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Matthew Kilburn

@matthewkilburn.bsky.social

1.9K followers 2K following 4K posts

Freelance writer, editor and consulting historian - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Doctor Who Magazine - and Alzheimer's carer. Ex-History of Parliament, also liable to write about North-East England and Oxford as well as television.

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Reposted by Matthew Kilburn

THE NERVE @thenerve.news · 4h

Watching Alan Carr and the gang in ep 3 of #celebritytraitors tonight? Catch up with @jnraeside.bsky.social’s analysis for the Nerve of why this series might just be the ultimate version of a reality TV show…

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Laura Richmond @laurarichmond.bsky.social · 5h

Waterstones have a promotion running this week, so anyone pre-ordering All My Worldly Joy from them gets 25% off 'til the end of Friday. The link is shorturl.at/pn9zj and the code is OCTOBER25. Please do pre-order if you can as it will encourage Waterstones to stock more copies in their shops! (2/3)

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Laura Richmond @laurarichmond.bsky.social · 5h

Finally, some good news! All My Worldly Joy will be published by @wiltonsquare.bsky.social early next year. (1/3)

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 6h

Episcopalians are the finest meme makers in the Anglican Communion.

Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 7h

you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you

Screenshot of a Facebook post featuring three of the Portland protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes with the following text:

Episcopalians on Facebook
Elizabeth Rose Elrod • 22h •
Exodus 8:2-6
"But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs...
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 10h

That's good to know; thank you.

Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 10h

I fear I will have many such moments ahead.

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 10h

Charles IX (Lancastrian enumeration).

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Dr Louise Ryland-Epton @lrylandepton.bsky.social · 11h

Transcribing a pastoral poem composed in 1613 (may be not published, not sure). It’s really charming. But wondering why we don’t use the phrase ‘lob cock-fashions’ anymore?

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Godwin_lives @pamelaclemit.bsky.social · 12h

Did the postboy fall or was he pushed? Travelling from Berwick to Alnwick in the era of the Marcher Laws was a perilous undertaking. To get to Alnwick the postboy would have had to ford the river Aln, the heavily fortified border between the East March and the Middle March. 1/2

Neil Younger @neilayounger.bsky.social · 14d

From Berwick, Robert Gascoigne, a royal messenger, writes to Walsingham complaining of incompetence in the postal system the north-east; apparently letters took 17 hours to get from 30 miles from Berwick to Alnwick. The excuse was that the postman's boy fell in the water. 4/

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 13h

I saw - tragic. I'm almost surprised it's taken them so long.

Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 13h

Yes. Never a good sign.

Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 14h

Goodbye again National World - hello Iconic Media. www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2025/news/na...

National World to rebrand as Iconic Media - Journalism News from HoldtheFrontPage

New owner confirms plan to set up new audit body

www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk

Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you.

Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

That's the best way. And I did manage some personal documentation which I'd completely misunderstood in the morning, having tried to fill in the wrong form, so that's something.

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks, Andrew. The main thing at the moment is all the bereavement admin still to do.

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks, Jay.

Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

Down today and not managing much. Tomorrow might be better.

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Tom Burgess @nottomburgess.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Shabana Mahmood announces that immigrants will have to know all the Doctor Whos in order before being allowed entry to the UK

Son of Bengt @sonofbengt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Shabana Mahmood announces that immigrants will have to know "what is a hot spot not?" before being allowed entry to the UK

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

The prospect is just deadening.

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Jason M. @drwhonovels.bsky.social · 1d

The best part of Harlan Ellison's Doctor Who essay is that Pinnacle Books censored one line and one line only of Harlan's submitted draft dated Nov. 1, 1978. A dig at Anita Bryant at the height of her pernicious political influence in the States.

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John Higgs @johnhiggs.bsky.social · 1d

The paperback of Exterminate/Regenerate is out next April - but if you pre-order it from Waterstones you'll get 25% off if you use the code OCTOBER25. But only until the end of the week! See here www.waterstones.com/book/extermi... #DoctorWho

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed. Trump as 'mad king' misrepresents George III by parallel, but that runs deep in American political culture - better and rhetorically more powerful to let a king be blamed than a parliament, perhaps, in 1776.

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Paul Watson @lazaruscorporation.co.uk · 1d

I just received an email from the designer's brother-in-law so I've updated my blog post to credit them by name:
www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/blogs/artist...

Corn Flakes, Stuck Culture, & the wrong type of undead

It started off, as these things tend to do, as a light-hearted thread on BlueSky initiated by writer Ray Newman about Sainsbury’s slightly otherworldly Corn Flakes packaging design from the 1970s, whi...

www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

Dad was thrilled when Sunak became PM having come in 1968

He nearly cast a sympathy vote for him in defeat in July 2024 - he felt somebody should - but decided it wasn't the right reason to vote for the first Indian PM when country needed a change of governing party
edition.cnn.com/2024/07/05/o...

Opinion: What Britain’s first Asian prime minister meant to my family | CNN

The defeat of the Conservative Party in the UK election ends Rishi Sunak’s two-year premiership. Does it also sour the story of Britain’s first Asian prime minister, asks Sunder Katwala.

edition.cnn.com

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Matthew Kilburn @matthewkilburn.bsky.social · 1d

I'd no idea about that relationship!