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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Peter Ross @peteralanross.bsky.social · 11h

So, I'm watching Sally Wainwright's excellent Riot Women – and, astonishingly, Joanna Scanlan's character has a copy of my book Daunderlust. I'd LOVE to know how the heck that has come about.

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 10h

"What is 'galore'?" is an excellent question. A while back I heard a mum in a park say something to her (presumably) three- or four-year old daughter about turning five. The daughter was absolutely distraught. "Mummy. Why am I going to turn into a number? Why, mummy? Why?"

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 13h

“I have never in my life seen anything that gave my heart such delight as these things, for I saw amongst them marvellously skilful objects and was amazed at the subtle ingeniousness of people in foreign lands. I cannot find words to describe all those things."

Albrecht Dürer on Aztec treasures.

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Jeremy Wikeley @jwikeley.bsky.social · 16h

New post: why children's books are the most important genre, plus another run out for my bit on @questingvole.bsky.social's The Haunted Wood (now out in paperback): jwikeley.substack.com/p/the-end-of...

The end of childhood reading

An old piece, and some new thoughts

jwikeley.substack.com

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Joe Banks @joebankswriter.bsky.social · 6d

My new book - Rock and Role: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator - is off to the printers, and will be published 21 November!
Officially launching today, here's the book's site, which I'll be updating regularly. But check out the A/V section now! www.rockandrole.net

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Joe Banks @joebankswriter.bsky.social · 1d

Better late than never, I saw the Ithell Colquhoun exhibition Tate Britain yesterday. A British surrealist and mystic (she seemed to be a member of every occult society going), her use of colour, abstract forms and dreamlike/sexualised landscapes is often stunning 1/2

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Yes!

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry to hear this, Sam. Hope you have a calm night and things get sorted quickly. You probably saw this doing the rounds the other day but this review of Keanu’s Godot might offer a little fleeting Beckettian cheer

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

We all need publishers like Salt. Please share and support if you can.

Salt Books @saltpublishing.com · 1d

We need your help. 💙 Salt is fighting to keep indie publishing alive — discovering new writers, nurturing voices that matter. Every pound helps us publish more books. Please donate or share today. #SupportIndie #KeepBooksAlive #Books #Writers #IndiePress

Donate to Keep Independent Publishing Alive – Support Salt Books 2026, organized by Christopher Hamilton-Emery

New books and reprints arrive daily at Salty Towers – and we'… Christopher Hamilton-Emery needs your support for Keep Independent Publishing Alive – Support Salt Books 2026

gofund.me

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Corrinne F @traviata.bsky.social · 1d

BBC4 are screening the 1987 Great Philosophers series again tonight (will be on iPlayer for a while). Also last night (again on iPlayer) they showed the 1997 Reputations documentary on Martin Luther King followed by the 1961 Face To Face interview www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

The Great Philosophers - Series 1: 1. Plato

Myles Burnyeat looks at Plato, the first western philosopher whose written works have survived.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Now watching…

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

The Thursday Murder Club was pretty bad

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Bloody hell, Andy. Onstage at the Bitter End?

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Miller on the Threshold @iammilliam.bsky.social · 1d

We’re also at the Bitter End on Bleecker St on the evening of Weds 29th Oct, discussing books written by Bob Dylan inc. Tarantula and Chronicles Vol. 1. @BacklistedPod Tickets on sale now. bitterend.com/#/events

The Bitter End | New York City's Oldest Rock Club

bitterend.com

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Fantastic book! This should be fascinating.

Hurst Publishers @hurstpublishers.bsky.social · 1d

Tune into The History Show on @rteradio1.bsky.social to hear Raphael Cormack, author of Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age, speak about his work and the forgotten history of the occult… ✨🔮

Starts at 25.30 mins👇

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

The History Show Sunday 12 October 2025

This week: The Jews who tried to escape to Northern Ireland on the eve of World War Two; and a forgotten history of the occult. The Saved and the Spurned: Northern Ireland, Vienna and the Holocaust ...

www.rte.ie

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · 2d

The stunning west door of St Botolph's Priory in Colchester, which was founded c. 1093. Largely built from recycled Roman bricks, it was dissolved in 1535 and is now a stately ruin. #MedievalMonday

A ruinous facade of a church built with stone and brick and featuring a large doorway with a rounded arch.

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks!

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

I had the great good fortune to see Tom Waits in 1981 at the Apollo in Victoria. I was 14. I was already in love with the Nighthawks… era, but it was a heartstoppingly magical evening of song. IIRC it was him on piano, plus sax & upright bass. I *think* the stage set was just a streetlamp

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, I hadn't heard of this. Off to check it out now!

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

James McConnachie @jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social · 1d

so interesting and important. And think of the gaps outside language-based knowledge! Gen AI has aeon.co/essays/gener... via @aeonmag

Generative AI has access to a small slice of human knowledge | Aeon Essays

Huge swathes of human knowledge are missing from the internet. By definition, generative AI is shockingly ignorant too

aeon.co

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

Fans of Tudor history, Hans Eworth’s portrait of Thomas Howard, the ill-fated fourth Duke of Norfolk, is coming up for auction at Sotheby’s!

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

“He had a mind full of the most intricate and difficult solutions to the simplest of problems.”
Mortimer Wheeler on Flinders Petrie. I must watch these again. Wheeler is delightful company.

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 3d

There are some wonderful interviews with Wheeler on the BBC archive. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Reposted by Mathew Lyons

Alison Brackenbury @abrackenbury.bsky.social · 1d

'The things you remember.
My last act before closing the tap
to take the hose by the neck and drink,
taste the cathedral's rock and temperature,
the water hard and the table high.
The water then, you could still drink it.'
Karen Solie:poem & book,'Wellwater'.Eloquent in memory! Highly recommended.

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 1d

My Telegraph review of a new one-volume history of the Hundred Years War.

Review: The Two Hundred Years War by Michael Livingston

Some unpersuasive historiography distracts from a pacy history of the Hundred Years War

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Mathew Lyons

David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · 1d

I had the great pleasure of editing Naomi Baker’s Voices of Thunder, her groundbreaking book on radical religious women in the 17th century, which arrives with these emphatic endorsements. Out today from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social. #earlymodern

In Voices of Thunder Naomi Baker gives us the most accessible, detailed and well-informed study to date of the women preachers and prophets of the seventeenth-century, a time when nearly all women were meant to stay home and be quiet. Baker shows us how very many women were involved and influential in the early Baptist and Quaker movements and beyond, and how sharply they saw gender and class oppression, while often enduring harsh persecution, usually by men, at home and abroad. With notable biographical skill and sympathy, the author shows us how the women prophets saw and experienced their world. All can benefit from this book, and many will find it an eye-opening revelation.'
Nigel Smith, Princeton University, author of Andrew Marvell: The Chameleon
Voices of Thunder offers a ground-breaking account of the radical women who, during the political, social and religious turmoil of seventeenth-century Britain and Ireland, found voice and vocation. Naomi Baker is an outstanding guide to this complex, challenging and extraordinary culture.
Crawford Gribben, Professor of History at Queen's University Belfast and author of J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism
This book crackles and fizzes with the energy and bravado of the many overlooked women who metaphorically hitched up their skirts to challenge forms of authority that sought to marginalise them. Naomi Baker brings deft erudition to her narrative and stylishly synthesises the complex histories of religious radicalism in the seventeenth century. This elegantly written and lively book has much to teach us about belief, politics and activism in both the seventeenth century and the contemporary moment.
Danielle Clarke, Professor of English Renaissance Language and Literature, University College Dublin
Her timely book reminds us of the urgent need to listen to the voices of those who disrupt our social and moral commonplaces.'
Adrian Streete, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Religion, U of Glasgow

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