@hjmoxon.bsky.social
Bookseller and Medieval history graduate.
Whereas kids that played Age of Empires II grow up with excellent and achievable policy ideas.
12.10.2025 10:59 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0βSocial media is selling ringside seats for a carnival of hatredβ¦ letβs not fall for it.β
After an βangry summerβ of immigration debate, Andrew Marr warns against being βfooledβ by online discourse.
If you believed the producers of King and Conqueror, you'd think the original source material for the Norman Conquest was virtually nonexistent. In fact it's one of the best-documented events in medieval European history. You can even spin a 400+ page book out of it. www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/k...
27.08.2025 13:23 β π 369 π 70 π¬ 26 π 12
Having introduced so many authors as a bookseller Iβm looking forward to the official launch of my own book #TheSoundOfManyWaters in the bookshop on Thursday. Do join me if you can. 7:30pm
www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/st-an...
Today in 1704 the Duke of Marlborough won one of the most remarkable victories in British history at Blenheim.
He dashed off this note to his wife on the battlefield saying, basically, tell the Queen.
It was written on the back of a receipt.
Pov: the Spanish bartender says they ain't got Carling.
05.08.2025 19:51 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0A great thing about physical books is that they seldom stop working
03.08.2025 09:08 β π 196 π 40 π¬ 5 π 1I think you'll find the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht is very legal.
14.06.2025 09:31 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
BBC headline: Group backed by Judi Dench takes over North Yorkshire nature site.
Why are they reporting it like it's a paramilitary coup?
31.05.2025 07:11 β π 3997 π 513 π¬ 150 π 102Remember, the obvious front-runner never gets elected Pope because the Cardinals automatically hate him for being the obvious front-runner. Conclaves have a very specific and vindictive dynamic, unlike other kinds of election
22.04.2025 10:23 β π 131 π 16 π¬ 15 π 6If anything, the dynamic is more like a highly contested election within a student society than a local or national election
22.04.2025 10:27 β π 54 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
Bannon the latest in the βBritain doesnβt manufacture anythingβ brigade. Itβs a lazy trope you hear repeated in the media a lot.
In fact the UK remains the 8th or 9th biggest manufacturer in the world. 10% of our GDP with some of the most advanced manufacturing anywhere.
Checking to see Britain's tariff rate.
02.04.2025 20:34 β π 209 π 26 π¬ 3 π 2Books I might in theory re-read if I am in the mood for that author but, in practice, are not getting read ahead of better books that writer wrote
Duplicates where I felt guilty about having not paid for a book I loved but donβt want to get rid of the pre-publication proof
Bad but thoughtful gifts
Silly reasons I have certain books:
Iβm not going to read this again, but it was such an important part of how I became the person I am, it has to stay.
As above, but I now actively dislike it
Badly-written history books about a period I studied where I loved the teacher
Obsessive completionism
Nostalgic for a time when no one was complaining about late services (cause there weren't any)?
12.03.2025 09:53 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
How do you organise your books? Most book owners... don't
Not organised: 45%
By size: 19%
By genre: 17%
Alphabetically, by author: 11%
By whether I've read them: 10%
By colour: 4%
Alphabetically, by title: 2%
Other: 6%
yougov.co.uk/entertainmen...
Flora MacDonald died today in 1790. She helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape, charmed captors, got the Prince of Wales to help pay her fine, emigrated to America, gave a rousing speech to Loyalist troops before battle. Retired to Scotland to live on money sent by her son who made a fortune in India
05.03.2025 19:49 β π 153 π 11 π¬ 6 π 1Think Iβve already had enough unprecedented stuff for the year.
Could we pause all things unprecedented until, say, July?
βA rail replacement bus serviceβ
28.02.2025 08:29 β π 745 π 110 π¬ 24 π 19"Starmer needs to be robust in correcting [Trump's] inaccuracies."
Humza Yousaf, former First Minister of Scotland, says Sir Keir Starmer should look at President Macron's "performance" with President Trump.
#Newsnight
"I think tariffs are a really bad thing all around; They make everything expensive for everybody."
@libdemdaisy.bsky.social
UK political Blueskyβs miserablist tendency is missing the point here: someone is going to have the role of βday one: attend meeting of European leaders, day two: meet USβ. That doesnβt mean this role will be successful but it will always exist.
16.02.2025 12:35 β π 125 π 8 π¬ 15 π 1
I like fiction and don't always trust people, but am confident that if an old man was stabbed in a room where no one reads fiction at all, a FTSE100 company, say, or a university, people would still get up and help ffs
15.02.2025 13:28 β π 712 π 88 π¬ 52 π 28The Trump/Vance admin is the radicalised online right in an actual position of power, indeed the seat of power which matters most. Itβs government by Breitbart.
15.02.2025 10:14 β π 559 π 63 π¬ 11 π 3A strange thing about the first quarter of the 21st century is how the horrors of the 20th century are invoked as arguments to *repeat* those horrors.
13.02.2025 18:54 β π 332 π 95 π¬ 14 π 0From the facile βhard times create strong menβ to βPartition, what a fantastic success that wasβ.
13.02.2025 18:55 β π 71 π 7 π¬ 4 π 0
Brian Driscoll, the acting director of the FBI, sporting curly hair, a kinda rakish jazz dirtbag moustache and beard combo, a faintly amused look in his eyes and a wry "whaddaya gonna do" smirk
I've got to say, the guy who accidentally became the Director of the FBI does 100% look like the guy who accidentally becomes the Director of the FBI in a mid-2000s comedy about a guy who accidentally becomes the Director of the FBI
05.02.2025 22:12 β π 20942 π 2723 π¬ 570 π 398Whenever Candlemas is described as the Feast of the Presentation, I imagine Simeon doing an awkward PowerPoint for Temple HR
02.02.2025 10:36 β π 290 π 32 π¬ 11 π 1
