Thanks to @sauldavid66, @VaseemKhanUK and @MarkEllis15 for their support for CUT AND RUN - out now in #KindleUnlimited

@BestThrillBooks @BestThrillers @HistoryRage @AspectsHistory @The_CWA

Film Club today and it's Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino's multi-language war film w/ Pitt, Fassbender, Kruger and ofc Waltz.
@AlecMarsh @Roger_Moorhouse @DirectorTimmy @olliewcq chat tension, accents and the Tarantino oeuvre.
Wherever you get your podcasts.

One for #film fans...

Good morning from Chester - meet Thomas Brassey - local lad who (it is said) built a third of the UK railways during his lifetime. (As well as large sections of rail around the world)

I attended the funeral of Chris Wickham today. He was the greatest medieval historian since Marc Bloch. He was a man of enormous kindness and generosity, without whose support I would never have had an academic job or published anything. I was not his student. He owed me nothing. My doctoral viva was pretty brutal because I was being a bit too controversial for my examiners, but he had heard of my thesis, read it, and said how much he liked it and volunteered to write for me for jobs. I am still here thanks to Chris (for good or ill).

My interview with the fab Rory Kinnear.
Great actor, bloody lovely man, if I say so myself
theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…

Edmund Richardson’s excellent biography of Alexander the Great has won the Baillie Gifford Prize. I reviewed it in May for @RobbieTimes. He fought hard and partied hard and had the most expensive hangover in history. Alexander, that is, not Robbie

thetimes.com/article/ee6593…

Simon Armitage’s verse translation of the Mesopotamian epic is the perfect introduction to one of literature’s great works.

Gilgamesh reborn | @_paullay

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/gilga…

🚨British troops will be allowed to fire back at Russian forces if attacked as part of a multinational mission to secure any future peace in Ukraine, Western officials have said.

The risk of direct confrontation between the UK and Russia underlines the high stakes of the potential deployment, led by Britain and France.

But whether the operation will ever actually happen in reality remains in serious doubt because of a rather large spanner in the form of Vladimir Putin.

It would require Russia's war in Ukraine to stop and for "peace" to be established before any consideration of what has perhaps rather optimistically been named the "Multinational Force-Ukraine" (MNF-U) heading into the country at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.

Yet, for peace to have been established, it would need a cessation of hostilities - something that would doubtless involve various conditions and compromises agreed between Kyiv and Moscow in the absence of an outright victory by either side.

The idea that the Kremlin would allow for troops from 11 NATO nations to help "secure lasting peace" as part of this negotiation seems fanciful.

The Russian president has repeatedly ruled out such an idea in the past.

Yet London and Paris are still pressing ahead with their preparations - even though some sources have told me that resources would perhaps be better spent focused purely on doing everything possible to ensure Ukraine wins instead of planning for the aftermath.

In the biggest demonstration of preparing for when the war stops, some 300 British troops and more than 2,000 soldiers from 10 other partner nations are taking part in an exercise in Poland that starts on Monday and will last for almost a fortnight.

Read more here⬇️

news.sky.com/story/british-…

wonderful. I tripped over a loose rug at Christ's College and fell right in front of Mac who without mising a beat said " gratitude one thing young man, prostration quite unnecessary"

#NEWBOOKS
Historical Fiction at Marshal Books
Check out the following
Julia, by @Tonisenior
link.amazon/B0h7K83vy
Gladiator: First Blood, by @RForemanAuthor
link.amazon/B0igQPO6M

#histfic #romanempire #bookboost

Delighted to be talking on Wednesday 11 November about High & Low @BridLitFestival. It’s a State of the Nation novel, set on the last day of Xmas. There are riots, guns, murder but also love & joy. Do book! RT bridlit.com/buy-tickets/ev…

Wow -- that's a lot of reading for 99 p! Can't recommend it enough!

This is what state failure looks like. More on debt interest than education.

There is a reason that tax is done once a year. Over a year, you can provide for it. It's difficult, and sometimes you have to make hard decisions. But making freelancers pay tax monthly when they have zero income that month is insane!

We continue our #NationalYearofReading highlights with @JackyWilsonHQ. A library card can open a world of possibilities for a child and through Public Lending Right, authors are supported when their books are borrowed, helping to ensure great stories reach future generations.

The nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe left uneven marks on neighbouring empires. Russia’s autocratic traditions owe more to Byzantium and Orthodox Christianity than to the Mongols.

What did the Mongols do for Eurasia? | Alexander Morrison

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/what-d…

My piece celebrating Gulliver's Travels spectator.com/article/why-gu…

What's Marshal reading today?

@RForemanAuthor and @Robert___Harris

Augustus and Agrippa. Together again.
Rome is where the heart is.

#histfic #ancientrome #DogsOfX

I’ve written about the sheer horridness of the modern Halloween celebrations for @Telegraph … good to get that said…..

telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10/2…

New: Review Show
pod.fo/e/68523d
#crimefiction @vintagebooks @PenguinClassics @PenguinUKBooks @crookedlanebks @noexitpress @bedsqpublishers @TransworldBooks @HarperCollinsUK @HoZ_Books