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Hi folks. I’ve started a Substack called The Broken Compass. The plan is for it to feature essays and book reviews, thoughts and reflections on my current research and reading, and, I hope, interviews with other historians and authors.
open.substack.com/pub/mathewlyon…
open.substack.com/pub/mathewlyon…
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Glorious evening @e17RnR_books watching A Hard Day’s Night followed by a fascinating Q&A with @SamiraAhmedUK. The film is such a joyful, exuberant shout of youth, energy and charm. What a treat to see it on the big screen.
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Great Q&A for what looks a wonderful book!
Video of my book launch for Confessions of a London River Hunter at @HousmansBooks last night over on Patreon
patreon.com/JohnRogers/pos…
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
Took the book to pay homage to some real Anglo-Saxon treasure at the Ashmolean!
I'm especially fond of this lovely 6th/7th-century disc brooch (reproduced on the book cover) because it was found in East Kent, just a few miles from where I was born 😀♥️
I'm especially fond of this lovely 6th/7th-century disc brooch (reproduced on the book cover) because it was found in East Kent, just a few miles from where I was born 😀♥️
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
OMG!
An absolute gem of a clip of a young Frank Sinatra singing opera - the famous "Là ci darem la mano" duet from Mozart's Don Giovanni - with a 24-year-old Kathryn Grayson in “It Happened in Brooklyn” (1947). Grayson went on to become MGM’s resident soprano, but Sinatra’s phrasing nfinitely better, and timbre of his baritone is gorgeous.
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
M John Harrison is a stone-cold genius and one of the loveliest and wisest people you could hope to meet. What a privilege to be in the room with him as a Booker judge four years ago and to applaud him and The End of Everything yesterday
All hail the triumph of the New Weird.📚 M John Harrison receiving his trophy from last year's winner David Szalay. #BookerPrize2026. Huge admiration for my hardworking BBC colleagues who made last night's @BBCFrontRow OB so special. Catch up 🎧here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
This ⬇️ is a clear-cut US example of the contemporary phenomenon I discuss in my book CULTURE VULTURES: the capture of arts organisations by managers who care only about "serving audiences" and "reflecting audiences" and barely at all about artistic excellence. Link below. /
The phrase “artistic excellence” was deleted from an early draft of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s strategic plan.
In September 2025, conductor Andris Nelsons asked that it be restored, because excellence is the “indispensable engine for everything the BSO does.”
Five months later, the board voted to terminate his contract.
@HMDatMI on the BSO's power struggle over diversity, ideology, and organizational control ⬇️ city-journal.org/article/classi…
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Looking forward to reading this!
We went to the launch of @fugueur new book Confessions of a London River Hunter last night. A really good Q & A and lots of people there who love his books as well as his videos
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
We went to the launch of @fugueur new book Confessions of a London River Hunter last night. A really good Q & A and lots of people there who love his books as well as his videos
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
In today's @Telegraph, I respond to some interesting claims made by archaeologists last week...
*Insert caveat about not choosing the headline here*
telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/11/0…
*Insert caveat about not choosing the headline here*
telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/11/0…
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
When the world is brighter than your wildest dreams. ✨Judge Dr @tiffanyjenkins shares a favourite extract from *Alexander: God, King, Man*, Edmund Richardson’s #BGPrize2026 winner, capturing a feeling of wonder that reaches across centuries.
📘 bloomsbury.com/uk/alexander-9…
📘 bloomsbury.com/uk/alexander-9…
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I'm delighted to welcome the brilliant @DJMusgrove to the Writer's Bookshelf this morning. Link in next post…
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I love what David writes here about the Bayeux Tapestry. (I highly recommend his book on the subject!)
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
Jonathan Bate’s magnificent history of gardening rests on the idea that every garden is an attempt to recreate the paradise we once lost.
Gardening is our way back to heaven | @BryanAppleyard
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/garden…
Gardening is our way back to heaven | @BryanAppleyard
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/garden…
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
✨"Research has shown that it is the earliest known church in the UK where an all-steel lattice frame is holding up a wooden barrel roof.
Lovely interview with campaigner Ian French who has been battling to save the United Reformed Church in Cleveleys.
theboltonnews.co.uk/news/26703483.…
Lovely interview with campaigner Ian French who has been battling to save the United Reformed Church in Cleveleys.
theboltonnews.co.uk/news/26703483.…
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
Author copies have arrived! Such a shiny new addition to the book-hoard 😍
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
So deserved
Thrilled that The House of Cromwell has been picked as a @spectator Book of the Year by one of my favourite authors the brilliant biographer Ruth Scurr. An early Christmas present for me! ☺️
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
Publication day for my new book, Confessions of a London River Hunter published by Three Imposters buy it here threeimpostors.co.uk/SHOP-1
Or from @NewhamBookshop @HousmansBooks @AtlantisShop @LRB Swedenborg Bookshop
Or from @NewhamBookshop @HousmansBooks @AtlantisShop @LRB Swedenborg Bookshop
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I had the great pleasure of reviewing the new Constantinople to Istanbul exhibition at @V_and_A for @EngelsbergIdeas engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-dr…
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Some lunchtime reading!
I'm delighted to welcome the brilliant @DJMusgrove to the Writer's Bookshelf this morning. Link in next post…
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Mathew Lyons retweeted
The V&A’s new exhibition offers a dream of the city that would become Istanbul, pieced together from fragments scattered across a millennium and a half of history.
The dream of Constantinople | @MathewJLyons
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-dr…
The dream of Constantinople | @MathewJLyons
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-dr…
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