Old Street Publishing

In 1989, on this day, I was in my office in Maynooth 🇮🇪 - in my first job as a Germanist.

This calendar was on my wall.

None of my colleagues anywhere in the world had any idea that within a week, the #DDR would be finished.

An excellent review of Linda Jaivin's Bombard the Headquarters! by Wanning Sun in Asia Times. '

Jaivin’s narrative flair and sense of drama give new life to what is almost certainly the sorriest period in recent Chinese history...she is a consummate storyteller.'

asiatimes.com/2025/07/lear...

High in Alps on Italian Front was Marmolada glacier battleground. Sep 24 1917 #OTD photos show positions, including barracks and artillery positions, of the Austro-Hungarians Empire carved into mountain peaks
ÖNB Digital ID: 15428012, 15428033, 15428040 bsky.app/profile/this...

Search Books | Waterstones Discover our full range of books, gifts, toys, stationery and audiobooks at Waterstones.com. Click & Collect within 2 hours or buy online with Free UK Delivery on Orders Over £25.

We are thrilled that Lesley Downer's The Shortest History of Japan has been selected as one of Waterstone's non-fiction paperbacks of the year. @waterstones.bsky.social @lesleydowner.bsky.social www.waterstones.com/campaign/pap...

Tickets are still available for in person (and online) for Ian Mortimer's event at the Gloucester History Festival this evening. @ianmortimer.bsky.social

'[Livy would] be a good BBC historian, popping up and doing documentaries, tramping around fields to tell us where things happened...' The Shortest History of Ancient Rome's Ross King on the best Roman history books. @fivebooks.com fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

The Shortest History of Ancient Rome - an evening with Ross King | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about The Shortest History of Ancient Rome - an evening with Ross King today.

Tickets are now available for Ross King's talk at Waterstones Gower St on Monday 20 October about his excellent new book THE SHORTEST HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME. Out now in hardback @waterstones.bsky.social www.waterstones.com/events/the-s...

'Condensed, lively brevity... an excellent guide to how and why China “went mad”.' MICHAEL EASSON, The Sydney Institute, on Linda Jaivin's BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS! THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA. Out now in hardback. thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/worlds-...

Timetravelling historian Ian Mortimer will be talking about his forthcoming book MORTIMER'S A-Zs of ENGLISH HISTORY at the Gloucester History Festival this Friday 19 Sept. Pre-publication copies of the book will be on sale. Online tickets are available here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/onl...

From The Gulag Archipelago to Khrushchev Remembers, Sheila Fitzpatrick, author of The Death of Stalin, chooses the five best books on the Soviet Union for FiveBooks @fivebooks.com fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

RIP Chris Steele-Perkins, the man who shot the ultimate "What, me worry?" photo.

© Chris Steele-Perkins (28 juil. 1947 - 8 sept. 2025) RIP

RIP Chris Steele-Perkins

1947-2025 🩶

Kafka Uncovered Documentary in which novelist James Hawes attempts to demolish a number of myths and misconceptions about the life and work of cult writer Franz Kafka.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Including the first ever visit by a film crew to Dr Kafka’s asylum for mentally damaged folk-comrades, in Frankenstein.

Really.

Happy publication day to Ross King's excellent book THE SHORTEST HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME.

'King’s supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past… The scope of his knowledge is staggering'
—John Carey, Sunday Times

History of the Hexagon At a moment when many are speculating about the future of North American hegemony, Emmanuel Macron continues to strive at positioning France as an

'Rich, readable... Jones is a compelling tour guide through time' Russell Williams in the TLS on Colin Jones's The Shortest History of France. Out now in hardback. @thetls.bsky.social @rwilliamsparis.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

No. 8: Greatest Sports Books Ever They’re playing bas-ket-ball. We love that basketball.

It's Day 3 of the countdown and we already have a bonus book! No. 8 is all about basketball.

Enjoy this little snippet of This Perfect Friend, the first single from my upcoming album LIAR (Love Isn't A Right) ☀️🌈

History of the Hexagon

Russell Williams on governing a country with 246 types of cheese

'Rich, readable...Jones is a compelling tour guide through history' - Russell Williams on Colin Jones's The Shortest History of France. Out now in hardback.

Boulez at 100, the Proms at 130 • Andrew Ford This year’s BBC Proms celebrate composer, conductor and audience favourite Pierre Boulez

The Shortest History of Music's Andrew Ford on Boulez and this year's Proms #Boulez #Proms

insidestory.org.au/boulez-at-10...

Also reissued today is Joe Posnanski's New York Times bestselling Why We Love Baseball - A History in 50 Moments.

'Passion and expertise leap through every page' New York Times

Happy UK publication day to Joe Posnanski's Why We Love American Football - A History in 100 Moments.

‘Contemporary sports writing’s biggest star’ Wall St Journal

'This is the best kind of sports writing. Entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious...' Ron Kaplan

From Joseph Roth to the Siege of Vienna, Nicholas T. Parsons recommends @fivebooks.com the best books to read on Austria: fivebooks.com/best-books/a...

China’s ‘nightmare’ youth revolution was lit by its neurotic authoritarian leader, Mao Zedong. What can we learn from it? Linda Jaivin’s epic tale of China’s Cultural Revolution brings its players to life – and illustrates the massive scale of its violence, death and human suffering.

'With an innate sense of the dramatic, Jaivin conjures up these historical moments like a scriptwriter for an epic...' - Linda Jaivin's BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS! THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA reviewed by Wanning Sun in @theconversation.com

theconversation.com/chinas-night...

Nicholas T. Parsons' The Shortest History of Austria - a short book for such a wide-ranging history - is also a FiveBooks highlight this month.

@fivebooks.com Very good to see the launch title in Old Street's Great Events series, Sheila Fitzpatrick's THE DEATH OF STALIN, recommended as a top history highlight by Five Books. fivebooks.com/best-books/n...

The Shortest History of Ancient Rome - an evening with Ross King | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about The Shortest History of Ancient Rome - an evening with Ross King today.

Ross King will be talking about his excellent new book The Shortest History of Ancient Rome at Waterstones Gower St on 20 October. Who were the Romans? How did they build such a mighty empire? And why did it fall? @waterstones.bsky.social www.waterstones.com/events/the-s...

Time-travelling historian Ian Mortimer will be talking about his new book MORTIMER'S A-Zs of ENGLISH HISTORY at the Gloucester History Festival on the evening of Friday 19 September. @https://www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/events/mortimers-a-to-z/