“It’s both funny and serious. The speaker’s a shit. That’s always serious.” Philip Larkin joins the culture wars. jwikeley.substack.com/p/solemn-sin...

Delighted to be at the launch of @historylauren.bsky.social's new biography of the extraordinary Margaret Beaufort last night. Lauren’s such a brilliant writer and historian. I can’t wait to read it!

I can't be the first academic to go with the "Marvell's Comic Universe" line, surely. profadamroberts.substack.com/p/carping-at...

This is one of my favourite pieces - written for Slightly Foxed a couple of years ago. A joy to write and research. (Which is why I'm currently researching her some more!) mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-acid-t...

It was lovely to attend the launch this evening of Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker by the fabulous @historylauren.bsky.social A great evening and I’m sure that the book will do really well! #margaretbeaufort

Filing this under grimly funny.

The binfire that is the British Library just gets worse, doesn't? – It spends a decade or more prioritising eg, events over its IT systems – The resulting hack leaves it still incapable of fulfilling its core function two years later – Staff strike because they are treated no better than its users …

I love how there's a Bruegel for every occasion and every post!

Link here! mathewlyons.substack.com/p/ten-books-...

I was so very pleased to blurb Peter Jones' new book on the seven deadly sins and medieval psychology. It's an unexpectedly addictive read! www.penguin.co.uk/books/469085...

Turns out this news was in the public domain yesterday but no one has covered it as far as I can tell. Does no one care about our national library anymore? It was much the same with the cyberattack. If this was a bit of 'science' infrastructure can you imagine? www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...

Double film recommendation - My Man Godfrey (1936) and Madame Bovary (1991) and a moment of realisation: in those roles Carole Lombard and Isabelle Huppert remind me of one another - it’s the helpless yearning embodied by both characters but also a sort of air de famille between the two.

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

My pick of history and non-fiction books for October, featuring slave rebellions, the Weimar Republic, elves and fairies, espionage in the two world wars, snow, graveyards and more!

Back by popular demand, Introduction to Latin Palaeography will run online in February 2026 #MedievalSky 👇 ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

‘Pariah’ Carey is incredible subbing work, 10/10 no notes.

I loved doing this interview for Mathew

Fancy spending the summer at the University of Oxford learning about the Stuarts? Look no further! My summer course is now open for applications ⬇️ The Stuarts: The Fall, Rise and Revolution of a Dynasty, 1603-1714 lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/the-...

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Is there a crossword person in your life? Would you like to get them a unique gift? PERHAPS FOR CHRISTMAS? Well maybe a bespoke quiz or cryptic crossword would fit the bill, on any theme, of any size, by the author of [counts on fingers] more than 900 published crosswords, i.e. Me. Give me a shout!

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

This was pretty enjoyable. No-one’s finest hour, but some delightful performances and the Degas-sequence set-designs are superb.

The Turtle film is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.

Some Sunday teatime reading!

"Weird things like the standing stones give the city its soul." There's an extract from Upon A White Horse in today's @heraldscotland.bsky.social. It's about Glasgow's only stone circle. I'll be talking about the book at the Aye Write book festival on Nov 15. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2558912...

Now watching, and wondering if @divinecomedyhq.bsky.social was inspired by the musical number about Catherine the Great. (I mean, Neil’s is different and better, but it’s still quite niche.)

Lovers of vintage fashion, the Cilla Black auction at the end of November looks to have some bargains! www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/4c...

My latest for @theguardian.com; very fortunate to look at new books by Sarah Howe, Joelle Taylor, Nikita Gill, Phoebe Giannisi, and the return of Tom Paulin: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Delighted to be in such wonderful poetic company in the new issue of @badlilies.bsky.social . The poem might make the new book, might not. Ooooh the decisions! www.badlilies.uk/issue-twenty...

This seems the key point in Mike's detailed rebuttal of Steve Coogan.

Important counterblast to Steve Coogan's defence of The Lost King.

I'm delighted that my poem 'Pacific Swift' appears in this new issue of @BadLilies. It's one of a number of glimmers of hope in what has been a dark time for me creatively & otherwise. This poem is a memory of spending a week on a schooner off Vancouver Island when I was 14.

Some tea-time reading on a day of filthy weather. Eric Idle came in for a lot of stick for his treatment of his erstwhile colleague and friend Neil Innes. I wasn't sure, on the basis of this memoir, whether Idle really deserved much of it.

Some lunchtime reading!

"I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" appears to have popped up from the start on 4 Extra. Series 1 from April '64 started yesterday. Quite muted, with a long way to go before it becomes the prune-filled punfest we're familiar with, but a fascinating start. Listen here - www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Some great books here!

Me: OK it’s Halloween so I should probably try to find a way to sell a few books, like a sale or something Also me: well, bats are spooky, aren’t they? Me: yeeessss… Also me: and there’s a chapter about bats in Taking Flight? Me: CLOSE ENOUGH! levparikian.com/index.php/pr...

Some book recs from @mathewlyons.bsky.social . I actually want all of these. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/ten-books-...

My pick of history and non-fiction books for October, featuring slave rebellions, the Weimar Republic, elves and fairies, espionage in the two world wars, snow, graveyards and more!

Andrew had better stay away from any butts of Malmsey

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?...

OMG the FT is hiring a junior arts editor -- what a terrific opportunity! job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

Bruegel was drawing. ‘Mind you, I sometimes think that all you’d actually see would be Icarus’s heel, and a ship gone past without even seeing him, and a ploughman.’ He reached for the small book he kept for notes. The Bruegel Boy: 6 Nov @hollandhousebooks.bsky.social buff.ly/Jpm9R0g

Fabulous evening at the Palladium last night! Don’t know Todd’s catalogue well at all - I didn’t recognise a song until the encore - but have come away besotted.

The paperback of SHAKESPEARE'S BORROWED FEATHERS is now on Google Books. I love what Manchester UP have done with the cover! www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

Excited to announce my latest collaboration with Roundtable @92ndstreety.bsky.social - "Discovering Thomas More’s Utopia" Sign up is open now! roundtable.org/live-courses...

If you're in the Walton-on-Thames area tonight, Celeb Traitors can wait. Come see me and the fab Tamsin Hopkins read: www.riverhousebarn.co.uk/events/13391...

My Spectator review from last year of a moving memoir about the late, great Neil Innes written by his wife, Yvonne. The book came out in paperback last week.

Really wish William Dobson had lived a longer life.

Literally one of the greatest soft power brands on planet earth driven into the ground by successive British governments that embrace failure, decline and irrelevance. on.ft.com/3Wq1XIT