Humbled & honoured to be part of Radical Rural @themerl.bsky.social Those many years, voicing what felt a lone, alt narrative from the muddy gateways, was always a chorus, a choir. The Merl as 2nd home, that contains all my eras (likely some of yours too.) Never been a better time to visit!

Finally saw Howard Hawks' ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. Terrific screenplay performed with gusto by a great cast, directed with panache. Of special interest to fans of early aviation and, especially, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Classic adventure filmmaking with wit, heart, romance and excitement. #FilmSky

A big thank you to writer and historian Mathew Lyons for inviting me to participate in his brilliant series about reading habits: open.substack.com/pub/mathewly... His Substack, The Broken Compass, is superb, highly recommended. Thanks Mathew! 🙏

I wrote a book! The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living will be published by @reaktionbooks.bsky.social on 1st April- and if you preorder from Waterstones between now and Friday it is 25% off: www.waterstones.com/book/the-med...

We're hiring at Birkbeck! Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics, full-time and open-ended. Closing date March 18th. Details here: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

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

Excellent book post this morning!

‘Why can’t the existing railway station be given a gentle and historically sensitive upgrade without the addition of an architecturally redundant tower block?’ – Charles Saumarez Smith on why plans to redevelop Liverpool Street station are an architectural train wreck

This is a crucial point: it’s just not good enough to hope LLMs will become ‘more accurate’ at stuff like this - the inaccuracy is a *feature* of LLM-generated content because it is trained on everything, the good and the bad. It will never be accurate.

Really looking forward to this gorgeous celebration of books & nature, & the wonderful Gilbert White. It’s a stunning place & a great line-up. Excited to be on stage with the brilliant @nicwilson.bsky.social where we’ll be discussing her wonderful book #LandBeneaththeWaves, along with mine.

Roses are red Violets are blue Tickets to HistFest 2026 Is what they want from you… events.bl.uk/events/histf...

George Michael, Charlie Watts.

‘Why can’t the existing railway station be given a gentle and historically sensitive upgrade without the addition of an architecturally redundant tower block?’ – Charles Saumarez Smith explains why plans to redevelop Liverpool Street station are an architectural train wreck

Kindle edition currently 99p. www.amazon.co.uk/Anglo-Saxons...

Had an email scam through the other day addressing me as Damon Runyon – given the circles he moved in, not a man you'd want to impersonate.

The book club scam has taken an exciting new leap forward. I got one today from a "curated literary platform and newsletter" that, unusually, offered a link to its website. I'm in edits, so obviously I took the opportunity to procrastinate. /1

Heaven forbid anyone should be surprised, delighted, or otherwise impassioned, by something unexpected. So much mainstream book publishing works on this model too. How many books are positioned as 'for fans of [author X]' or 'if you liked [author X], you'll like this'?

Is it a coincidence that I’ve started mine just at the time @backlisted.bsky.social is suspending operations? Yes. Although if you’re missing the wonderful Backlisted you could always replace it with Six Things, with which it has – and I cannot stress this enough – absolutely nothing in common.

We're approaching the two month mark for our next live show: 📖The Book of Sir Thomas More: Piece by Piece📖 🎟️Two months to go, but not many tickets left - especially after a little flurry of sales today.🎟️ A deep dive into the play, the manuscript, the sources. www.ticketsource.co.uk/beyondshakes...

HistFest is back! We’re thrilled to share details of HistFest 2026. From Ancient Greek naval commanders and Egyptian queens to the history of motherhood and LGBTQ+ social histories – this year, we bring you a raft of fascinating histories and speakers. Book now! histfest.org/histfest-2026/

One lesson of the Epstein emails is the total intellectual vacuousness of the international business elite www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Really enjoyed watching this conversation!

🚨Record response to our campaign for Liverpool Street station. 🙏Thank you to all that have objected so far. Today is the last day to have your say www.building.co.uk/news/record-...

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

The TLS diary column picked up on my Substack post about the John Carey / George Barker contretemps.

The TLS diary column picked up on my Substack post about the John Carey / George Barker contretemps.

This was great fun: The Moomins, Thomas Hardy, Midsomer Murders… what’s not to love?! Many thanks to the fab @mathewlyons.bsky.social #HardStreets @profilebooks.bsky.social

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

"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"

Very grateful to @andrewmale.bsky.social for highlighting some of the early 30-line television content featured in 'Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain', and so pleased at the interest (and even sales!) this is stirring up.

If you're popping to Carlisle for this exhibition, why not go on the 7th March to coincide with me talking about gladiators? Can't wait to see the this wonderful exhibition one last time... Tickets avaiable here: tullie.org.uk/events/roman...

well there’s an instant switch

I've been reading & rereading @ravoon.bsky.social's debut Dirt Rich the last couple of weeks. It's the best new collection I've read in a very long time. It reclaims the techniques of Auden and MacNeice for the 21st century, while mining layers of memory – personal. familial, social – …

The Largest Historical Dictionary of English Slang Now Free Online: Covers 500 Years of the “Vulgar Tongue”

Our co-florist @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social has written a guest post for @northseapoets.bsky.social on Auden and 'Imaginary Friends' northseapoets.substack.com/p/audens-ima...

Poetry & history of family & place! ONLY CHANCE to hear my workshop after 5 yrs research for 'Village'.I'll read varied poems from my 10(!) books. & you can read a poem at friendly Open Mic! Buzzwords, Exmouth Arms, Cheltenham,Glos, Sun 8 Feb, 7 pm, £5 waged, £3 unwaged SEARCH FOR BUZZWORDS BLOGSPOT

My essay on the wonders of Russell Hoban - two days late for his 101st birthday, but better late than never.

An absolute delight to be at the launch of @jacriding.bsky.social’s terrific new book, Hard Streets, about working class life in late Victorian London, Chaplin’s family included. Lovely to meet up with old friends and new.

Interesting piece on Andy Goldsworthy's Gravetstones art work on the BBC website. It's an "exclusive first look" apparently. I offered it to a national newspaper last year but they turned it down. I ended up writing it for my Substack. smallfinds.substack.com/p/small-find...

I posted elsewhere about a lady in one of my Leeds Irish Health and Homes workshops who wrote 'I've had dementia / for as long as I can remember'. It came back to me reading @ravoon.bsky.social's tremendous debut 'Dirt Rich', full of technically brilliant, emotionally-devastating work like this:

I see people are getting all excited about 'that' speech from The Booke of Sir Thomas More, the authorship of which - in the context of a VERY complicated collaborative source text - is by no means proven to be by Shakespeare. Despite how desperate generations of Shakespeareans have been to claim it

I'm very sorry to read of the death of David Gelber in the latest Literary Review. He was my editor there and we had struck up a friendship over email. We were planning to meet in the new year. A warm, generous, perceptive and principled man.

This should be terrific. Jacqueline's book is a compelling portrait of the hard lives of the London working class. I recognise the struggle of my great-grandparents in there. It's not that long ago.

There are vanishingly few places for literary critics to work and for writers to have their books seriously reviewed. Depressing stuff.

Happy 101st Birthday to the late Russell Hoban (4 February 1925 - 13 December 2011). #sa4qe @russellhoban.bsky.social

I'm very sorry to read of the death of David Gelber in the latest Literary Review. He was my editor there and we had struck up a friendship over email. We were planning to meet in the new year. A warm, generous, perceptive and principled man.

‘In his right hand he holds two arrows, one red and one black – one for love, one for indifference – as though deciding which arrow he will choose to shoot at us’. Breeze Barrington on Caravaggio’s ‘Victorious Cupid’ at the Wallace Collection

"With their abbreviated slang, powerful figures in a hurry signal ethical decay."

'I started as the poetry critic for The Sunday Times in January 2022. “Your main qualification,” the books editor said, offering me the role, “is that you have no friends.” Reviewing poetry for four years, I’ve even fewer friends now.' Love this opener from @ravoon.bsky.social.