This review is well worth reading. It touches on so many issues I've been thinking about on pre-Christian belief, modern pagans, and our connection to ancient places. Many of these themes came up on our tour of the Hill of Tara with Muiris yesterday...

I'll be at the National Museum of Scotland on Sunday, talking about Upon A White Horse. It will be my only Edinburgh date this year, I think, so if you'd like to buy a signed and dedicated book for yourself or perhaps as a Xmas gift for someone, please do come along. www.nms.ac.uk/events/in-co...

And a little more lunchtime reading here…

A little lunchtime reading!

Someone should make a film about this woman en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_O'D...

Come and join us on Wednesday to learn more about our 250th Red Book (and something of the 249 before that!).

Over on 'All Old Strange Things' I've written a new free-to-read post reflecting on @peteralanross.bsky.social's thought-provoking book 'Upon A White Horse': substack.com/home/post/p-...

Life-Boat Chart of the British Isles, 1935.

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant @ravoon.bsky.social - featuring Ted Hughes, John Updike, Penelope Fitzgerald, Zaffar Kunial and much, much more!

I was convinced this must be a 1960s or 1970s brand, but wiki tells me it was founded in 1796. Which only goes to show how long the French have been cool for.

‘No amount of knowledge about medieval literary culture can make the Pearl Manuscript tell us what it means. Everyone has to speculate at some point.’ @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social on the manuscript that contains the only copy of ‘Gawain and the Green Knight’: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Ahead of the paperback publication of Helen Castor’s fabulous The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, I’ve reposted my interview with her from the top of the year.

Regular readers will know we’re big fans of Jean Gabin. A couple of weeks ago we visited Villerville on the Normandy coast, where they filmed Un Singe En Hiver with Jean-Paul Belmondo in 1962.

Ahead of the paperback publication of Helen Castor’s fabulous The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, I’ve reposted my interview with her from the top of the year.

Can't wait for this - I've had a taster - it's exciting! 😍

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...

Celebrate by reading The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by the great @andreawulf.bsky.social. A fascinating portrait.

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the wonderful @alexlarman.bsky.social – featuring Richmal Crompton, Evelyn Waugh, William Boyd, Anthony Quinn and more!

Happy 50th birthday to the brilliant @savetoreuse.bsky.social! And congratulations to Stephen Sheriff on such a fantastic film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOB_...

The most significant trip I've ever taken in terms of a new history of art. Ancient Egypt as we've never seen it before! @theobserveruk.bsky.social @nealspencer.bsky.social @timadamswrites.bsky.social rhttps://observer.co.uk/culture/art/article/face-to-face-with-the-pharaohs-tomb-artists

Oh, this should be good!

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the wonderful @alexlarman.bsky.social – featuring Richmal Crompton, Evelyn Waugh, William Boyd, Anthony Quinn and more!

From Times mag Lulu interview. This is what I alluded to a few weeks ago. The PR was Les Perrin, told to me by someone v close to Les. Her parents kicked off and started fighting at Lulu's London launch. It could have killed her career stone dead but 1964 was a different time in Fleet Street.

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 meaning to buy this for a while. This copy used to be part of the BBC record library, it seems. All part of the patina, I suppose. There’s plenty of that in the grooves too, but very happy to have it!

A wonderful book.

Despite his strong claim to have been the first king of a united England, the enigmatic Æthelstan has long been neglected by historians. His remarkable achievements are finally being recognised. When England began | Samuel Rubinstein engelsbergideas.com/reviews/when...

Fascinated that In Our Time is one of the BBC’s most popular podcasts among under 35s. The young people demand three academics and a peer discussing Demosthenes, apparently. And they’re right to do so.

Really enjoyed this. Lots of great quotes. (My own favourites include Burgess’ ‘this is clearly from the north face of the vineyard, where the diabetic tom cat goes for a pee’ and Hemingway’s ‘this wine makes your eyeballs feel rusty’.)

In case you missed it, here’s the latest, magnificent edition of the Writer’s Bookshelf featuring Victoria Moul as a guest. Come for her thoughts on everything from Antonia Forest to Proust, Barbara Trapido to the Book of Common Prayer, H. Rider Haggard to Virgil…

Preparing my talk on the Second World War as sexual revolution for next weekend's We Have Ways fest. I love this Fougasse Punch cartoon from the Changing Face Of Britain series, showing mags evolving thanks to the war from the everyday to militarism to the erotic

Who do you want to replace Melvyn Bragg at In Our Time? And who do think will replace him?

Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this. I hope it endures.

Deadline 2 October 2025.

This is well on its way to being the most-read edition of the Writer’s Bookshelf.

One more share for this. The sea, refugees, flags, and helping the people who are helping.

Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Well worth bookmarking this for a lunchtime read - or otherwise settling down with a nice cup of tea for a few minutes. It’s an absolute joy.

New on the Writer's Bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the wonderful Victoria Moul. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-writer...

I’m looking forward to hearing @questingvole.bsky.social talking at @waterstones.bsky.social Streatham on Wednesday. Tickets here:

Another very specific request (because y’all sorted my last one so quickly!) Are there any war historians on here who would be willing/able to talk to me about what was happening around Caen in the weeks after the D Day landings?

Now watching. Nine tracks from Van c1973. I used to have this on video many moons ago. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwX0...

Now watching. Terrific so far

I’m not a poet, but I’ve been invited to read in West London *tonight* Sat 30 August, alongside poets from the IPLA Collective at The Bouda Gallery, 132 Palace Gardens Terrace, London, W8 4RT. Starts 7pm. FREE no booking. Come along!

Do look out for a magnificent contribution from Victoria Moul, coming this Monday!

An old piece tracking the ghosts of Elizabethan London.

Thanks Prog! www.loudersound.com/bands-artist...

🎬 You can now watch a free preview of Ancient #Rome featuring Andrew Wallace-Hadrill et al. on our substack! 🔎 Four celebrated historians share intriguing perspectives on daily life in #AncientRome 🗃️ #history #ancientbluesky #classicsbluesky #skystorians ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/ancient-rome

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Just watched the Thursday Murder Club. You can see where it could be fun - and perhaps the book is better - but it only occasionally sputtered into a kind of life. Daniel Mays the pick of the cast, I guess.