Daryl
@drleeworthy.bsky.social
Writer, historian. Labour histories, social histories, biographies of writers, mostly British but occasionally elsewhere. Always got my nose in a novel.
“Each day is a little bit of history” — Jose Saramago
“Each day is a little bit of history” — Jose Saramago
So glad I gave up my Royal Historical Society fellowship after seeing who just got elected: the worst individual I ever met at a conference. And here I thought the obnoxious ex-president was bad enough (especially on here). Good riddance to rather expensive rubbish.
December 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
So glad I gave up my Royal Historical Society fellowship after seeing who just got elected: the worst individual I ever met at a conference. And here I thought the obnoxious ex-president was bad enough (especially on here). Good riddance to rather expensive rubbish.
Watched the first two episodes of the Doctor Who/Sea Devils spin off this evening, on catch up, and... well, it was okay, but only okay. Some of the dialogue was clunky, the pacing rushed, and why, oh why, did UNIT have to be introduced and reintroduced over and over.
December 8, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Watched the first two episodes of the Doctor Who/Sea Devils spin off this evening, on catch up, and... well, it was okay, but only okay. Some of the dialogue was clunky, the pacing rushed, and why, oh why, did UNIT have to be introduced and reintroduced over and over.
Film you've seen more than six times. Hard mode. Oi. Erm...
December 7, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Film you've seen more than six times. Hard mode. Oi. Erm...
Folks should stress far less about tweets and concern themselves more with legislation, if and when it comes, and with the nasties waiting in the wings.
Certain things are always true about the Home Office, one of which is that the standard policy position is F— Off to everyone.
Certain things are always true about the Home Office, one of which is that the standard policy position is F— Off to everyone.
December 7, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Folks should stress far less about tweets and concern themselves more with legislation, if and when it comes, and with the nasties waiting in the wings.
Certain things are always true about the Home Office, one of which is that the standard policy position is F— Off to everyone.
Certain things are always true about the Home Office, one of which is that the standard policy position is F— Off to everyone.
I cracked the book manuscript this evening and it has all fallen into place. A bit of focused knitting over the next few days and the draft should be ready to go off to my editor on time. Phew.
December 7, 2025 at 12:11 AM
I cracked the book manuscript this evening and it has all fallen into place. A bit of focused knitting over the next few days and the draft should be ready to go off to my editor on time. Phew.
Reading some reviews and books in the library and I am about 90% certain that a professional historiography of Wales and the Welsh has died a death. Some will still get written but it will be like the Monty Python parrot. Sad, yes, but also wholly unsurprising.
December 3, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reading some reviews and books in the library and I am about 90% certain that a professional historiography of Wales and the Welsh has died a death. Some will still get written but it will be like the Monty Python parrot. Sad, yes, but also wholly unsurprising.
A very clever choice, this one. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
Misha Glenny to present BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time
The much loved series returns on 15 January 2026
www.bbc.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:57 PM
A very clever choice, this one. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
I have loved - loved - this programme on Radio 3, it is absolutely fascinating and reveals the complexity and variety of twentieth-century music.
December 2, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I have loved - loved - this programme on Radio 3, it is absolutely fascinating and reveals the complexity and variety of twentieth-century music.
Reposted by Daryl
Today in in the column:
Tracking the Port Road. I went in search of the ruins of a 19th century railway, hiked to the site of one of the most remote railway stations in the country, and wondered at the transient nature and qualities of human creation.
www.thenational.scot/culture/2566...
Tracking the Port Road. I went in search of the ruins of a 19th century railway, hiked to the site of one of the most remote railway stations in the country, and wondered at the transient nature and qualities of human creation.
www.thenational.scot/culture/2566...
Exploring what remains of the railway line connecting Scotland and Ireland
The line colloquially known as the “Port Road” or the “Paddy Line” had its origins in the mid-19th century with a scheme to connect the…
www.thenational.scot
December 2, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Today in in the column:
Tracking the Port Road. I went in search of the ruins of a 19th century railway, hiked to the site of one of the most remote railway stations in the country, and wondered at the transient nature and qualities of human creation.
www.thenational.scot/culture/2566...
Tracking the Port Road. I went in search of the ruins of a 19th century railway, hiked to the site of one of the most remote railway stations in the country, and wondered at the transient nature and qualities of human creation.
www.thenational.scot/culture/2566...
Log on, see that... The Falkland Islands is the debat du jour... cos there's nothing better to discuss, quite literally at all...
What a bizarre platform this is.
What a bizarre platform this is.
December 2, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Log on, see that... The Falkland Islands is the debat du jour... cos there's nothing better to discuss, quite literally at all...
What a bizarre platform this is.
What a bizarre platform this is.
After a five month sabbatical, I'm back teaching this morning. Our subject, and with due acknowledgement of the centenary of his birth: The Life and Career of Gwyn A. Williams.
December 2, 2025 at 9:19 AM
After a five month sabbatical, I'm back teaching this morning. Our subject, and with due acknowledgement of the centenary of his birth: The Life and Career of Gwyn A. Williams.
Exactly this 👇
What we're seeing is exactly what we saw in the late 1940s, the late 1960s and the mid- to late 1970s: a concerted and hysterical campaign to delegitimise a Labour government, and indeed the very idea of Labour governments at all.
December 1, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Exactly this 👇
There's a really lovely story in the Rushdie, btw, all about E. M. Forster and his long life at King's College, Cambridge. Easily the best of the bunch.
Feeling absolutely rotten - not this stuffed up since I last had COVID - so reading the new Salman Rushdie and drinking lemon and ginger tea.
November 30, 2025 at 11:34 PM
There's a really lovely story in the Rushdie, btw, all about E. M. Forster and his long life at King's College, Cambridge. Easily the best of the bunch.
Whatever this bug is... Urgh.
November 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Whatever this bug is... Urgh.
It being Foucault's centenary next year, you may well get your wish, John!
Next year, i'd like to write more about things i actually like –– rather than actively despise. So more on culture, literature, nature, the climate, socialist humanism and left historians. Also, i'll be writing more regularly for @the-breakdown.bsky.social, which you should all subscribe to
November 30, 2025 at 7:04 PM
It being Foucault's centenary next year, you may well get your wish, John!
Feeling absolutely rotten - not this stuffed up since I last had COVID - so reading the new Salman Rushdie and drinking lemon and ginger tea.
November 29, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Feeling absolutely rotten - not this stuffed up since I last had COVID - so reading the new Salman Rushdie and drinking lemon and ginger tea.
Reposted by Daryl
Just took Coast of Utopia down from the shelf. May we live up to it.
November 29, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Just took Coast of Utopia down from the shelf. May we live up to it.
Reposted by Daryl
We’ve lost our greatest postmodernist. All the greater because we had to share him with Czechoslovakia, which no longer exists. And, let us not forget, hot stuff.
November 29, 2025 at 6:03 PM
We’ve lost our greatest postmodernist. All the greater because we had to share him with Czechoslovakia, which no longer exists. And, let us not forget, hot stuff.
Reading some Edna O'Brien while I nurse the lurgy: her fascinating, if not at all straightforward, novel of the Troubles, House of Splendid Isolation. It'd make a great telly series. A two-parter.
November 28, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reading some Edna O'Brien while I nurse the lurgy: her fascinating, if not at all straightforward, novel of the Troubles, House of Splendid Isolation. It'd make a great telly series. A two-parter.
Swindon train station thought: with universities as businesses and jury trials back in the news, one can't help but be envious of E. P. Thompson's royalties!
November 26, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Swindon train station thought: with universities as businesses and jury trials back in the news, one can't help but be envious of E. P. Thompson's royalties!
The paper covers some of the material in A Little Gay History of Wales, material in subsequent articles on the theme, especially about North Wales, and some new medieval material I'm trying out for the first time. More to do on that front and the potential for a new book, I think.
Off to Oxford in the morning to give a paper at my old college, Oriel. I still have to pinch myself, sometimes, that this sort of thing still happens.
After the many bad experiences in academia, at Swansea, and in recent times when I fell off the radar, I shall enjoy going up to the old place.
After the many bad experiences in academia, at Swansea, and in recent times when I fell off the radar, I shall enjoy going up to the old place.
November 25, 2025 at 6:24 PM
The paper covers some of the material in A Little Gay History of Wales, material in subsequent articles on the theme, especially about North Wales, and some new medieval material I'm trying out for the first time. More to do on that front and the potential for a new book, I think.
Off to Oxford in the morning to give a paper at my old college, Oriel. I still have to pinch myself, sometimes, that this sort of thing still happens.
After the many bad experiences in academia, at Swansea, and in recent times when I fell off the radar, I shall enjoy going up to the old place.
After the many bad experiences in academia, at Swansea, and in recent times when I fell off the radar, I shall enjoy going up to the old place.
November 25, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Off to Oxford in the morning to give a paper at my old college, Oriel. I still have to pinch myself, sometimes, that this sort of thing still happens.
After the many bad experiences in academia, at Swansea, and in recent times when I fell off the radar, I shall enjoy going up to the old place.
After the many bad experiences in academia, at Swansea, and in recent times when I fell off the radar, I shall enjoy going up to the old place.
Meet your heroes. One of the most inspiring events I have ever been fortunate to attend.
November 24, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Meet your heroes. One of the most inspiring events I have ever been fortunate to attend.
Off to the city to meet Mary Robinson, Ireland's former president, which I think is one of those privileged moments that comes along in life.
November 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Off to the city to meet Mary Robinson, Ireland's former president, which I think is one of those privileged moments that comes along in life.
Listening to Salman Rushdie's desert island discs episode - today's episode, as it happens - and his choices are refreshingly, if surprisingly, middle brow.
November 23, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Listening to Salman Rushdie's desert island discs episode - today's episode, as it happens - and his choices are refreshingly, if surprisingly, middle brow.