It was an enormous pleasure to interview @peteralanross.bsky.social about his work. His latest book, Upon a White Horse, is out in paperback today. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/memory-pla...

A lot to do still but getting there at the allotment. Started some potato bags, more to do though and tidied the strawberry and raspberry bed. Parsnips, leeks and beetroot in. Wild flower and nasturtium seeds sown. Broad beans are doing ok but again more to plant after Easter.

It was a pleasure to see the @edwardsboys.bsky.social again in The Knight of the Burning Pestle at The Charterhouse. As always absolutely brilliant. Well done to everyone. We loved this bawdy tale with a surprising and funny soundtrack

Excited to talk about this — finally — and to be working with Pan Macmillan. Better do some work.

🍻ANOTHER ROUND OF GOOD NEWS: Demolition of The Anglesea Arms has been refused! 🔔A few weeks ago, SAVE rang the bell to notify the public about the proposed razing of this 184 year old pub in South London. 📷Ewan M

“Unforgettable…” Almost 24 years ago Liza Minnelli didn’t so much play as slay the Royal Albert Hall. And I was there to witness it. And since she is 80 today, here are my thoughts from back then. www.theguardian.com/theobserver/...

Mexico’s disgraced saviour General Antonio López de Santa Anna completed his comeback #OnThisDay in 1839 as the Pastry War came to a close. ✍️ Mathew Lyons explains www.historytoday.com/archive/mont...

Thrilled to get a copy of this exquisite book in the post at lunchtime. Now I just need to find someone who wants me to write about it…

I loved writing this article about art deco, transports and the interwar years. It brings together some of my real passions! If you find this interesting then the exhibition at London Transport is definitely worth visiting, or join @artdecosocuk.bsky.social :-) www.artfund.org/explore/get-...

Have you ever wondered what a hardback book looks like without pages!? Here are our two latest titles, book n@ked, so to speak! #booksky #publishing

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the great @chrisnaunton.bsky.social.

BREAKING NEWS: We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that the Southbank Centre - the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and skaters undercroft - has finally been Grade II listed by DCMS after a 35 year long campaign. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/southba...

Objections have to be in before the end of Tuesday 3 February

Looking forward to talking at the legendary Dillons aka Waterstones on Gower Street this coming Thursday, about Atomic Albion and the very strange world of nuclear.

I have LOADS of Tales of the Suburbs events coming up! Announced so far: Foyles (with Luke Turner), Bookseller Crow (with Karen McLeod), Curious Minds festival in Bath and The Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh. Loads more to come! www.johngrindrod.co.uk/events

Pimp Hall Farm, Chingford, c.1890. This was a working farm until the mid 1930s. The farm house was subsequently demolished and the site became a Council run nursery and allotments. The 17th cent Dovecote survives and is Grade II listed. #ImageoftheMonth

Terrific story!

I found a Stanford Road in Woodford Green / Highams Park in a 1940s A to Z. I know this area well but didn’t know about it. It was a road of pre-fabs that were demolished in 1960. There are still echoes in The Highams Park today. Humphry’s was the community Centre

Good morning Normandy!

I always seek out arcades they are wonderful. There is a lovely coffee shop halfway along Burlington arcade which allows for top notch people watching if you sit outside

Concrete churches of the year so far. Looking forward to seeing more in Milan this weekend. 1. Notre Dame du Raincy, outskirts of Paris 2. Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Loulé, Portugal

Explore the best of the West End’s #ChristmasLights and shop windows on one of my popular Foodie themed Christmas Lights walks. Walking dates on Tue 2nd, Thu 4th & Mon 15th all at 7pm and virtually on Monday 29th at 6 www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/foodie-th...

They were going so quickly but we bagged 2 in the front stalls 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

At the beautiful Walthamstow Library for some business training...such a stunner! Built between 1907 and 1909 by J W Dunford. As the first images states, the building is 'dedicated to knowledge'.

This is niche, but if you find you're at a loose end in Bristol this coming Friday lunchtime... secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Fabulous 1972 documentary about 77yo Dorothea Woodward Fisher. Cheltenham Ladies College. Married a lighterman. Built a Thames barge business. Lived as a man from the waist up. The definition of formidable. Amazing slice of social history. youtu.be/hf1FUQUJx1U?...

New VIDEO! Britain's newest station is open ...

‘In the 1960s, most British architects worked for councils, and although they seldom lived in the council housing they designed, when they built for themselves they tended to create something similar.’ Owen Hatherley on the origins of Mid-Century Modern. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

London’s sewer system. A product of heroic Victorian endeavour and spectacularly over-specified engineering (which is why it’s lasted so well…!)

First public library for Lewes, Sussex: rightmove.co.uk/properties/1... #LibrariesOnRightmove

More gold from the BBC Archive: a 1974 doc on the RNLI at 150. Features a moment of Hergest Ridge, great knitwear and, incredibly moving, the Penlee lifeboat and crew that would be lost with all hands not many years later: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g_C...

Rather gorgeous bookshop, for @leighstanford.bsky.social

A gorgeous lunch at Gina restaurant in Chingford today.

Really enjoyed doing this Q&A about my reading habits, including why I don’t believe in the concept of guilty pleasures, Derek Jarman, separating the art from the artist re. Roald Dahl & why Patrick O’Brian is the writer I will go back to again and again

Art of Laundry. By Caroline Johnson, fine artist and Manchester’s “official Urban Sketcher”… via Richard Elsen

A bonus post for the weekend: the deep joys of watching birds for a week in the Normandy bocage. Birds are good to think with, as Jeremy Mynott wrote. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...

Rav from Junior Bake Off has opened a new restaurant near us with her chef husband Matty. We went last night. It was heavenly. Martinis. Monkfish. The tenderest pork. Rich dark chocolate cake. Are you in east London? Go check it out! www.ginarestaurant.co.uk

🗞️"It is hard to appreciate now, but SAVE’s early activities fundamentally transformed the perception of heritage, & expanded the scope of what was deemed worth keeping" 🎂SAVE's 50th celebrated in the ‪@theguardian.com‬ ‪@ollywainwright.bsky.social‬ Read the story: shorturl.at/8gnse

Here's an exciting opportunity to gain in-depth heritage sector experience with our members SAVE Britain's Heritage. They are looking for two interns to join their team for six months. Find our more on our website: heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk/jobs/ #HeritageJobs #HeritageInternship

Calling Epping Forest enthusiasts! There's currently a great exhibition of the photography of James A Brimble up at the visitor centre in Chingford. Dad just gave me his copy of Brimble's book (an essential EF text) & I recommend going up to see some of the photos printed out in a larger size (1/3)

Four Anglo-Saxon churches to visit.

The Flash Lane aqueduct hidden deep in the woods on the old Whitewebbs loop of the New River near Enfield. Cast iron trough on brick supports, constructed 1820 over the Cuffley Brook; redundant by 1850 when the New River was shortened by cutting off the loop completely…

Looking forward to seeing the new exhibition at the William Morris Gallery which starts on 5th April. My cast will come off that week 🤞and hopefully a few weeks later I can visit

With some rearranging of furniture by Mathew, I can now sit in the conservatory comfortably and look at the garden. I’m desperate to get out there and to the allotment but that will have to wait for now. What a fabulous spring day! ☀️☀️

As I won’t be out walking for a month or two I’m rewatching John Rogers walks from the last 10 years! I’ve just watched Gallion’s Reach and Highgate and might spoil myself with the Black Path one before lunch! youtube.com/@johnrogersw...

Breakfast in bed on this lovely sunny Sunday. Yesterday there was a chance that I would have surgery but I knew by 9am that wasn’t to be. I’ll be nil by mouth again tonight and going forward if it doesn’t happen tomorrow. More reading and sewing today as well as icing my ankle in readiness.

Well a call on Sunday meant I was back to the hospital yesterday morning for my op! Didn’t go quite to plan as still swollen and blistered. Another operation instead, an external fixator and a stay in hospital until after the main op. On the plus side it’s sunny outside ☀️☀️😊

Gutted we can’t go now

What’s up Bluesky asks, well this actually! A trimal break of my right ankle. Operation planned in the next week when the swelling subsides.