#histbookchat I've been slowly working my way through the Alexander Kent Richard Bolitho novels. This is book 6 (in chronological order) - Sloop of War (1969) - it is 1778 and the Sparrow is just off the coast of America 😮 Fantastic stuff!! #BookSky 📚💜

#histbookchat Just in case anyone missed this! Great conversation with Bernard Cornwell and Sean Bean re Sharpe! www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCLe...

Latest arrival!! Stalin's Apostles: The Cambridge Five & the Making of The Soviet Empire by Antonia Senior as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social code name 'Chocolate Fairy' #spy #histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜

#histbookchat My aunt, who lived in Italy for years, thought I needed to read more Italian literature so she sent me this!! Looks like lots of fun!

𝐍𝐄𝐖—Recalling childhood memories in a Xinhua Bookstore, X.H. Collins connects early reading experiences to an adult engagement with Zheng Liu's 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠 (Columbia University Press, 2026). She reassesses assumptions about politics, commerce, and culture. ⧉ chajournal.com/2026/04/06/l...

𝐗𝐇 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬, in her upcoming essay for @asiancha.bsky.social: "Some of my earliest memories were formed in my father’s workplace, specifically on the wooden floor beneath the counters of a Xinhua Bookstore..." 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, read Laurence Westwood's essay: chajournal.com/2026/03/25/c...

#histbookchat #sinology Latest arrival!! The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu (2026) @yilingliu95.bsky.social from @ithakapress.bsky.social as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who, if all the old Irish folk tales are true, does a little dance every time she sells a book...

#histbookchat #sinology New book from Hilde de Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social - out in UK on 12thJuly 2026

𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 # 𝟑 𝟐𝟎 - 𝟐𝟕 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social interweaves memoir and critique in his reading of Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠. He acknowledges the study’s breadth but questions its reticence on political constraint. ⧉ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: chajournal.com/2026/03/25/c... 。。。。。

#histbookchat #photofriday Reading The Craft: How The Freemasons Made the Modern World by @johndickie.bsky.social (2020) This is great! Learning so much....

had the pleasure of meeting up with @lornahunting.bsky.social again a few weeks ago, lots to chat about as always, writing, China, the English Civil War, great fun! #amwriting #BookSky 📚💜

Laurence Westwood deftly interweaves memoir and critique in his reading of Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎 (Columbia University Press, 2026). ⧉ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄: chajournal.com/2026/03/25/c... 。。。。。

My review of Cultural Mavericks by Zheng Liu (2026) in @asiancha.bsky.social with many thanks to Tammy @myetcetera.bsky.social for her judicious editing!!! #sinology #booksky 📚💜 #histbookchat

My latest piece in The Perfect Voice edited by the esteemed Mister Banerjee @shoumojitb.bsky.social China, Scam Centres, & The Mekong #histbookchat www.theperfectvoice.in/post/scam-re...

#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜I'm planning to read all the Richard Bolitho novels by Alexander Kent (Douglas Reeman) in chronological order! This book contains the first three novels (novellas, really) Great fun!

Great review by Martin Laflamme of the biography of Hua Guofeng by Stephane Malsagne!! @malsagne.bsky.social Is there going an English translation??? (I failed my French exams at school lol) #sinology #histbookchat

watching Undercover Miss Hong on #netflix at the moment #kdrama so good, so funny!!

#histbookchat Latest arrival!! A Sicilian Man by Caroline Moorehead (2026) a #biography of the novelist Leonardo Sciascia - as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social & Baby Jayne @j2yny.bsky.social who really knows a thing or two about crime #Sicily #mafia 1/2

New from Danny Orbach, due out Sept 2026 #histbookchat for the Japan specialists!!

#histbookchat #photofriday Romance and danger against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny - some fiction from me this week!

#histbookchat Great review by @jmchatwin.bsky.social of Frank Dikotters latest book, Red Dawn Over China

It's #WorldBookDay so I am sitting in the sunshine 😮quietly working on the 2nd draft of the third Philip Ye novel and hoping to finish before the world blows itself up....😂 #amwriting #CrimeFiction #histbookchat

#histbookchat #photofriday Earlier this week I finished the final book in A Horseman Riding By trilogy which took us up to 1964. Really pleased I decided to read the trilogy based on a vague memory of a TV series from 1978. A few historians would have some quibbles with certain passages 1/2

New history of the Warring States period from Andrew Seth Meyer out 5th May from @academic.oup.com #histbookchat #sinology looks good!

I guess everyone knows that this is being released on the 6th March, but just in case you didn't.... #histbookchat

#histbookchat #photofriday Just finished the second book in the A Horseman Riding By trilogy, which takes us through WW1 to the beginning of WW2 - fabulous stuff, great social history, even though my favourite character died just before the end of WW1...😭 #BookSky 📚💜

EXPENSIVE new arrival! Governance of a Party-State by Ling Li (2025) from @universitypress.cambridge.org as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who, with her skirt hitched high and a pot noodle in her hands, is the first up to dance at any party #histbookchat #sinology

For the WW2 Japan specialists!! #histbookchat #Japan #WW2

#histbookchat #China #BookSky 📚💜 Latest arrival!! Cultural Mavericks: The Business & Politics of Indie Bookselling in China by Zheng Liu (2026) from @columbiaup.bsky.social as supplied by Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who is also one of a kind!

Arrgh! Readin’ o’ the pirates o’ the South China Coast! 🏴‍☠️ “Pirates of the South China Coast 1790-1810” by Dian H Murray 🦋📚 #HistBookChat

A new year means a fresh crop of books! I've compiled a list below of new and upcoming tiles I would love to get reviewed for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. If you want a copy of one of these in return for a review, let me know! Beginning with vol III of the awesome-looking Cambridge History of Europe!

#law #sinology Really enjoyed this long paper by Zeming Liu and Benjamin L. Liebman - Redefining Law in China (2025) - straightforward and lots to ponder! Open access too! academic.oup.com/ajcl/article...

I’m really looking forward to the release of this one on March 26th! "Venice and the Mongols: The Eurasian Exchange That Transformed the Medieval World” by Nicola Di Cosmo and Lorenzo Pubblici #HistBookChat 📚🦋

#histbookchat #photofriday Some more fiction from me today: For Valour by Douglas Reeman (2000) #amreading #BookSky 📚💜

#histbookchat Great review of a new book on the British monarchy and the slave trade from the always entertaining @yuanyiz.bsky.social

#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜 #amwriting #CrimeFiction #China #Chengdu Philip Ye #3 1st draft finally finished 1.5 years 270,000 words 720 pages bastard thing

#histbookchat #China Xmas arrival!! The Raider by Stephen Platt (2025) @stephenplatt.bsky.social from @aaknopf.bsky.social which tells the story of Evans Carlson who was once embedded with Mao's Communist forces & who went on to form the US Marine Raiders in WW2

#Histbookchat #PhotoFriday Some fiction from me today!! Long Summer Day by R.F. Delderfield (1966) - the first of A Horseman Riding By trilogy. Been meaning to read this for years - a slice of English West Country life long gone. Might take me some time. Almost 700 pages... 1/2

Always a happy day when the latest journal arrives from across the pond @ssycds.bsky.social Lots of interesting stuff inside, including a special section on the human senses!! #histbookchat #sinology #China #SongDynasty

New book from Hans Van De Ven, due out June 2026 - for those who want more on WW2 in the East. #histbookchat (Still waiting for Richard B. Frank's second volume in his new trilogy. I am starting to worry...)

#histbookchat Finally, best general #nonfiction books read in 2025, four picks in no particular order: 1/5 #BookSky 📚💜

Okay, so now best China books read in 2025 #NonFiction #China #History #Law #Biography #Memoir I chose three - with one runner up!! 1/6 #histbookchat

Time for best books I've read of 2025, first off, #fiction #histbookchat #BookSky Two choices this year and they both take me back to #WW2 1/3

#histbookchat #sinology #law On the wish list for 2026! Just gotta find another relative to sell to afford it 😵‍💫😬😢

#BookSky 📚💜Latest read, and last book of the year!! Death in Cyprus by M.M. Kaye (1956, this edition 1984) #amreading #CrimeFiction