Delighted that The Writing Life podcast has featured Celeste Mohammed. I was thrilled to hear her speak about her work during her visit to the University of Lincoln last year - an inspiring & memorable event. Thanks to @uolhumanities.bsky.social Global & Transregional Studies research group #booksky

One of my favourite BBC Radio 4 programmes is This Cultural Life. Inspired by the latest episode I read my first Julian Barnes novel Metroland published in 1980. Enjoyed this quirky & often humorous story #Booksky

L: Private Eye front cover, yesterday. R: News headline, today. Stay ahead of the news; buy the Eye.

Just heard on the #BBC Winter Olympics commentary: “If Stephen Hawkings was a snowboarder, that’s the trick he would do.” #WinterOlympics

Interesting story. So-called “Chinamaxxing” - is the TikTok generation in “the west” really embracing #China & Chinese lifestyle? Does Chinamaxxing represent a full & accurate picture of China today? And what is the US “kill line”? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Save the BBC World Service. Please read the Guardian @theguardian.com article below & the thread by @lauraphillips.bsky.social

Inspired by One True Podcast - a special episode on John Steinbeck with Susan Shillinglaw - I retrieved my copy of The Red Pony. A delightful yet melancholic set of stories about Jody Tiflin and his family. I especially loved “The Leader of the People.” #booksky

After reading a lot of serious fiction and non-fiction since Xmas - made heavier by my own health challenges - I reached for the 4th volume of Clive James’s Unreliable Memoirs. James is my literary hero; his wit never fails to lift my spirits while his cultural knowledge always impresses. #booksky

Congratulations to @gsoh31.bsky.social on the publication if his new book, New Labour, New Britain? Looking forward to reading it.

Very sad to learn that Prof Murray Rubenstein, a towering scholar in #Taiwan studies, has passed away. I first knew him as an AACS board member in the late 1990s/early 2000s & greatly admired his book The Other Taiwan. Last saw him at #WCTS 2015 where he delivered the keynote. A very gentle man. RIP

Many thanks to @iammilliam.bsky.social & the @backlisted.bsky.social team for ten glorious years. Through Backlisted I have encountered & recommended books & authors I would never have read otherwise. Best wishes to you all.

Finished reading Age of Hope by @richardtoye.bsky.social. A fascinating & detailed revisionist account of the Labour governments 1945-51. Includes a valuable chapter on historiography & discussion of the Attlee legacy & how it shaped the Labour party. Recommended #booksky

Finishing Ian McEwan’s glorious Lessons: “He was plausible in the digital age, like a man in cunning disguise, but he remained a citizen of the analogue world.” Dear Ian, have we met? #booksky

Since I have gained new followers I am sharing again this starter pack that includes some of my colleagues from the School of Social & Political Sciences. Providing world leading research & analysis in Criminology, Politics, IR, Sociology & Social Policy

This is the kind of welcome response to emergency situations one has come to expect from the BBC World Service; but is increasingly difficult with cuts in funding & determination to move language services online

Tonight I finished reading Taken As Red by Anushka Asthana. Critics here have not been kind but I enjoyed it

Wonderful Panorama tonight featuring fellow Leeds Uni alum (both 1991) & “defecating squirrel” @bbcstever.bsky.social. Fascinating insight into the life & work of the BBC’s Russia editor. Also threats to/importance of journalism & the power of narratives

Finally got a copy of Philip Larkin’s Complete Poems. Studied Larkin - along with Ted Hughes, John Betjeman & Wilfred Owen - for O Level Eng Lit 40 years ago. Larkin’s humour cheers me up in very difficult times #Booksky

2026 is the centenary of the publication of my favourite #Hemingway novel, Fiesta or The Sun Also Rises - so the perfect excuse for a re-read. Also inspired by the always brilliant One True Podcast, hosted by Mark Cirino & featuring Carl Eby #Booksky

A terrific blog by @emma-briant.co.uk on the decline of US public diplomacy & soft power

Very sad news. Have listened to Mark Tully on the radio for decades & turned to his books to better understand India. Few journalists could match his passion & expertise. Had the honour of meeting him at the Ilkley Literature Festival. RIP www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If only the UK was a member of some kind of … I don’t know … European bloc or trade alliance so these countries could be united in standing up to Trump www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

When I am unwell I retreat to comfort reading & re-reading. Since Xmas I’ve been re-reading the Smiley books in sequence, starting with Call for the Dead. Now halfway through The Honourable Schoolboy & it is much better than I remember. This is the 1978 Pan edition I’m reading #booksky

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

Ahem ….

When does a robbery become a ‘heist’? Surely it is only a heist when masterminded by Michael Caine & involves a fleet of minis?

The UK's soft power: the experience of visitors, many of them from overseas, at the Houses of Parliament. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today’s reading: John Carey’s gloriously piercing critique of English literature in the first half of the 20th century #booksky

In 2012 I wrote this blog about a 1955 radio programme, hosted by Bing Crosby & broadcast around the world by the Voice of America. At the end of an awful year for #VoA I repost it here & send my best wishes to everyone associated with that remarkable station wwwpdic.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-ch...

‘Better off with #Taiwan’: Honduras joins other Latin American countries rethinking ties with #China’ - effect of broken promises & shifting geopolitics

Reflecting & communicating #Taiwan’s considerable soft power @audreyt.org discusses how she has built Taiwan’s digital diplomacy capacity & safeguards democratic resilience

An excellent blog by Neal Rosendorf that presents 'A Post-Trump Domestic Policy Roadmap to Restore U.S. Soft Power. The author understands that soft power is not based on culture but on political institutions, values, behaviours & a recommitment to democracy. uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/post-tr...

Delighted my new article published by Social & Cultural History is available open access. The title is 'Chance of a Lifetime (1950): Class, Collaboration, & the Shifting Landscape of British Cinema'. Many thanks to all who gave feedback especially the reviewers. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Very sad to learn John Carey has died. A towering intellect & a champion of the arts. Love his What Good are the Arts? and his memoir, An Unexpected Professor.

Following the recent wonderful @empirepoduk.bsky.social miniseries on Rudyard Kipling, just picked up my copy of Andrew Lycett's biography. That's my Xmas reading sorted! @anitaanand.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social

I really recommend Left Handed Girl. Amazing performances by the three main actresses but Nina Ye is outstanding; and an incredible number of supporting actors (Chao Xin-Yan especially). Heartbreaking, uplifting, inspirational, funny.

Many thanks to HE The Deputy Ambassador of Kuwait for speaking with colleagues & students from the School of Social & Political Sciences. We discussed a range of issues, inc. history of Kuwait-UK diplomatic relations, education as an engine of deepening relations & role of experts in foreign policy

👇 Happening tomorrow (Friday). There is still time to register ...

An interesting blog from Austin Paul writing for @lseblogs.bsky.social on the Soft Power of the Papacy. Focus on behaviours and values - real source of soft power. blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglob...

Just finished Don't Burn Anyone at the Stake Today by @naomialderman.bsky.social. One of the most meaningful books I have read in a while - one that has made me pause & reflect on my own behaviours. Also timely on the day #Australia begins its ban on children using most social media.

Post a book you love from the 80s. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #bookchallenge #readingchallenge #readingcommunity #booktok #bookish #books

A powerful indictment of the lack of progress for women in South Korea & elsewhere - in the workplace, school, & at home. The final sentence will stay with me. #booksky

Call for Papers! The new journal Politics & Security Governance is planning a special issue on Digital Maoism: The Revival of Left Populism, Cultural Memory, & Coded Resistance in Contemporary #China. More details here porcelainpublishing.com/journal/PSG/...

What a wonderful documentary film. Belated happy 100th birthday, @newyorker.com Never stop being élitist (see what I did there?) @netflix.com

Congratulations to everyone Beijing decides has won the election in Hong Kong www.bbc.com/news/article...

As #Crohns & Colitis Awareness Week draws to a close, it is important to understand our experiences of #IBD. Thanks to @crohnscolitisfdn.bsky.social @getyourbellyout.bsky.social for all your work & support

Anyone who loves literature, books, authors, & listening to authors talk about their work & writing process, listen to the Always Take Notes podcast. Following their conversation with Paul Theroux I have just finished Burma Sahib. So many great recommendations here #booksky

I am always proud of alumni from the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Lincoln. Here is former Politics student Joey Gwinn, a Parliamentary Assistant & political commentator, writing about proposals to achieve peace in #Ukraine. www.europinion.uk/post/the-pea...

#Taiwan be careful what you wish for & who you trust. The Presidential Office may say US & Taiwan share 'values of democracy freedom & respect for human rights' but if Trump does not respect those values at home why would you suppose he supports them elsewhere? www.reuters.com/world/china/...