Michael Dwyer

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...

The serpent head of the Oseberg Viking ship, carved in 820, and shown for the first time to the public in the Oslo Historical Museum

Depicts herring being smoked in Scotland and a book cover about the history of herring fishery in Europe, along with text of a review of the book published in The Skipper magazine.

'peculiar, fascinating and comprehensive — a book that takes a single fish species and transforms it into a lens through which to view history, economics, culture, & natural science.'
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social

Central Europe Survives: A Battlefield of Ideas Still Unfolding Today BOOK REVIEW: Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an IdeaBy Luka Ivan Jukic / Hurst & Co.Reviewed by: Jean-Thomas NicoleThe Reviewer Jean-Thomas Nicole is a Policy Advisor with ...

Central Europe Survives: A Battlefield of Ideas Still Unfolding Today
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social www.thecipherbrief.com/central-euro...

Colonialism Devours Itself: The Waning of Francafrique review - Liberation On France’s role in Africa in the late 20th and early 21st along with the background to the new wave of anti-French and anti-colonial feeling, this is a must read, writes Bob Newland

'No review can do this book justice. Anyone wanting to understand France’s role in Africa along with the background to the new wave of anti-French and anti-colonial feeling, especially in the Sahel, should give it a read.'
liberationorg.co.uk/comment-anal...
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social

‘Transformed by the People’ Review: Revolution and Realignment The Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered Damascus and toppled the Assad regime last year. What comes next for Syria?

‘Transformed by the People’: Revolution and Realignment'
'The details of HTS governance in Idlib provided are fascinating and informative, drawing on the authors’ extensive fieldwork in Syria.'
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social @wsj.com

‘Transformed by the People’ Review: Revolution and Realignment The Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered Damascus and toppled the Assad regime last year. What comes next for Syria?

‘Transformed by the People’: Revolution and Realignment'
'The details of HTS governance in Idlib provided are fascinating and informative, drawing on the authors’ extensive fieldwork in Syria.'
www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
@hurstpublishers.bsky.social @wsj.com

Inside China’s Struggle for Influence in Central Asia For Beijing, Central Asia is a testing ground for its foreign policy innovations – and a challenge.

Inside China’s Struggle for Influence in Central Asia
thediplomat.com/2025/11/insi...

Ex-spymaster disputes Taliban envoy’s account of US handover Former ISI chief claims it was his own countrymen, not Pakistan, that handed Afghan envoy Mullah Zaeef over to the Americans.

www.dawn.com/news/1951710

The Fantasy of a New Middle East Israel cannot destroy its way to peace.

www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/...

Lithuania: A History by Richard Butterwick - Meticulous chronicle explains so much A superb piece of scholarship that distils more than 1,000 tumultuous years into a coherent narrative

‘A superb piece of scholarship that distils more than 1,000 tumultuous years [of Lithuania’s history] into a coherent narrative.’ — Irish Times @hurstpublishers.bsky.social
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

How Trump Can Avoid a War Over Taiwan These five steps can minimize the chance of a catastrophic U.S.-China conflict over the island, writes Zhou Bo.

Zhou Bo is a retired Senior Colonel of the PLA and author of 'Should the World Fear China?'(Hurst, 2025).
time.com/7327487/trum...

Meme. Medieval image showing a cooper making a barrel. He is leaning over the barrel with a wooden wedge in one hand, and a wooden mallet raised high in the other. He's about to strike, like a cobra (if the cobra were holding a wooden mallet). The man has massively muscled forearms, and a sharply receding hairline. He's going bald, and will arm wrestle you into submission if you bring it up. He is wearing a yellow apron with tools hanging from his belt, a light blue shirt, and a dark cowl. His grey hair speaks to his experience, and his calm look says that he hasn't noticed yet that he's in a meme. On the wall behind his is a coil of rope, and something that might be a hat or a hood. It is, though, more fun to imagine that it is a fedora and a coiled whip, and that this man is actually Indiana Jones, taking a break from questionable archeology and bad pedagogy to make a few barrels. Meme text reads: "Lock, stock, and two slithering barrels of eels"

There was a robust trade in live eels in pre-modern England, & I know you're wondering: "How do I ship live eels?"

Not in barrels of water. They'll use up the oxygen & die. Nope. You pack them in layers of damp moss or hay, & off you go. They don't need to be in water.

Wut? 1/3
🗃️🧪

Chilling times: We have to talk about Greenland ... - InReview | InDaily, Inside South Australia Donald Trump wants Greenland and Elizabeth Buchanan's new book offers a timely explanation of the history of this otherworldly land.

www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...

Mapping the shifting mental boundaries of Europe Two books look at how so much central and eastern Europe identity has long been defined by an animosity to Moscow

'Now, Jukic writes that, in recent discussion, Ukraine has become an “archetypal Kunderian state” — a country whose heart belongs in the west but one stunted by an imperial Kremlin.' @hurstpublishers.bsky.social @ljukic.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/6b1c...

Tasty new book makes case for the 'King of Fishes' 'Herripedia' man Graeme swims into print

www.culturednortheast.co.uk/p/tasty-new-... 'Rigby believes our attitude to the fish might be a hangover from the darkest of days when badly processed herring was shipped to the Caribbean as cheap food for slaves on the plantations.' @hurstpublishers.bsky.social

An experiment:

If you see this post, please like it. Am comparing numbers to the other place for a piece.

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