Engrossing stuff. I salute the heroes who made illustrated books in the days before everything was digitised. When I started in publishing you’d have the regular pleasure of opening big card envelopes with gorgeous paintings in them, rather than just a PDF (although also a scary responsibility)

Happy birthday to @unamccormack.bsky.social .

There is a dynamic of “working towards the Führer” going on at the moment (you work out what the leader wants and give it to him). This has certain advantages for a tyrannical leader: it limits how directly you’re implicated, and you can drop the subordinate in it if it turns out to be inexpedient.

Buttons (next door's cat): I have come home! Let me in! Us: It is good to see you, but you live next door. Buttons: No, I have been on an expedition and am very tired. Look, this is my house! (Rubs head against door frame, table legs.) Prepare high tea! (Looks meaningfully in direction of kitchen.)

We are hiring! @histparl.bsky.social's House of Lords (1660-1832) section - aka The Georgian Lords - is looking for a new research fellow. Details of the post and how to apply are below. Please spread widely. #skystorians historyofparliament.com/2026/01/12/v...

These chaps drank an average of 7 to 12 pints A DAY and we wonder why Britain’s industry in the 1970s was such a mess…

If you: 1. Need to get guests to studios, and back home after, or 2. Need to get staff safely into work or back home after the tube has stopped running You need to use taxis or private hire. If you do that via contract, it’s cheaper than paying full price each time.

A long, long post on The Doctor Who Dinosaur Book by Terrance Dicks and illustrated by George Underwood (who I spoke to): 0tralala.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-...

Is this one of those “pick two” scenarios?

That a newspaper from June 1984 captions Tom Baker as 'Dr Who', but the then-current Doctor, Colin Baker, simply as 'actor', testified to the difficulty of succeeding Tom in the eyes of the press at least.

‘If a drug boasted such benefits [as the arts] governments would be pouring billions into it. Instead, funding has been slashed across the culture sector.’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A tale of contrasting principles forced by budgeting and poor planning into becoming opposites. The cafés and screens of the pragmatic business-focused city should have been able to accommodate the now lost British Library of the North.

The @manchestermill.bsky.social is such a gem of a local paper. This article on the Central Library demonstrates so well how the local can be a microcosm of wider trends. “It seems possible that what was being fought over here was not only the books, but two competing visions of this city. “

"On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns."

Gavin Monks, 48, is vaguely aware that before this morning he had hobbies, interests, and possessions, but has no idea what those could be, and even less idea where such possessions could ever be found.

It's Bowie's birthday, which means it's time for the annual repost of my drawing of a bunch of dancing Daves in the style of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts. Happy Birthday, Mr Jones.

Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."

As we remember David on his birthday, this is lovely news. And it’s great to know that it’s in such caring and diligent hands. They really don’t come any better than Geoffrey Marsh and the rest of the team who are looking after this culturally enriching project. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

How do you deal with a mad, vicious lying **** like Trump. To hear him say the ICE guy who shot the woman in the car was run over and us in hospital - then watch the video evidence - is chilling. He’s an evil despot!

Happy publication day to Laura! We can’t wait for everyone to read her gorgeous memoir. Who’s ordered their copy?

The BBC should be "impartial", but that doesn't mean refusing to make judgments. A jury or a football referee should be "impartial": they should not be "partial", or prejudiced, to one side or other. But that doesn't excuse them from making decisions. It's why we trust them to do so.

🟦 CLEAN FEED | We've moaned many times about the 1997 - 2021 BBC blocks logo continuing to find its way on to new productions. But this endboard from Lynley takes the biscuit.

Among the news stories, the discovery of a Roman whetstone-shaping centre on Wearside: BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Offerton Roman factory 'hidden in plain sight' on River Wear - BBC News

Presenter Carol Malia apologised at the start of tonight's programme for the Newcastle Look North's absence last night, blaming a technical problem.

BBC regional news from Newcastle is restored, with Look North's 2230 bulletin for the North East and Cumbria present and correct.

There has been a belated welcome to viewers in the North East and Cumbria - I don't think Leeds knew Newcastle was down until after the programme had started. Now on to weather warnings for Yorkshire and the North Midlands (but a Northallerton story is trailed, from the overlap zone).

No Look North from Newcastle tonight, it seems - we are being presented with the Leeds programme with no explanation. #regionalia #bbcregionalnews #optoutobsessive

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 📚 | Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

There’s a lot of talk about NATO’s Article 5, and what it would mean if one NATO country attacked another. There’s not nearly enough attention being paid to Article 42.7 of the Treaty of Lisbon, and what happens if an EU member state is attacked.

Let's talk about generative AI, contaminated information, and rhubarb. Once upon a time, Europe was at war. Food was scarce, and the government of the quote-unquote United Kingdom looked for alternatives. 1/

[butterfly meme] is an offshore blockade of oil tankers and a bunch of murders of fishermen a "Weberian monopoly on the use of legitimate violence"?

I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of political scientists cried out in bafflement and then suddenly fell into silent sobbing.

I'm back after the Xmas break, and for my first post of the year it is my pleasure to inform you that Call My Bluff and Face the Music are back on BBC 4 from 9 tonight. And, if you haven't read it yet, here's my piece for @lionunicorn.bsky.social that features both shows: #BBC4 #70stelevision

I suggest BBC journalists consider making liberal use of the word ‘abducted’.

Our wonderful regular writer @laurarichmond.bsky.social has written the most incredible memoir of mental health & motherhood. It comes out this week and we will be hyping it up all week & forever! We’re not good at subtle, so to be autistic about it: BUY IT - wiltonsquarebooks.com/products/all...

Jan. 5, 1776: New Hampshire adopts a constitution, making it the first colony to create a government separate from royal authority. This landmark step toward independence is approved by a convention meeting in Exeter, two months after the Continental Congress authorized the action. 1/8

It's not about people being impaitient or the evul meeja or the Corbynites or whatever. The reason why this government communicates and governs like Bagpuss - sparking into life before returning to its slumber - is just the age old story of 'the principal is not running his department effectively'.

Lulu have yet another discount code for purchased books. Follow this link dwasonline.co.uk/ct_annual and use the code on checkout.

This is the correct read. Most European leaders have a 'white knuckle it until Governor Fungible (D-Nonsuch) gets 270 electoral votes in 2029' approach. Not a good idea IMV.

Probably people who were talking loudly in the reference section, as a warning to others. Oh, Iberians.

The Georgian Lords welcomes in the new year with a post by Robin Eagles on the likely identification of new Black voters in 18th-century London and Hertfordshire: historyofparliament.com/2026/01/05/s... #HistParl #skystorians

This silver groat of James III of Scotland (1484-1488) was one of the 1st coins minted in Northern Europe with a realistic portrait in the Renaissance style. This example from the Lord Stewartby Collection is one of the best preserved I've ever seen.

One of the most commonly held misconceptions about the reign of Philip of Spain in England (1554-1558) is that he was widely unpopular and resented by the English population, sentiments that the king allegedly reciprocated. The archival record is full of references that

Ah, the curiosities of the hereditary peerage. RIP Sister Ancilla Dent; but the barony of Furnivall emerges from abeyance and her sister Patricia becomes the twentieth holder of the peerage, a barony by writ created in 1295. Once this meant a seat in the House of Lords, but not now.

Fascinating. And obv it gives the lie to the old "Nobody could have imagined that home video recorders would come along" excuse for junking.

This feels like a dramatic extension of the old English legal formula by which alleged crimes committed outside England could be pursued in court as if Paris or other overseas places were in the parish of St Martin in the Fields. (I can't recall the exact circumstances in which this was used.)

Sad news: Gregory de Polnay, Dixon of Dock Green regular and the incomparable D84 in Doctor Who’s Robots of Death has died aged 82. He was a lovely man and an excellent actor and renowned drama teacher.

Notre Dame Law Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell on CNN re: the strikes. “There has been a detention, a kidnapping, and a removal of [Maduro] unlawfully. [While Maduro was abusive], there is no reason to double down on the lawlessness… the U.S. should be demonstrating how to comply with the law.”