25 November in the Roman amphitheatre at the London Guildhall, it's Instant Classics's first live event. We'll be talking about what life was like in Roman London. And a drink and mingle at the end. Had been sold out, but more tickets now released www.instantclassicspod.com/events

On 9 November 1967: Smith of Wootton Major was first published. A short story by J.R.R. #Tolkien set entirely outside of Middle-earth, the tale is about a cake and a feast, the Master Cook, Smith, and the land of Faery. A cute little tale that is very much worth your time. #Booksky

Really moving #Remembrance Day service this morning on #IWM HMS Belfast - beautiful weather for!

Was great to attend the UK Premiere of the new film Nuremberg last night from @skytv a fantastic powerful movie with excellent performances no spoilers! #nuremberg

Was at the World Premiere of this incredibly powerful opera by Jake Heggie at San Francisco Opera 25 years ago and now so looking forward to this new production at English National Opera with a stellar cast including the divine Sarah Connolly toi toi all @englishnationalopera #eno #opera

Great episode. Aldarion is getting on my nerves! Eru when are these two going to get married! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... @prancingponypod.bsky.social #tolkien

Great episode on the MGM movie House of #DarkShadows podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... @darkshadowscomment.bsky.social @darkshadowsnews.bsky.social #TerroratCollinwood

What better for halloween than a good old Roman ghost story? Listen here! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

My #Halloween tradition every year is to watch my fav horror movie (outside of the Dark Shadows story-world) which is known as The City of the Dead or Horror Hotel featuring Christopher Lee. Leave Whitewood now! Watch with lights off very spooky! Poor Lottie! 💀👻🎃 m.imdb.com/title/tt0053...

Have you heard about The Bovadium Fragments, the new #Tolkien book published three weeks ago (and the last to be edited by Christopher Tolkien)? The Fragments are a satire on the impact of cars, and highlight again Tolkien's concern for the environment. www.tolkiensociety.org/2025/06/new-...

This week in Instant Classics Bookclub, we take a step back & think about the repeated adjectives used to describe characters in the Odyssey. What is their point? Join the Bookclub here instantclassics.supportingcast.fm (& you can get an earlybird offer to our first live event on 25 Nov)

I was really excited to join a special tour of Clapham South Deep Level Shelter this afternoon with IWM's patrons. A fascinating history beyond the Second World War, with an afterlife including being a hostel and labour exchange for those on the Windrush, and a hotel for the Festival of Britain

An amazing subterranean journey into the depths under Clapham South today in London with our fantastic Imperial War Museums Patrons to see the vast tunnels that were built for thousands to survive the Battle of Britain and interesting to learn how the site continued to be used after WW2 #iwm

I went to this exhibition recently, highly recommended. The first exhibition on empire and decolonisation at a major a British museum that I can recall www.iwm.org.uk/events/emerg...

IWM Podcast Live Festival! The Forgotten War Hosts Dr Robert Lyman MBE & Jack Bowsher will be joined by Lucy Betteridge-Dyson, author of Jungle Commandos: The Battle for Arakan, Burma 1945. 1 November 2025 4pm to 5pm IWM London Book your ticket: https://bit.ly/3LbQOJ9 #Historysky #Booksky

Pleasure to join the virtual launch of 'The New Holocaust Galleries of the Imperial War Museum London: conception, design, interpretation', ed. Stephan Jaeger & James Bulgin. Fascinating contributions, including @andypearce.bsky.social Hannah Holtschneider & Diana Popescu, also Clare Lawlor.

On 27 October 1983: The Book of Lost Tales Part One was published. Edited by #Tolkien's son, Christopher, the book is the first part in the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series, and contains the earliest versions of Tolkien's writings that would become the Silmarillion. #BookTok

Join the Tolkien Society at www.tolkiensociety.org The Society is a worldwide community where you can meet others, share your love of #Tolkien and learn more about the Professor. And you get 6 copies of our magazine Amon Hen a year! We have postal and digital memberships, and we ship worldwide.

The question for today. Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned? And what tune did he play. On Instant Classics now tinyurl.com/cv7e9m92

Episode 87 (87)

It's publication day! A huge congratulations to Exeter alumnus Sir Philip Pullman (1965, English) on the release of The Rose Field, the final novel in The Book of Dust trilogy. #ExeterCollegeOxford #PhilipPullman #TheBookOfDust

The end of an epic - starting the final journey with Lyra this weekend! @philippullman.bsky.social #TheRoseField #Philippullman #bookofdust

Excited to announce the virtual launch of our new book, 'The New Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum London' in one week! Join our editors next Tuesday at 10:00-11:30 a.m. ET; 9:00-10:30 a.m. CT; 4:5-30 p.m. CST! @memstudiesassoc.bsky.social @andypearce.bsky.social

Looking forward to returning to Western Michigan University for #Tolkien at Kalamzoo this May - your paper proposal, "Script and Story: Tolkien's Philological Imagination in "On Ælfwine's Spelling"," has been accepted for the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies. #tolkien #kzoo2026

The Imperial War Museum in London has digitised thousands of recordings from their archives, which are being made more searchable with AI. Reporting for BBC Tech Now, Nick Kwek listens to survivor stories being brought to life thanks to new technology. www.bbc.com/reel/video/p...

Wow! Fantastic episode podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s... #startrek @startrek.bsky.social

On 20 October 1955: The Return of the King - the conclusion to J.R.R. #Tolkien's epic masterpiece - was published. The Lord of the Rings has since sold over 150 million copies, being one of the best-selling books of all time. What are your favourite moments in this volume? #BookSky

Looking forward to returning to my old work place @glyndebourne today for Britten’s Midsummer Nights Dream #glyndebourne #opera www.glyndebourne.com/events/a-mid...

A new Substack inspired by my current exploration of #Homer’s #Odyssey with the dream team of Dame @wmarybeard.bsky.social and Charlotte Higgins on the @instantclassicspod.bsky.social book club Why Crete? open.substack.com/pub/drandrew...

A new Substack inspired by my current exploration of #Homer’s #Odyssey with the dream team of Dame @wmarybeard.bsky.social and Charlotte Higgins on the @instantclassicspod.bsky.social book club Why Crete? open.substack.com/pub/drandrew...

Now open at IWM London, our brand new special exhibition Emergency Exits: The Fight for Independence in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus. It's fascinating, it's revelatory and it's FREE. Do come and see it! www.iwm.org.uk/events/emerg...

Interesting piece on the influence of #WW2 on CS Lewis’ #Narnia www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-... #books #cslewis

Looking forward to returning to Western Michigan University for #Tolkien at Kalamzoo this May - your paper proposal, "Script and Story: Tolkien's Philological Imagination in "On Ælfwine's Spelling"," has been accepted for the 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies. #tolkien #kzoo2026

Finally finished the audio book of Book 4 of @wheeloftimewiki.bsky.social onto Book 5! #wheeloftime #audible #audiobooks

Eglerio! The @prancingponypod.bsky.social exploration of Aldarion and Erendis has begun! #tolkien podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

IASC: Interactive Agentic System for ConLangs arxiv.org/abs/2510.07591 If you’re a fan of science fiction or fantasy, you’ve probably heard of made-up languages like Elvish from “The Lord of the Rings” or Klingon from “Star Trek.” Can LLM agents create new artificial languages?

Eglerio the eagles have delivered a new #Tolkien book to my Kindle this morning and I get to start reading it in front of a castle (Leeds Castle in Kent) #tolkien @harpercollins.bsky.social

For #TolkienTuesday: the second part (out of three) of my essay on childhood in Tolkien’s legendarium, this time focusing on Túrin Turambar and the tragic hero’s childhood. dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/constructi... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

New Tolkien Society publication! Releasing on 25 November, "Númenor, the Mighty and Frail" includes 10 articles relating to Númenor, and its legacy. Edited by @willsherwood.bsky.social and published by @lunapress.bsky.social, it's now available to pre-order. www.tolkiensociety.org/2025/10/new-...

A reminder for you all that tickets are still available for this excellent event at IWM London on 9 October, where the brilliant Kavita Puri will share insights and stories from her recent podcast series. Do join us if you can! #SWW www.iwm.org.uk/events/iwm-i...

Eglerio! My book review of Robert Tally’s new monograph The Mismeasure of Orcs has been posted to The Journal of Tolkien Research scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcont.... Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai! #tolkien #orcs

Good interview with @RichardOvenden on the upcoming release of the NEW #Tolkien book The Bovadium Fragments youtube.com/watch?v=IGuQ... @harpercollins.bsky.social

Eglerio! My book review of Robert Tally’s new monograph The Mismeasure of Orcs has been posted to The Journal of Tolkien Research scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcont.... Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai! #tolkien #orcs

Praeclara res of @instantclassicspod.bsky.social podcast on the legends of the Birth of Rome with Dame @wmarybeard.bsky.social and Charlotte Higgins - interesting Augustus wanted to call himself Romulus! #rome #classics #instantclassics

If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Friday was the 50th anniversary of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show release, which bombed at the time but quickly became perhaps the biggest, most durable cult classic in history, spanning generations in appeal. So, let's do the time warp again, folks! www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Really enjoyed the Chelsea #History Festival this weekend attended several excellent talks on The Viking Great Army and the Templars as well as seeing some great exhibitons in the Chelsea Heritage Quarter including at @nationalarmymuseum.bsky.social and Royal Hospital Chelsea. #Festival

Our new Instant Classics podcast is on the Parthenon. Not its modern controversies, but its ancient ones! Was it OTT? tinyurl.com/y9rcp6zj

On 23 September 1993: Morgoth's Ring was published. The book is the tenth in the History of Middle-earth series. It includes ideas on reshaping the world, the Annals of Aman, and Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth which discusses the differing characteristics and fates of Men and Elves.