Beautiful spring day in the Nene valley. Richard, duke of York’s tower at Fotheringhay Church in the distance.

Love the Romanesque nave of the former abbey church at Peterborough Cathedral.

It may be time to revisit the European Defence Community, an idea that was seriously considered in the early 1950s until its rejection by France’s AN.

The Norman Chancel arch at St Peter’s Tickencote is spectacular for such a small church.

Having loved ‘The Road’ and ‘The Border Trilogy’, I am now starting ‘Blood Meridian.’ McCarthy got me reading fiction again after a long break.

Am rating Pi Day as 3.

Whenever someone is introduced on a news channel as a ‘royal historian’ I set my expectations pretty low.

Remembering the brilliance of Robert Duvall. Such an extraordinary litany of performances. I will never forget first seeing him on screen in Apocalypse Now as Col. Kilgore. A truly wonderful actor.

Have just finished Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. Got me back into reading fiction. Just occasionally books change you and stay with you.

This week's podcast is on the Wilton Diptych; what it's all about and who may have painted it. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...

I enjoyed revisiting 1381 - an endlessly fascinating moment in British History. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

The reconstructed voice of the French King Henry IV (d. 1610) www.franceinfo.fr/replay-radio...

Worth the wait #robin

Lovely winter morning in Northamptonshire

Another outcome for which the Kremlin worked, lest we forget. Described in "Road to Unfreedom."

Returning to Lubeck after 21 years. It’s still a jewel but the Hanse Museum in its current form is extraordinary. They have done with data what The Mary Rose museum has done with artefacts. It’s extraordinary.

Gorgeous spring day in the Nene valley

#Storks #Faro

Anyone? Anyone? #tariffs

Just heard a fascinating interview with @maxhess.bsky.social on Times Radio. This has completely changed my understanding, like reading Tooze’s ‘Wages of Destruction’ for the first time. I need to read Hess’s book.

The Donne Triptych, a triptych altarpiece by Hans Memling now in the National Gallery, London. It contains portraits of Sir John Dwnn [Donne] of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire d. 1503, his wife Elizabeth and a daughter.

Sunset over #Cadiz

Interesting to see an EDC back on the agenda. Caused massive division in France in the early 1950s when last debated. The Assemblee National hugely polarised and the A de T leadership not happy to be in uniform alongside their former occupiers. Its time might now have come though….

All that remains of Simon de Senlis’ motte and bailey castle at Fotheringhay, later rebuilt as a favourite residence of the dukes of York; birthplace of Richard III 1452. Mary Queen of Scots executed here Feb 1587. I wonder if the weather was bleak like today.

Today in international diplomacy we witnessed a betrayal on the scale of August 1939.

As I turn 50 I remember the optimism of listening to BBC Radio Four ‘From our own correspondent’ and reading Newsweek and believing in a brighter world to come. Am a child of the Gorbachev years.

NIGEL: ...all the way up. You’re on ten on your guitar...where can you go from there? Where? MARTY: I don’t know.... NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do? MARTY: Put it up to eleven.

This is my twenty-first year of teaching the collapse of German democracy and the rise and fall of Hitler. It has never felt more relevant.

As the son of two print journalists, who worked at a time of higher ethical standards, I am so saddened by the takeover of this estate by autocrats and dirty money at a global level.

Returning to #TwoDoorsDown. Doon Mackichan and Elaine C Smith knocking every line out of the park.

/‘well so could anyone’

Layers of history at Jimena de La Frontera - Roman, Moorish and Christian.

"Research from the Centre for Economic Performance, a think tank based at the London School of Economics, said Brexit led to a 6.4 per cent drop in the UK’s global exports and a 3.1 per cent decline in imports into the UK from the rest of the world."

I started teaching in secondary education 2003 with no teaching qualifications, basically ignoring pedagogical guidance until c2013. The current orthodoxy would suggest that my students were not disadvantaged by this. But I increasingly feel that the tyranny of data & ‘impact’ impoverishes learning.

Just finished watching the BBC adaptation of #TheMirrorandTheLight This was done so well. Mantel’s original was treated with respect, although not slavishly, and there was none of the cosplay vibe that so easily comes with Tudor period drama on TV.

22 years ago I was disappointed to leave university teaching having failed to secure a permanent job. Looking at the sector now, I realise it was a very lucky escape.

Warming myself like something out of the Tres Riches Heures

Last day of a job that was very challenging at times, but with an amazing team. Have learned more in adversity than from smoother seas. Don’t be put off by a job where you have to climb aboard a burning deck. It will stretch and strengthen you. Excited by new role in Jan. Always learning (I hope).

One of the joys of being on this site as a teacher is not having to listen to Edu influencers telling me not to do things that I already knew to be self evidently pointless, and then telling me to do things that I was already doing anyway. (And then trying to sell me the book of the tweet.)

I have bought ‘On Freedom’ because I greatly enjoy Tim Snyder’s writing but also because, in a very small way,I want to support his mission.

Love Avercamp’s 1608 winter scene in The Rijksmuseum