Michael Dwyer

I have a soft spot for the architecture of Stockport. This is the Market Hall, designed and built in cast iron by the ironfounder James Heywood Jr. of Derby in 1861. St Mary's overlooks the marketplace and has a mediaeval chancel but is mostly a rebuild of 1813-17 by Lewis Wyatt.

‘He was pretty well bonkers’: The tragic life of Ramsay MacDonald A new biography uncovers the sentimental inner world of Britain’s first Labour prime minister

www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/df98407...

Should globalists give up? A riveting and depressing argument tackled in a new book, “The Doom Loop”

'Prasad's 'THE DOOM LOOP: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder' contends that changes to the balance of power —the rise of China and India, the waning dominance of the West—have transformed the world economy into an engine for disorder.' HURST
www.economist.com/culture/2026...

Rosemary Hill · One of the Worst Things: Jessica Mitford’s Handbag It sometimes feels as if we shall never hear the last of the Mitfords. What Jessica Mitford called ‘the Mitford...

‘She was never content with the view, accepted not only among the aristocracy during her childhood, that “the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate” were part of a divinely ordered social structure.’

Rosemary Hill on a new biography of Jessica Mitford.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Holocaust survivor judge who issued Netanyahu’s arrest warrant Theodor Meron, still going strong at 95, escaped the Nazis with his father and became a serious force in international law, helping to found the ICC

The Holocaust survivor judge who issued Netanyahu’s arrest warrant
Theodor Meron, still going strong at 95, escaped the Nazis with his father and became a serious force in international law, helping to found the ICC
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

The Holocaust survivor judge who issued Netanyahu’s arrest warrant Theodor Meron, still going strong at 95, escaped the Nazis with his father and became a serious force in international law, helping to found the ICC

The Holocaust survivor judge who issued Netanyahu’s arrest warrant
Theodor Meron, still going strong at 95, escaped the Nazis with his father and became a serious force in international law, helping to found the ICC
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

Learn more about Theodor Meron's inspiring story 'A Thousand Miracles' here: tinyurl.com/4dx6326t

This is a glorious book by the way

Hitler DID win...(at least in part) Theodor Meron was just a boy when his mother and maternal grandparents were executed by the Nazis...he has spent a lifetime making sure the same atrocities are never carried out again

mol.im/a/15471049

From surviving the Holocaust to judging genocide: the extraordinary life of Theodor Meron | CNN Christiane Amanpour speaks to the giant of modern international law about his new memoir, “A Thousand Miracles.”

An astonishing memoir from the Holocaust survivor who oversaw the world’s first genocide trials and has advised the ICC on crimes in Israel and Gaza. @hurstpublishers.bsky.social
edition.cnn.com/2026/01/16/t...

An ‘infectiously enthusiastic’ history of herring When, in the early 1950s, Birds Eye tested a new frozen fish product for the British market, the cod fish finger was only ever intended as a bland control

www.the-tls.com/culture/food...
‘An infectiously enthusiastic herringist-in-chief, Graeme Rigby has produced a book that will doubtlessly convert others to the cause. . . Surprises and idiosyncrasies . . . are much of the pleasure.’— @thetls.bsky.social @hurstpublishers.bsky.social

The surreal drama of Helsinki’s history In 1920, the young Finnish architect Alvar Alto flew over Helsinki for the first time. He was aghast. ‘An aviator can see where the monkeys have been and destroyed so very much,’ he recalled. Alto’s a...

The surreal drama of Helsinki’s history
Henrik Meinander tells the story of a city ravaged by plague, fire, war and occupation being constantly rebuilt and resettled over five centuries.
spectator.com/article/the-...

‘Central Europe’ Review: Continental Divide The domains of the Habsburgs formed a political and cultural patchwork that would come under increasing strain.

'The domains of the Habsburgs formed a political and cultural patchwork that would come under increasing strain.'
Lovely review in the WSJ of luka Jukic's recent book on the history of Central Europe, from @hurstpublishers.bsky.social
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

A Historian in Gaza: Filiu documents life under Israel’s siege Book Club: Historian Jean-Pierre Filiu offers a rare, first-hand account of Gaza’s devastation, daily struggle & extraordinary resilience under relentless siege

A Historian in Gaza: Filiu documents life under Israel's siege www.newarab.com/features/his...

Bagpipes originated 3,000 years ago in Turkey... NOT Scotland, claims historian IT’S news likely to get Scots hot under the kilt as a historian claims that bagpipes — one of the nation’s national symbols — are not actually Scottish. Instead, the wailing wind instruments origin…

www.thesun.co.uk/news/3762093...

Bagpipes originated 3,000 years ago in Turkey... NOT Scotland, claims historian IT’S news likely to get Scots hot under the kilt as a historian claims that bagpipes — one of the nation’s national symbols — are not actually Scottish. Instead, the wailing wind instruments origin…

www.thesun.co.uk/news/3762093...

Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring is a one-stop definitive herring information source - fisheries & fishing, history, natural history, cures, recipes & culture.

Out this month: Rigby's Encyclopaedia of the Herring, by @rigbysherrings.bsky.social. About the Atlantic Herring and its far-reaching dominions. From @hurstpublishers.bsky.social @michaeldwyer.bsky.social www.herripedia.com

A Historian in Gaza: Filiu documents life under Israel’s siege Book Club: Historian Jean-Pierre Filiu offers a rare, first-hand account of Gaza’s devastation, daily struggle & extraordinary resilience under relentless siege

A Historian in Gaza: Filiu documents life under Israel's siege www.newarab.com/features/his...

A box containing newly printed copies of “All That Glistens”.

Received a special delivery: ‘All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain’ with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social

Expect to see some reviews and interviews next week.

www.hurstpublishers.com/book/all-tha...

The front cover of Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America

A graphic with info on Hurst’s 50% off sale

Looking for a Christmas gift for a keen traveller, South America enthusiast or anyone interested in lost British histories?

#SmallEarthquakes is available for half price in the @hurstpublishers.bsky.social sale until midnight tomorrow (9 December) 🎁

www.hurstpublishers.com/book/small-e...

👀Troublemaker by @cktroublemaker.bsky.social is out of stock with some retailers. But you can order for immediate despatch at 50% off until midnight December 9th directly from Hurst (and support an indie publisher in doing so!)

A @newyorker.com and Kirkus Book of the Year

👉 tinyurl.com/3z8zha7jA

🐟 'Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring' is ‘A prodigious achievement, by turns erudite and great fun' @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

It's out of stock with some retailers, but you can grab your copy at 50% off until midnight tonight directly from us ➡️ tinyurl.com/59kj4xxe

Africa’s shame: its hidden role in the slave trade In Unbroken Chains: a 5000 year history of African enslavement (Hurst, 2025) former BBC Africa Editor, Martin Plaut, provides a much-needed survey of slavery in Africa. He reveals to the general reade...

In Unbroken Chains @hurstpublishers.bsky.social former BBC Africa Editor, Martin Plaut, provides a much-needed survey of slavery in Africa. He reveals the extraordinary length and scope of African slavery and how ingrained it is in many societies.
iol.co.za/sunday-tribu...

The New Byzantines: An exploration of Greece's Middle East ties By Middle East Eye correspondent Sean Mathews, the book is a vigorous, evocative ramble through today’s Greece and its faded communities in the Levant

www.middleeasteye.net/discover/new...

Why this family of British aristocrats still obsesses the public The Mitford sisters continue to fascinate readers, and this year brought worthy additions to the long shelf of books by and about them

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

Transformed by the People: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Road to Power in Syria Ahmed Al-Sharaa has been in power in Syria for nearly 1-year. The lightening rebel offensive that brought down five decades of the dictatorial rule of the Assad family, was a shock to many. In Al-S…

www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251203-tra...

a page of print from the Times newspaper showing a book jacket with ruins of a city in central europe after the end of the second world war

Jessica Mitford: faux-progressive troublemaker

What might the modern progressive learn from Jessica Mitford? This intriguing question is posed by Troublemaker, a new biography of the writer known to friends and family more simply as “Decca”. @hurstpublishers.bsky.social
unherd.com/2025/11/jess...

Jessica was the only Mitford worth taking seriously Can there really be any point in yet another fat book about one of the Mitford sisters? Their antics have been appearing in print since the late 1940s, when the eldest – clever, waspish Nancy – displa...

To the end of her life, Decca had the daunting blue gaze, pure upper-class accent and ruthless, exploitative charm of a true Mitford. Kaplan’s account is solid, even-handed and, in the end, impressive.'
www.spectator.co.uk/article/jess...

Red Sheep An impressive new biography of Jessica Mitford emphasises her sceptical and anti-authoritarian personality. But this was only half of the picture.

'In this first-rate biography, professor Carla Kaplan re-examines the life of Jessica Mitford, a young woman born into wealth and privilege who traded her aristocratic position for communist politics.'
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social quillette.com/2025/11/25/r...