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Lucy Seton-Watson

@lucysetonw.bsky.social

540 followers 330 following 1.3K posts

Native Londoner, long-time Cairene, now living DK. Citizen of Nowhere par excellence. Live by the written word. Lifelong close reader: originally Greek/Latin, then Wittgenstein, then medieval ceremonial architecture in Mamluk Cairo, now back to Eng Lit.

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Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 5h

If reports are to be believed, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is to remain in Israeli prison (without charges or trial) even after the exchange of hostages.

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · Dec 29

Dr Husam Abu Safya, head of Kamal Adwan hospital, surrendering himself to a Israeli tank, December 2024

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Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4h

“You can rail against mimicking Nigel Farage, or brief against the pesky Office for Budget Responsibility. You can foam in righteous fury about the Tory legacy. Foam away. You’re quite right. But these, folks, are the facts.”

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Is Shabana Mahmood the next prime minister?

Only Keir Starmer can solve Labour’s immigration bind

www.newstatesman.com

Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

Dr McInnes’s Monster @drbeard79.bsky.social · 1d

I’d heard about the extinction of the slender-billed curlew and the poor bird hadn’t had a definite sighting since 1995 but official confirmation (96% probability it is correct) of its extinction is still profoundly sad - ask not for whom the bell tolls…

RSPB Science @rspbscience.bsky.social · 1d

Slender-billed Curlew declared officially extinct by ICUN

This marks the first known global bird extinction from mainland Europe, North Africa and West Asia 🌍

Read on for a summary or check out the research which led to the decision here:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Global extinction of Slender‐billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

In the current biodiversity crisis, conservation efforts are often focused on extinction prevention. However, it can be difficult to determine if a species is extinct, especially if the species has…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 11d

Tony Harrison’s poem V to be performed in the Leeds cemetery that inspired it. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/s...

Tony Harrison’s poem V to be performed in the Leeds cemetery that inspired it

The site-specific performance of the once controversial poem was planned for its 40th anniversary in October, but will now double as a tribute to the writer who died last week

www.theguardian.com

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Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 1d

⬇️⬇️ For those lucky enough to be able to go.

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

This is on Sunday!

Tickets still available: www.slunglow.org/v-a-homecomi...

Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d

This is on Sunday!

Tickets still available: www.slunglow.org/v-a-homecomi...

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Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 1d

Yup.

Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 1d

Excluding Marwan Barghouti from the list of prisoners for release means none of the parties are serious about the second stage of the agreement (replacing Hamas with an alternative administration) let along any "peace" prospects

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Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 2d

So they are trying to politicise the idea of education, a true education. What short-sighted, foolish bastards.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 2d

Ugh. Just ugh.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 2d

Very good article, thank you Yezid.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 2d

Yes.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 2d

A really good, patient, very concise piece from Stephen Bush on Robert Jenrick's try at using 'whiteness' as supposedly a proxy for 'Britishness'.

Gift link.

on.ft.com/3IZevDM

Thank the Tories for keeping Robert Jenrick out of high office

Shadow justice secretary’s comment about not seeing a ‘white face’ shows he does not understand integration

on.ft.com

Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 4d

While preparing a talk, I just stumbled across this clip of nightingale, cuckoo, turtle dove, robin and chiffchaff singing in north Norfolk last year.

Winter is daunting and conservation is relentless bad news… but for this you keep on fighting.

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Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

How beautiful.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

Just watched Nicholas Nickleby thro again. Aahh …

Reposted by Lucy Seton-Watson

Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.bsky.social · 4d

And here we go. I never wrote this article, and yet it is cited here.

www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...

And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.

#AIisnotresearch

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Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

One of the things that kept haunting me was that in The Mayor of Casterbridge, the broken Michael Henchard brings his daughter a goldfinch in a little cage as a wedding present (a songbird). But he doesn’t get to give it to her.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

What a rare human being he was.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

Doesn’t it. One of the things that got me was the way that picture is its own light source. It lit up the room on dark days, literally. It’s alchemy. I could stand and look at those brickwork walls for hours.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

Agree. That particular goldfinch, it’s right there before you.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

Ugh.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

Lovely to see, but nothing can compare with standing before & squinting at the picture itself, can it.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

Ah yes, & that one too. Add in the View of Delft, & that’s the treasures, IMHO.

Lucy Seton-Watson @lucysetonw.bsky.social · 4d

My favourite in the Mauritshuis. His regard - heart-stopping. And also learned so much more about him, & about Dutch C17 painting - which I loved already - from @lauracummingart.bsky.social Laura Cumming’s book, which I found in Delft & bought.

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