Mathew Lyons
@mathewlyons.bsky.social
Writer, historian. FRHistS. Recent work: History Today, The Spectator, Slightly Foxed, New Humanist, Engelsberg Ideas.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
If you're not familiar with Jake Thackray, what joys await you. Listen to this from @backlisted.bsky.social and then seek him out.
*in the voice of Jake Thackray introducing one of his songs* "This is a very good episode of Backlisted all about Jake Thackray, and if you like things that are very good, perhaps you will enjoy it. See what you think." @backlisted.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/255...
255. Jake Thackray - The Unsung Writer by Paul Thompson — Backlisted
Biographer and singer-songwriter Paul Thompson joins us for a new episode of Backlisted devoted to the life and work of Jake Thackray, the so-called 'Yorkshire chansonnier' who died in 2002. Thackray ...
www.backlisted.fm
January 15, 2026 at 11:16 AM
If you're not familiar with Jake Thackray, what joys await you. Listen to this from @backlisted.bsky.social and then seek him out.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
If only such numbers were watching the real Reality TV draw of January, Junior Bake Off. if you don’t want to see Harry Hill trying to get two elephants in a drawer while a 9 year old makes a cookie depicting herself as a world origami champion, I don’t know what to do with you.
7.9 million people watched #TheTraitors last night, rising to 8.1 million peak. It is the highest for a regular series on linear TV yet.
January 15, 2026 at 10:35 AM
If only such numbers were watching the real Reality TV draw of January, Junior Bake Off. if you don’t want to see Harry Hill trying to get two elephants in a drawer while a 9 year old makes a cookie depicting herself as a world origami champion, I don’t know what to do with you.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
Today at 1345 on Radio 4 (or available now online), I'm talking to @naomialderman.bsky.social about Leonardo da Vinci.
BBC Radio 4 - Human Intelligence, Series 2, Perfectionists: Leonardo Da Vinci
The quintessential Renaissance man, artist Leonardo da Vinci was curious about everything.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 15, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Today at 1345 on Radio 4 (or available now online), I'm talking to @naomialderman.bsky.social about Leonardo da Vinci.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
Wedgwood Festival of Britain mug, designed by Norman Makinson, & depicting the Skylon and Crystal Palace.
January 24, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Wedgwood Festival of Britain mug, designed by Norman Makinson, & depicting the Skylon and Crystal Palace.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
An excellent biography of Katherine Mansfield, that has been a tremendous eye opener, leaving me eager to read more.
From @reaktionbooks.bsky.social .
Published in November 2025.
From @reaktionbooks.bsky.social .
Published in November 2025.
January 14, 2026 at 4:54 PM
An excellent biography of Katherine Mansfield, that has been a tremendous eye opener, leaving me eager to read more.
From @reaktionbooks.bsky.social .
Published in November 2025.
From @reaktionbooks.bsky.social .
Published in November 2025.
You really should!
At least once in your life you should experience Tallis' staggering Spem in Alium sung live: music c.1570 in FORTY-part harmony.
I'm singing it with @elysiansingers.bsky.social + John Tavener's spellbinding Song for Athene + much, much more.
Sat 14 March
Book NOW
www.tickettailor.com/events/theel...
I'm singing it with @elysiansingers.bsky.social + John Tavener's spellbinding Song for Athene + much, much more.
Sat 14 March
Book NOW
www.tickettailor.com/events/theel...
January 15, 2026 at 9:17 AM
You really should!
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
📢JOYCE YOUINGS MEMORIAL LECTURE📢
Prof. Jane Whittle: Work & gender, status & power: the surprising history of everyday chores in early modern England
🗓️ 28 January, 3pm
📍 Uni of Exeter & Zoom
All welcome at this public 🗃️ lecture, register for your place: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-joyce-...
Prof. Jane Whittle: Work & gender, status & power: the surprising history of everyday chores in early modern England
🗓️ 28 January, 3pm
📍 Uni of Exeter & Zoom
All welcome at this public 🗃️ lecture, register for your place: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-joyce-...
January 15, 2026 at 8:50 AM
📢JOYCE YOUINGS MEMORIAL LECTURE📢
Prof. Jane Whittle: Work & gender, status & power: the surprising history of everyday chores in early modern England
🗓️ 28 January, 3pm
📍 Uni of Exeter & Zoom
All welcome at this public 🗃️ lecture, register for your place: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-joyce-...
Prof. Jane Whittle: Work & gender, status & power: the surprising history of everyday chores in early modern England
🗓️ 28 January, 3pm
📍 Uni of Exeter & Zoom
All welcome at this public 🗃️ lecture, register for your place: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-joyce-...
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
Great quote from Barbara Stanwyck, explaining her unmatched ability with moral complexity
“I know very little about the simple life,” she later added on her role as a tough, morally compromised jailbird. “I'm a product of crowded places and jammed-up emotions, where right and wrong weren't always clearly defined and life wasn't always sweet, but it was life."
January 15, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Great quote from Barbara Stanwyck, explaining her unmatched ability with moral complexity
Has anyone read Watership Down as an adult? Either for the first time or as a re-read.
I was the first Free Reader in Junior School (free to read off syllabus) and this was the first book I chose to read with my new-found freedom. Such a weird experience: a children’s book (talking rabbits) that made me feel like a life-hardened adult (gestures at everything else in the book).
The first paperback edition of Watership Down, published by Puffin, with the Baynes' cover art unedited.
The 1972 publication was by Rex Collings.
The 1972 publication was by Rex Collings.
January 14, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Has anyone read Watership Down as an adult? Either for the first time or as a re-read.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
ICYMI 👀
What If It's Not Writer's Block? – Niall Campbell contemplates the other reason writing stops
Read the post: buff.ly/7yxfzUt
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
What If It's Not Writer's Block? – Niall Campbell contemplates the other reason writing stops
Read the post: buff.ly/7yxfzUt
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
January 14, 2026 at 3:54 PM
ICYMI 👀
What If It's Not Writer's Block? – Niall Campbell contemplates the other reason writing stops
Read the post: buff.ly/7yxfzUt
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
What If It's Not Writer's Block? – Niall Campbell contemplates the other reason writing stops
Read the post: buff.ly/7yxfzUt
#NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky
Delighted to get a proof of this in the post. It looks spectacular. Can't wait to read it.
January 14, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Delighted to get a proof of this in the post. It looks spectacular. Can't wait to read it.
New on the Broken Compass: an in-depth interview with @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social about her brilliant book Strangers and Intimates, which explores the rise and fall of the private life and the history of the self.
Interview: Tiffany Jenkins
How ideas about private and public life have evolved since the Reformation
open.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 11:24 AM
New on the Broken Compass: an in-depth interview with @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social about her brilliant book Strangers and Intimates, which explores the rise and fall of the private life and the history of the self.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
A kaleidoscopic and original new history of urbanization—from Lisbon to New York, Paris to Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires to Lagos.
The Invention of the Future by Bruno Carvalho is now available (17 February UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Urbanization #History
The Invention of the Future by Bruno Carvalho is now available (17 February UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Urbanization #History
January 13, 2026 at 5:36 PM
A kaleidoscopic and original new history of urbanization—from Lisbon to New York, Paris to Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires to Lagos.
The Invention of the Future by Bruno Carvalho is now available (17 February UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Urbanization #History
The Invention of the Future by Bruno Carvalho is now available (17 February UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#Urbanization #History
One of my favourites. Poetic Champions Compose from the following year is gorgeous too
This LP is 40 years old in 2026. The first Van album I bought, secondhand, was Beautiful Vision. The second was No Guru No Method No Teacher. As the sticker inside the sleeve reveals: 6 quid from Virgin in Broadmead, Bristol. Money well spent. I was 13 & and it completely blew me away. Still does.
January 13, 2026 at 1:37 PM
One of my favourites. Poetic Champions Compose from the following year is gorgeous too
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
"Today, there is little distinction between the public and private world," @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social writes.
"We blame the convenient scapegoat of the moment: the internet. But this gets the timeline wrong. By the time social media arrived, we were already living in a post-private world."
"We blame the convenient scapegoat of the moment: the internet. But this gets the timeline wrong. By the time social media arrived, we were already living in a post-private world."
Opinion | What destroyed ‘the right to be let alone’
Millions of Americans began eagerly erasing the public and private dividing line long before the internet.
wapo.st
January 11, 2026 at 3:04 PM
"Today, there is little distinction between the public and private world," @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social writes.
"We blame the convenient scapegoat of the moment: the internet. But this gets the timeline wrong. By the time social media arrived, we were already living in a post-private world."
"We blame the convenient scapegoat of the moment: the internet. But this gets the timeline wrong. By the time social media arrived, we were already living in a post-private world."
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
From Graeme Richardson's article on his new collection Dirt Rich, which is published this month!🏦
Read in full here:
open.substack.com/pub/carcanet...
Read in full here:
open.substack.com/pub/carcanet...
January 13, 2026 at 11:00 AM
From Graeme Richardson's article on his new collection Dirt Rich, which is published this month!🏦
Read in full here:
open.substack.com/pub/carcanet...
Read in full here:
open.substack.com/pub/carcanet...
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
Virtually a puff piece, with only the gentlest caveats. The books world HAS to get better at distinguishing wellness non-fiction from evidence-based science. Breath was fascinating and benign but also alarmingly anecdotal. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
The pulmonaut: how James Nestor turned breathing into a 3m copy bestseller
It is the most essential thing we do - yet many of us arguably breathe badly. The author of Breath explains how that can be changed
www.theguardian.com
January 13, 2026 at 9:34 AM
Virtually a puff piece, with only the gentlest caveats. The books world HAS to get better at distinguishing wellness non-fiction from evidence-based science. Breath was fascinating and benign but also alarmingly anecdotal. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
This scholar in his study got me pondering: who is the first living author in the west to appear in print? Many incunables are of medieval or classical texts, but who is the earliest living writer to see their works in print? Woodcut from Lyons in 1498. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.5.D.2.10[4435]
January 12, 2026 at 3:42 PM
This scholar in his study got me pondering: who is the first living author in the west to appear in print? Many incunables are of medieval or classical texts, but who is the earliest living writer to see their works in print? Woodcut from Lyons in 1498. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.5.D.2.10[4435]
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
Judging a magazine by its cover with 75 years in pictures, as chosen by the team.
Three of our favourites from the 80s and 90s.
To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary issue of History Today and where to buy it, head to buff.ly/ce1qlrz
Three of our favourites from the 80s and 90s.
To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary issue of History Today and where to buy it, head to buff.ly/ce1qlrz
January 12, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Judging a magazine by its cover with 75 years in pictures, as chosen by the team.
Three of our favourites from the 80s and 90s.
To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary issue of History Today and where to buy it, head to buff.ly/ce1qlrz
Three of our favourites from the 80s and 90s.
To find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary issue of History Today and where to buy it, head to buff.ly/ce1qlrz
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
British Library acquires archive of rural life writer and essayist Ronald Blythe
British Library acquires archive of rural life writer and essayist Ronald Blythe
Exclusive: Collection includes workbooks and index cards, and papers that show his research for bestseller Akenfield
www.theguardian.com
January 12, 2026 at 3:22 PM
British Library acquires archive of rural life writer and essayist Ronald Blythe
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
GET YOUR BESPOKE CROSSWORDS HERE. Do you know someone who'd love a themed crossword puzzle as a birthday or anniversary present? You almost certainly do (in this country you're never more than 10 feet away from a #crossword geek). People seem to like 'em. richarddsmyth.com/custom-cross...
January 12, 2026 at 1:35 PM
GET YOUR BESPOKE CROSSWORDS HERE. Do you know someone who'd love a themed crossword puzzle as a birthday or anniversary present? You almost certainly do (in this country you're never more than 10 feet away from a #crossword geek). People seem to like 'em. richarddsmyth.com/custom-cross...
I haven't read much Chesterton. I couldn't get into Father Brown and the Club of Queer Trades was fun, but the stories quickly ran out steam. But I keep seeing references to him that make him sound a fascinating writer.
Chesterton is such a great writer of paragraphs - almost every one of these lines stand alone but the cumulative effect, it is so beautiful.
G.K. Chesterton: “‘My country, right or wrong,’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’”
January 11, 2026 at 6:20 PM
I haven't read much Chesterton. I couldn't get into Father Brown and the Club of Queer Trades was fun, but the stories quickly ran out steam. But I keep seeing references to him that make him sound a fascinating writer.
Reposted by Mathew Lyons
This week is the 75th anniversary of History Today, and our first co-editor certainly turned a few fedoras...
The magazine has a colourful history, as this issue’s Glossary proves.
Find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special at buff.ly/2bUa9kH
The magazine has a colourful history, as this issue’s Glossary proves.
Find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special at buff.ly/2bUa9kH
January 11, 2026 at 3:08 PM
This week is the 75th anniversary of History Today, and our first co-editor certainly turned a few fedoras...
The magazine has a colourful history, as this issue’s Glossary proves.
Find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special at buff.ly/2bUa9kH
The magazine has a colourful history, as this issue’s Glossary proves.
Find out what else is in the 75th Anniversary special at buff.ly/2bUa9kH
Were any other videos / promo films shot among monastic ruins? Surely there must be some goth examples
While we wait for clarification, let’s enjoy the Flirtations belting out Nothing But a Heartache amidst the ruins of Tintern Abbey. youtu.be/CMUrgjcAThk?...
The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache (Official Video, HD, Stereo)
YouTube video by Geoff Peters
youtu.be
January 11, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Were any other videos / promo films shot among monastic ruins? Surely there must be some goth examples