My book has controversial claims. Rapa Nui archaeology needs rethinking. Legendary histories still have a grip: they should be ditched as sources. This will not endear me to everyone! Doing fieldwork, Dale Simpson was asked: “Why conduct more research? Your answers are already in the oral tradition”

I'm further honoured by the @thespectator1828.bsky.social review being selected for the week's Spectator Out Loud, where you can hear reviewer Maggie Fergusson read out her piece about Island at the Edge of the World www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/john...

Thank you Spectator! (Except for the last fatally incorrect paragraph). Island at the Edge of the World is in shops now www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Edge-...

RIP Francesco Mallegni, 85. He claimed to find faces of famous people in anonymous skulls (“Dante Alighieri” 's “looks like a man who lived in the world") & promoted the Turin shroud as an original Christian relic www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...

Meanwhile back at Stonehenge!

Island at the Edge reviewed in the Spectator: “he is good at bringing alive human stories – particularly about the indigenous islanders & how, after 20 generations of keeping their own company, they were shockingly assaulted by the outside world… a gripping story” www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

@antiquaries.bsky.social Salon: Arthur Freeman FSA, writer, antiquarian bookseller, died at home in London on 30 May 2025 "Secondhand hearses and ambulances have the best suspension for transporting books and were much in demand for this purpose in the States" www.sheila-markham.com/interviews/a...

I'm talking about Easter Island's extraordinary story tonight at the Gloucester History Festival. This extract from my book expresses an underlying theme that feels more widely relevant (with one of my photos). Hope to see you there! www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/events/forgo...

Oh my, this speaks for all of us in all our worlds

You can read my take on this script in Island at the Edge of the World (hint: it was part of a deeply theatrical expression and celebration of island identity when that appeared to be challenged)

And look where that just came in!

He plays quite a clever constituency MP, endlessly turning up to local events or just to celebrate local people and places. Good for him, but local representation happens in Westminster and I really wish I was represented by someone with genuine humanity & sense of British global identity

An extraordinary artist. When can we have a show here? www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

"KEN FOLLETT: I was reading a book by Mike Pitts called How to Build Stonehenge..." Frankly, with Circle of Days (out Sep 23) and How to Build Stonehenge, you really won't need any more books on that particular one (though I admit Ken's promo video leaves me standing) airmail.news/issues/2025-...

PUBLICATION DAY! Island at the Edge of the World is now in bookshops & sailing out from Amazon. A “detailed, intelligent, humane work… a salutary corrective to centuries of Western prejudice and fantasy” (Literary Review). And a truly extraordinary story! www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Edge-...

The value & wisdom of recording gravestones. I photographed this slab last week (first photo) & in 2008. Without the latter, we would not know that the Rev Thomas Meyler had been master of Marlborough's Royal Free Grmmar [sic] School. Was the engraver his pupil?

Look what you can find now in the lovely White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough! Island at the Edge of the World, described by Patrick Wilcken in the Literary Review as a "detailed, intelligent, humane work", in which I give "a salutary corrective to centuries of Western prejudice and fantasy"

Island at the Edge of the World: "In this detailed, intelligent, humane work, Pitts has given us a salutary corrective to centuries of Western prejudice and fantasy." Literary Review Out in the UK on September 11 !

First review of Island at the Edge of the World!

A rare these days visit to Avebury for a nice walk, sun on the little cottage I lived in in the 90s

RIP John J Johnston, vice-chair Egypt Exploration Society Trustees and Dr Who expert www.ees.ac.uk/resource/joh...

"By enabling recognition of the dates and geographic origins of Mycenaean pottery, her work makes it possible to understand patterns of trade and cultural change across late bronze age Greece and beyond... shy, but fiercely determined to support her arguments" www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Enjoying Stewart Lee's What Happened to Counter-Culture? An English teacher at school told us about the Oz trial & I bought this, Tony Palmer’s instant (it seemed to me) report on the hilarious trial & an inspiration as writing & journalism bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Brian Fagan's obit is in Guardian paper today. Also see Fereidoun Biglari (Dpty Drctr Cultural Affairs & Head Paleolithic Dept, National Museum of Iran) in Tehran Times: "My personal connection stretches back nearly 37 years to my high school days in Kermanshah" www.tehrantimes.com/news/515740/...

More book news! You can now order Island at the Edge of the World as an audiobook, 9 hours read by me, available from September 11 www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Edge-...

Printed copies are now in the warehouse, so if you order Island at the Edge of the World, you'll get one of these! It's a really lovely book

We look forward to Spinal Tap Π in the graphics www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great piece here about new insights into Viking connections - and illustration of how powerful archaeology has become, with new technologies exploiting discoveries from excavations & detecting, it’s just going to get better

My final blog about writing a book: getting Island at the Edge of the World to print mikepitts.wordpress.com/2025/08/20/h...

To be fair, whenever I’ve reviewed books for magazines and newspapers I’ve never been given a tote bag. Just cash

It’s no wonder there are so many signatories to this letter objecting to BBC restrictions to archive access. Such records are so important, and the best insights and stories are always accidental discoveries

You can see a bit more detail about my new Rapa Nui book here mikepitts.wordpress.com/2025/08/17/i...

"The true and fascinating story of Easter Island and its amazing statues" KEN FOLLETT "Anyone looking for an intelligent, balanced and accessible account of Rapa Nui should read his book" PROF CHRIS GOSDEN Out September 11 – Pre-order now amazon.co.uk/Island-Edge-...

My latest blog about writing a book: the hard grind of research and writing mikepitts.wordpress.com/2025/08/15/h...

We watched the first 2 episodes of Alien Earth last night. It’s utterly fab, so rich with sci refs i have to watch them again, all the Alien stuff, the ship, the scenes, the music, the cat, John Wyndham etc, I even wonder if there was a nod to Stephen Jay Gould, though I may be gatting carried away

Some real news: rising sea threatens archaeology. IPCC predicts +0.5m by 2100 but “deep uncertainties” could mean more, destroying Tongariki Paoa et al, Impacts of sea-level rise & wave inundation in the Tongariki Complex, Rapa Nui, Journal Cultural Heritage 2025 www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Or to put it another way, archaeologists puzzled that a predictable find reported across the media over 2 years ago has suddenly resurfaced as if it was new

"Once the GLC was dissolved its historic buildings division remained under English Heritage. Saint moved across, joining friends such as Robert Thorne, & new recruits, including Elain Harwood, Roger Bowdler & Steven Brindle.. Monday team meetings ended in the pub" www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

For 20 odd years I’ve been enjoying meals from The Raj in Marlborough, and I’ve only just noticed this

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts. The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative. Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

such perfect eggs on such a botch of a nest

How to Write a Book 3: The Commission Each of my books is different – in style and goals, not just subject – and each has its own story. Much happens behind the scenes. This might seem obvious, but the extent can be underestimated. Any good book will hide the stress and turmoil that went into its…

Sadly Tongariki was little recorded before or after the #tsunami. It was being rebuilt when I visited in 1994. Tourists like it but the works destroyed archaeology & stonework. In my book, I use the only good pre-tsunami record, previously unpublished, made by Scoresby Routledge in 1914. My photo

The Chile US embassy warns of a #tsunami in Rapa Nui. In 1960 the island was hit by a wave caused by a mag 9.5 earthquake, the largest ever recorded. It killed over 1,600 around the Pacific, and destroyed Rapa Nui's largest statue monument, at Tongariki – see Emily Ross Mulloy’s extraordinary report

I was recently stuck there in v long queues. The roads issue has nothing to do with Stonehenge: a north-south route meets the 2-lane A303 causing backups both ways. Dualling would solve it, but would look horrendous. The tunnel hides that: it's to BENEFIT heritage www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I have to admit I’m baffled by these headlines, can anyone enlighten me why a protestor being privately educated is news?

Here’s Part 2 of this series: how I went from school (discovering archaeology on the way) to getting my sixth book commissioned, from a starting point of no idea what to do & no industry contacts - you could do it too (with a bit of work & risk taking…) mikepitts.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/h...

I guess they have some very small vehicles in Berkshire

My tribute to an extraordinary archaeologist, and a kind and generous man: Brian Fagan www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

This is quite the bonkers take on climate change... from the US energy secretary: it's happening, but it's a by-product of progress we're happy to enjoy, because without fossil fuels we'd still be in the stone age (& somehow it will just get better). Makes you wonder how they powered the Renaissance