Keats’ House, partially concealed by mellow fruitfulness.

The BBC has been “captured by a small group of [staff] promoting the Stonewall view” of the trans debate, according to a leaked document compiled by a former independent adviser ⬇️

As is traditional on October 31st, I present my greatest ever Halloween costume triumph: Watson as Cardinal Woofsley.

"Gender critical viewpoints are very commonly held, but they’re not commonly openly held, and that is the biggest problem for me. And that’s the massive reason why I’m starting the Society." Maeve Halligan

Cambridge students launch single-sex Society for Women: “We’re now at a point where I no longer can see inaction as just inaction. I now see a lot of it as just cowardice, and I’m not interested in it anymore.” – Maeve Halligan, CUSW President and Co-Founder. genderblog.net/cambridge-st...

Can highly recommend @lissakevans.bsky.social’s latest. Among many other things, the dog’s name is marvellous.

MUST READ! In the latest CST blog about the damaging changes going on at the BBC Written Archives Centre, @marklewisohn.bsky.social delivers his cri de cœur squarely at those who came up with or are signing-off on this policy shift. Please read and share widely. cstonline.net/defending-th...

The origin of the words ‘beanfeast’ and ‘beano’, from Alfred Duggan's 'Growing Up in the Thirteenth Century' (courtesy of @charliefarrow1 on X)

I wonder when the very last beanfeast took place…?

Alice Sullivan, a leading gender-critical researcher, has been shortlisted for the 2025 Maddox Prize for her landmark review into how sex is recorded in publicly funded research. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky https://ow.ly/7vkp50X4ztK

I have fianlly got around to reviewing these wonderful books by Lissa Evans. juxtabook.co.uk/2025/10/19/o...

I knew that Granny’s Flag - a picture book with a lovely rhyming text by Rachel Rooney and witty & detailed illustrations by Ros Asquith - would be a delight, but I didn’t expect that it would also bring tears to my eyes! ❤️❤️

Thank you!

Apologies for publishing self praise, but when I saw this piece by India Knight in today's @thetimes.com , I thought I might burst with happiness.

This recently re-appeared on my twitter timeline, so I thought I'd share it here. It's a list of books for escaping into, compiled during the very first lockdown. They're all personal favourites, pulled out of my memory and so not in any way definitive.

Totally thrilled to be on the Gold Crown shortlist 😁😁😁

We have just joined BlueSky! Since our foundation in 1880, we have reproduced an unrivalled selection of historic maps, plans and views of London. We also publish books and monographs containing original research. See more of what we have to offer at: londontopsoc.org

Smashed windows and graffiti at the Brighton Conference Centre, where women have come from all over the world to talk about male violence and women's human rights. This is trans activism, and it's misogyny in action.

Smashed windows and graffiti at the FiLiA conference. FiliA aims to amplify the voices of women, particularly those who are silenced or unheard, and to defend women's human rights. But clearly, they shouldn't be allowed to discuss anything at all without the prior approval of trans activists.

This made me laugh more than it probably should 😂 #funny

It’s very difficult (as you’ll see) to get a good pic of ⁦ Fortnum & Mason's⁩ window displays. They’re always imaginative, but these creatures, made of recycled materials, are absolutely magnificent. I’m bagging the hyena for my living room.

I had the brilliant idea of making a mitred square blanket (you join it up as you go along) to use up all my odds and ends of wool, except I've now run out of 'odds and ends' and the blanket is only a quarter finished so I'm having to buy vast amounts of extra 'odds and ends' just to carry on....

✨Open today!✨ Explore our brand new #Exhibition all about Wonder. Inspired by the cabinet of curiosity or Wunderkammer (wonder-room) that flourished in 17th and 18th-century Europe, this exhibition showcases the varied collections and often lesser-seen objects held by the Linnean Society.

You can always tell a book that was published during the war - poor-quality paper, narrow, often sloping margins - but still, amazing that it was published at all. This is ‘Daylight on Saturday’ by JB Priestley.

This book is actually available for a mere 99p on Kindle - but only for another 12 hours!!

Just finished Small Bomb at Dimperley by @lissakevans.bsky.social Loved it. Felt that whilst I was being entertained I was being educated about the social history of the country at the end of WW2. Stand out for me was the subtle way a character's disability was handled, all too rare a thing IMHO.

Husband is reading a political biog which contains this fantastic anecdote about George Brown, the boozy Deputy Leader of Harold Wilson’s cabinet:

I had Wenlock Priory all to myself for an hour. The fog had just lifted as I got there adding to the quiet solitude of the ruins of the church, chapter house, cloister & adjacent infirmary . Rare lavabo washing basin in the cloister garden & fab 12th c. carved stone detail in the chapter house 🤩

I keep a note of what I read and give a tick to books that have made a particular impact on me. I’m pretty stingy with ticks so this month’s four-in-a-row is unprecedented (the ‘RR’ means a re-read). Oh, and the correct title of the second book is ‘Saltwater Mansions’, duh..

I found this book compulsive reading: hypnotic, moving, lonely & strange - but am finding it difficult to recommend it to people because I can't for the life of me remember a single word of the title when I'm not directly staring at it. Sort of Groundhog Day by a Danish Writer.

Went to the Andy Goldsworthy retrospective & it feels full of ancient magic. Ended up having a long conversation with someone about the books of Rosemary Sutcliff which are imbued with the same deep sense of the past…

‘Use the Force, Luke, though not till you’ve topped up my bowl. There are some chicken bits on the middle shelf of the fridge…’

The longlist for the 2025 Historical Writers Association Nonfiction Crown is out (I was one of the judges), featuring 12 of this year's finest history books 📚

Hello + welcome if you have just found us! We're a podcast of #SlowRadio sounds from real places. Explore 280+ episodes of sea, country and quiet whenever you need. This is a good first listen. Episode 89 - The birds of the leafy ravine (37mins) A dawn chorus from Cheshire in June > bit.ly/LenPkD8

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the wonderful Llewelyn Morgan - featuring John Masefield, Aristotle, Rudyard Kipling, Matthew Arnold, Iain Pears and more!

I’ve been told my plan to give up work, live at the Prince Charles and watch films all day is “impractical” but I don’t listen to the haters

Is it autographed stamps?

Absolutely delighted that my book THE LIE OF THE LAND has won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing! This week, one of the book’s recommendations, a ban on moorland burning, became a reality. Next, we need a Nature Bill for England… bsky.app/profile/wain...

The WINNER of the 2025 Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing... The Lie of the Land, @guyshrubsole.bsky.social (@wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social) #WainwrightPrize #StoriesThatConnect

It’s wonderful as is @lissakevans.bsky.social

Exactly what I needed. Just a perfect gem of a book - great characters, nicely balanced, and properly funny. A bit like reading an Ealing Studios classic film

'In Episode One, former BBC journalists reflect on what it means to cover sex and gender with impartiality, what happens when stories are quietly shelved, the issue of safeguarding, and why trust in journalism is under strain.' seeninjournalism.substack.com/p/no-fear-no...

@johnofarrell.bsky.social Relevant to your current work - thought you might recognise my adolescent ruminations on the precision of a Fawlty Towers pay-off....(under the main post, which is in itself revelatory)

And somehow it’s time for the first page of ‘What to Look for in Autumn’. Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

Love this letter from Baroness Nicholson

"That's me, that is."

Loved today’s Sound of Cinema with @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social and totally agree with today’s guest, composer Anne Dudley, that the score for ‘The Witches of Eastwick’ is not only magnificent, but about 50 times better than the actual film… www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

That’s tea-time sorted, I’d imagine.

I’m trying to imagine a situation in which I phoned the Metropolitan Police to report three tweets, & they not only phoned me back, gave me a crime number & took me seriously, but dispatched five officers to arrest the Tweeter. It’s fantastical, unimaginable. Who gave the order, and why?