It’s a stupidly high bar but I believe this to be Craig Brown’s finest work

OTD 200 years ago today, Joseph Paxton arrived for his first day’s work at Chatsworth, aged 23. It was the start of an extraordinary career that changed the face of horticulture and architecture forever, his Crystal Palace of 1851 being, in Norman Foster’s words, ‘the birth of modern architecture’.

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My sister Tarisha is offering this extraordinary online course exploring, based on her own ongoing 16 year journey with cancer, how song can be both medicine and friend, and give us access to our own inner healer youtu.be/gN0AvnK0SUs?...

The way both these two men/fathers, James Hunt of ‘Stories about Autism’, and @johnharris1969.bsky.social talk about their autistic sons, and their experience of parenting these precious beings, is so beautiful and dignified and helpful. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Brilliant piece by @richardjmurphy.bsky.social on the ever-more-pressing relevance of the term ‘illth’, coined by John Ruskin, which perfectly describes the unfettered & rapacious Trumpian age we are living in. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/02...

Very grateful to The Arts Society for inviting me to be one of their monthly 'instant experts', sharing my admiration for the life & work of one of my lecture subjects, the C19th genius Joseph Paxton, the man who put the world under glass in his Crystal Palace of 1851. mailchi.mp/4e5ebf6ff131...

Lecturing today for The Arts Society Loughborough, on life & work of my old boss, mentor & friend Debo Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, who did so much to transform Chatsworth over 54 yrs. Topical again with popularity of TV dramatisation of her sisterhood’s pre-war life & a future Ch4 doc to come.

A dream of a job for the right person, in a dream of a place. #chatsworth

Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of John Ruskin, that complex, far-seeing C19th critic of the dehumanising impacts of industrial capitalism, the man who coined the term 'ILLTH' to describe hoarding, rapacious, extractive & selfish greed/behaviour, the opposite of...1/2

A lovely Substack from Louis Weinstock about time, to which I contribute, both as a man approaching 60, and as my zoom avatar, cunning fox. open.substack.com/pub/louiswei...

Never ceases to amaze me that with 30 mins free before or after a train journey from St Pancras, you can drop into the @britishlibrary.bsky.social permanent gallery of treasures, for free, & be quietly communing with the Lindisfarne Gospels, Magna Carta, Jane Austen, Beethoven & many other wonders.

Don’t Reform leaflets legally have to say *May contain Tories

You know who”stayed a little back” in VIetnam? DJT.

For anyone with any skin in the SEND game, directly or indirectly, bracing yourselves for the ugly reset (& accompanying lies & demonisation coming from Reform/Daily Mail types) that appears to be on its way, this is a really wonderful resource. @johnharris1969.bsky.social knows whereof he speaks.

Very serious and very funny at the same time.

Last moonlight of the year.

On our Christmas Day stroll to the pond today, Sophie unwittingly recreated, albeit it with rather more clothes on, Rembrandt’s beautiful painting of A Woman Bathing in the National Gallery.

Wonderful essay, weaving Arcadian thoughts around Austen, Stoppard and Chatsworth.

He’s right.

An exquisite tribute 🙏

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In tribute to the late Tony Harrison, BBC Radio 4 will be rebroadcasting this 2013 feature on v., his controversial long poem. Tony Harrison read the poem in full, and writer Blake Morrison discussed the poem's impact. Tune in at 11pm tonight, 6 Nov, or listen later. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

It’s hard to tell which is more hollow.

Brilliantly put.

I concur.

I carved this pumpkin in 2020, when America was making its first (and last?) attempt to be rid of the putrefying orange menace. It turns out that rotting carcasses can regenerate after all.

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

I found this a wonderful read. Fantasy vs Disappointment: a dispatch from the fence. open.substack.com/pub/louiswei...

They’re worse than ‘traditionalists’, some of the Restore Trust folk. They’re highly political, opaquely funded, regressive, entitled whingers, afraid of the rich, complex diversity of our heritage & history. They wish the @nationaltrust.org.uk nothing but malice, and this Life Member rejects them.

"There are no proven therapies or drugs that ‘cure’ autism. Most autistic people and families want research to focus on better understanding and support." Joint statement from the major UK autism charities: www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/about-us/med...

Beautiful from @olivermantell.bsky.social

Beautiful.

Because there is ‘so’ much more evidence of God’ existence than there is that queer people exist, and have always existed. Bigotry and cruelty exhibited proudly by people of ‘faith’ is never ending.

SUCH a beautiful piece of writing from @johnharris1969.bsky.social - manages to simultaneously honour the unique genius of Brian Wilson while also gently making the most civilised-possible argument for society to better understand the fragile necessity of neurodiversity in making a beautiful world.

Re extra money to improve schools' SEND provision: I agree with the Disabled Children's Partnership

Goodwood Art Foundation n Sussex today, with landscaping by Dan Pearson and an opening exhibition by Rachel Whiteread; a fantastic achievement.

First of two Arts Society lectures in Sussex today, on the colourful and consequential life and work of Debo, Mitford & Duchess of Devonshire, who worked with her husband Andrew on the revival of Chatsworth for more than half a century. #chatsworth

For once, not a new build, not in London and not a place afraid of the rich complexity of history, culture and society. Huge congratulations to Esme Ward and her colleagues.

What to Look For in Spring, with Kemi Badenoch

In beautiful Appleby-in-Westmorland to lecture for The Arts Society on the life & work of Debo, Mitford and Duchess of Devonshire, my boss & then friend, who transformed Chatsworth with her husband over 5 decades, making it a benchmark of heritage survival, visitor welcome & flourishing resilience.

My grandmas were immigrants, my mum & sisters in law are immigrants; my sister & nephews are migrants. My kids study maths, Shakespeare, dance, act & score tries alongside the kids of immigrants. My dad’s life was saved by immigrants. Immigrants have made us richer, wiser, stronger Win the fight

“I’ve always felt with the writers that I like that they continue to ask questions, they continue to be spellbound, to engage in wonder rather than becoming wise and knowledgable.” A yes from me; thank you Simon Armitage. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

This resonates very closely with my experience: www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

Brilliant and frightening piece. All the poisonous drek on this subject from farage etc is, in my view, simply the polite version of what they really crave, dominance for a white, straight, neuro-typical, Christian, patriarchal, militaristic master race, with everyone else left to rot. Venal toads.