. Philip then put the pope on posthumous trial for heresy, blasphemy and immorality. Y'all going to need some popcorn for this one.

Klaxon! 🚨 There is a petition 📃 to rescue Gentleman's Relish. There simply cannot be anything more important today calling for two minutes of your precious time! 🍞☕🐠 Please do sign and share! www.change.org/p/reverse-th...

Medieval crusaders believed they had a divine mandate for governing, democide, erasure and kleptocracy. But holding power proved impossible. As the same themes dominate again across the Middle East history is more helpful than dogma.

As the democratically elected leader of the US threatene civilizationcide, the media who put him there don't offer judgement. Nor do world leaders looking after their own skins. Historians of democracy will have a real job to unpack how the world broke so profoundly so quickly.

Let's remember these are all crimes. Waging aggressive war. Using clearly excessive force. Targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure, hospitals, humanitarian workers, cultural/religious sites. Attacking in a way that cannot distinguish between military and civilian targets.

The surname ‘Fetherston Haugh’ has long delighted people for its pronunciation as ‘Fanshaw’. I have just come across, in London archical records from 1913, a Miss Mabel Fetherston Haugh Shaw. I can hear her now, in a cut-glass accent ‘Do be a darling and tell him Mabelfanshawshaw is here’.

The right to bear arms, Hegseth says, is from god. That is (a) absurd as humans have worshipped 10s of 1000s of deities, (b) the constituion is "We the people", (c) why did 'god' wait until the 2d Amend? Also it actually drew on a narrower clause in England's Bill of Rights.

"Ai is going to put [name career] out of a job." Historians, you're safe.

We are going to hear a lot of pundits quoting this one. So here's the source.

The ACTUAL Darth Vader (seriously!) from Lucasfilm is in London at the awesome 'Samurai' exhibition at the British Museum. Helmet based on Samurai armour, especially the shikoro flared neck-guard. Star Wars is partially based on the 1958 samurai film The Hidden Fortress.

A while back I had a lovely chat with Alice Roberts in the Bodleian about all things King Arthur. Turns out someone was filming ... . On Sky History this evening

Brilliant to see the Tale of the 47 Rōnin (the Akō incident) in the British Museum's stunning new show 'Samurai'. It's one of the best stories ever. Pure bushidō. Duty, honour, protocol, louche living, courage, revenge, sacrifice, and really quite a lot of seppuku.

Damn! I love the French. “We do prefer respect to bullies. We do prefer science to obscurantism. And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.” Principled. Confident. Meaningful. And not dumbing it down conceptually or in vocabulary. Obscurantism is one hundred per cent le mot juste.

U.S. has approx 11,000 military in UK, and uses approx 6 RAF facilities as forward operating fighter/bomber bases, intel, comms, missile warning. How does this coexist with tarrifs on UK for upholding art. 5 of NATO treaty? This is global chaos.

When leaders seize leaders to project power. Hitler, Otto Skorzeny, and the seizure of Mussolini from the Gran Sasso massif in the Apennines, 12 September 1943. youtu.be/eCxuGakhWLM

Why ethno-nationalsm has never been part of Britain's identity. Me talking to @SimonMarksFSN on LBC. Starts at 7:45. youtu.be/H2xC7nkcTos?...

My happy place! Some very fun FORBIDDEN HISTORY podcasts coming soon!

I think if ever it's a choice between a grailly grail and any other kind of grail, I'm going with the grailly one.

Psychopomp at the Water Rats in Camden. 11 December. ‘Rocking the classics hard so you don’t have to’. Tickets £10 via QR code or link. s6946974.sendpul.se/sl/MjcwNjExM...

The two oldest monarchies in the world get together properly after a few centuries of time out. Pope Leo XIV and KIng Charles III sit on thrones dating back respectively to AD 756 and AD 927.

This should be standard governmental issue to every home in the land.

Loving the graffitti art at Canterbury Cathedral. Great lettering! To those sad at the change to the grey purity, worth remembering that before the Reformation churches and cathedrals were a Dulux catalogue of colours and images from which visitors learned church teachings.

I have to say, we rocked hard at the 100 Club! What a blast!

Which London stage has hosted Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Scott, BB King, Chuck Berry, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, Eddie Grant, Alice Cooper, The New York Dolls ...

Brilliant trip down memory lane in the @guardian's article on Tipper Gore and the PMRC in the 1980s. An entirely absurd moral panic over rock music lyrics. Naturally the stickers became badges of approval guaranteeing zillions of sales. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

The Bible is an unusual anthology. Certain passages are very familiar, others not so much. Especially the Old Testament. I loaded Ezekiel’s description of a cherub (and a few directions on style, lighting, etc.) into AI. Pretty pleased with the result!

The beautiful Parthenon, with all its many traumas, records millennia of history. Left = c19th Parthenon before reconstruction. Right = Selene's horses from East Pediment. Top is cast of horse in British Museum. Middle and bottom are original sculptures in Akropolis Museum.

Good people! Psychopomp hit the legendary 100 Club stage at 8.40 pm on 9 October, a week and half away! All the bands look amazing, and it's going to be a fabulous evening! As Worzel Gummidge would say: "Screw your Rock head on!".

Yep! I can totally come up with some branding that screams 'mega cool sunglasses emporium'. Trust me I've got this.

European Heritage day here in Athens, and free entry to the Akropolis Museum means it is heaving! What a fabulous sight (and site)!

Don't know why people are down on London. Glorious blend of old and new. Woken this morning by a soundscape of the clacking hooves of a trotting horse and, in the background, the persistent warble of a police siren ascending an unfeasibly long hill. #UKDoingFine

‘The Marbles’ is out. It is a film made to support the case for the UK Parliament to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. The director — a super guy — kindly allowed space for me to put a contrary point of view.

Today I shall be mostly reading about a suffragette called Nelippy Hay. Please can Nelippy be one of those cool names you never heard and then suddenly it's everywhere?

In suitably Spinal Tap style I managed to get my finger over the lens ... 🤘🏽

The most prolific killer after Mao, Stalin, Hitler (in that order) was likely Genghis Khan (C12-13th). Do listen for a quick immersion in his life, worldview and Mongol domination. Me in conversation with Iain Dale. Civilian-slaughtering maniacs are always with us. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...

Delighted and privileged to be debating at the glorious Old Parliament House in Athens on 29 Sep. “Who Owns History” and the Parthenon Sculptures The questions for me are: does the C21st want to nationalize history, and what education does the world want from its museums.

Once is a misfortune. Twice is carelessness. Is Mandelson going to make the hatrick?

Is "die" dying and are we witnesses to the death of "died". As all things pass will the Missa pro defunctis and the Officium defunctorum soon be the Mass for the Passed and the Office of the Passed?

Day 1 of Reform conference. BBC is broadcasting their line "freedom of speech" and similar “rights going back to Magna Carta” are in peril. As you didn't challenge it, @BBC, please share where this right is in Magna Carta? Or does your policy just allow weaponizing ahistorical tosh.

Just five weeks to go until "Sustainabiltiy Rocks" at Oxford Street's legendary 100 Club! We are fired up and ready to röck with all the other amazing bands playing!