JudithFlanders
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judithflanders.co.uk
JudithFlanders
@judithflanders.co.uk
4.6K followers 420 following 3.9K posts
Crabby historian. Less crabby now blue skies beckon.

She/her • Agent: Bill Hamilton, amheath.com
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judithflanders.co.uk
The poet Herrick (pre-Christmas trees) suggested Christmas greenery came down on 2 February, so possibly a whole month of leeway?
Herrick is also the first source to associate mistletoe with the holiday, in his 'Ceremonie upon Candlemas Eve', the day Christmas greenery was removed: 'Down with the Rosemary, and so / Down with the Baies, & mistletoe.’
November 29, 2025 at 12:15 AM
judithflanders.co.uk
My sister Elle and (less importantly, obviously), Yanis Varoufakis at today’s Italian general strike.
Left, Yanis Varoufakis in a grey sweatshirt, shaking the hands of Elle Flanders, in day-glo orange jacket. Behind them marchers for the Italian general strike with a banner.
November 28, 2025 at 3:57 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
I’m loving Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse, a historical examination of societal collapses and why they happen. (Clue: inequality!) But hashtag-Victorian-historian-grumble WTF is it with people who think cholera dates back more than 200 years? This appears endlessly by so many who should know better.
Disease has been the scourge of cities throughout history. In London, for every year until 1800, there were more deaths than births. The city required a constant infu-on of new people to survive. This was due in large part to the spread of typhus, syphilis, cholera, and the plague (caused by fersinia pestis bacteria). And the same is true for many cities throughout history.)
November 27, 2025 at 7:36 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
The continued degradation of the BBC. Not merely preventing @rutgerbregman.com from saying Trump is corrupt (inarguably true and non-defamatory), but people ‘cower’ before Trump, while he ‘cows’ them. Two entirely different words, Beeb.
MEDIA SHOW The Reith Lecture row, The Media Show And this, given what we know about the past, again, I'm having to tread unbelievably carefully here. But the Trump administration is all about cowering critics, cowering the media. You can see that from Wall Street lawyers through to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal. They're facing billion-dollar libel suits. Are they suddenly scurrying into the back passages? No. Both of you, thank you very much indeed…
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
The increasing unprofessionalisation of journalism. An email from someone I’ve never interacted with before:
—no info on who is publishing,
—no ‘please’, ‘if you have time’,
—no assurance my work will be credited,
—and the icing on the cake: I’m to respond ’ASAP’.

Sir, yes, sir!
Hi Judith, Hope all's well, XXX here - I'm doing an article on Christmas markets - might you have a few thoughts to share about w they're so popular, what they mean to people, etc.? Let me know ASAP! Thanks.
November 26, 2025 at 1:48 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
For those who do not follow hockey, this does not mean what you think it means.
Headline from CTV: ‘Abby Roque’s between-the-legs beauty lifts Victoire against her former team.’
November 26, 2025 at 12:52 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
If we’ve learned anything about Epstein, isn’t it that he was a sexual predator turned financier, not the other way around? His money came via his ability to provide children for other predators, not from his financial nous, of which he appeared to have none.
Paras from the NY Times, including: ‘A close read of the thousands of massages makes it less surprising. When Jeffrey Epstein, *a financier turned convicted sex offender*, needed friends to rehabilitate him, he knew where to turn: a power elite practiced at disregarding pain.’ Section between asterisks highlighted
November 23, 2025 at 6:49 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Separated at birth.
Photo of Gene Wilder.
November 23, 2025 at 12:13 AM
judithflanders.co.uk
Still free.
Two posts. —‘What a horrible day to have eyes.’ —‘Oedipus’
November 22, 2025 at 5:55 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
I'm no expert, but the OED, which *is* an expert, says it also means 'former'.
attributive. That was recently, but is no longer, the thing specified; former. 1446 Item the..altarage of the Kyrk of South Alveth to our laeyt tenand Johne Wil[ȝ]amson for all the dayis of hys lyfe. in C. Rogers, Rental Book Cupar-Angus (1879) vol. I. 125 1537 Pastures with Agistament and brusyng..occupied to thuse of the said late Monastery for the sustentacyon of ther catell. in T. A. Beck, Annales Furnesienses (1884) App. 64 1548 At the late Freers walle all men alyghted savyng the Kyng. Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. ccxl 1689 A late Roman Catholic schoolmaster..hath embraced his former persuasion, viz. protestancy. A. Wood, Life & Times (1894) vol. III. 313 1766 My late dwelling. O. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield vol. II. vi. 90 1795 My late First-Lieutenant is now a Captain. Lord Nelson, Letter 26 December in Dispatches & Letters (1845) vol. II. 123 1819 All the splendid furniture of his late residence had been sold. W. Irving, Sketch Book i. 51 1876 ‘I wish you to come with me to the Duke's house in St. James's Square,’ said the late Prime Minister. A. Trollope, Prime Minister vol. IV. xviii. 300 1967 Brasilia, the reigning capital of Brazil, is only about 600 miles from the late capital, Rio de Janeiro. A. J. Toynbee, Between Maule & Amazon 1 2013 Funeral on Sunday leaving his late residence at 11.15 a.m. Belfast Telegraph (Nexis) 9 February 36
November 20, 2025 at 10:06 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Fabulous photo of the day. Claude Gingras, music critic, at work
The critic behind his desk, a long table entirely covered with papers and three desk lamps. The room is otherwise entirely filled with shelves of records, floor to ceiling, except for one large window behind the desk.
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Is it just me, or is this photo every secondhand car-dealer ad ever printed? ‘Honest Don has the Lowest Prices in Phoenix or Your Money Back! Come to Honest Don for Your Insurrection Special!’

Part of my disgust with the Trump train is its sheer banal tackiness.
Photo of Trump, hands pressing out in his ‘trust me, folks’ gesture, in what may be a parking lot in front of three cars.
November 14, 2025 at 10:32 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Best Final Sentence to a News Article:
A disgraced ex-soccer federation boss was pelted with eggs by his own uncle during a chaotic launch event for his new book about his World Cup downfall. Luis Rubiales, 48, the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, was seen on video promoting Matar a Rubiales-which translates as "Kill Rubiales" —when a man in the audience began shouting before hurling eggs at him. Rubiales dodged one but was hit in the back by another and then surged toward the assailant, who was detained outside and later identified as his uncle, according to Spanish media, reports The Telegraph. Rubiales became a global pariah after kissing Spain forward Jenni Hermoso, 35, without her consent during 2023 World Cup celebrations. He initially refused to quit and raged against "fake feminism," before eventually resigning. He was convicted of sexual assault in February 2025, a verdict upheld by Spain's High Court in June. It is not clear why his uncle would have wanted to pelt him with eggs at the book launch.
November 14, 2025 at 9:25 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Fox News on the Seattle election. Thank god every single child of Rupert Murdoch has gone into dentistry and refused an inheritance to avoid all suggestion of nepotism.
Incumbent Seattle mayor concedes to Mamdani-style 'socialist' who tapped her parents for money while running Katie Wilson stirred controversy on the campaign trail when she would not commit to removing homeless encampments By Alec Schertmel - Fox News
November 14, 2025 at 5:50 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
I’ve never been much of an Elisabeth Frink fan, but I’ve got to say, Frink in Winter is great.
A photograph of two Elisabeth Frink larger than life-sized bronze heads, part covered with snow, making a very 1950s black-and-white jazzy image.
November 11, 2025 at 5:30 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
I could be wrong but I think giffy might have succumbed to an AI fever dream.
A gif search bar with ‘Leonard Cohen’ typed in. Below, a range of gifs, mostly of ?podcast bros and one cartoon monster. Not a single Leonard Cohen in sight.
November 9, 2025 at 8:52 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
This is excellent on ‘the angry teenager in a man’s body’ who is Canada’s leader of the opposition. But this sentence is 🔥🔥🔥
"He's a very unique person in modern Canadian politics," he says. "There aren't many opportunities for someone with such a low level of education and such a mediocre life story to get so close to the position of prime minister the way that he has."
November 9, 2025 at 8:20 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Hi @politico.com I think you’re missing a comma or two in there. (Or that chief of staff job was REALLY big.)
"The majority of Virginia voters don't like the president, and many of them have a visceral hatred for him and his governing style," said DJ Jordan, a GOP strategist referring to Democratic voters who served as chief of staff for Jason Miyares, the attorney general who lost to a scandal-clad Democrat on Tuesday. Jordan was referring…
November 9, 2025 at 6:28 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
I would like to pretend I'm better than this. But I'm not.
3 posts in response to this posted tweet: Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social • 16h Do the math. It don't add up Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage - a complete game changer. JudithFlanders @judithflanders.co.uk • 4h I'm no statistician, but if you buy your first house in your 30s on a 50- year mortgage, and life expectancy is low 80s, isn't this just called — rent? Dr. Alexis Turner @surliertexan.bsky.social No, because you can gift it as an inheritance. Real Boomer brain thinking here to forget that other people exist in the world who will come after you and to whom you should feel a vague responsibility. JudithFlanders @judithflanders.co.uk • 9s What a delightfully temperate response. This Boomer Brain remembers when 100,000s had zero to leave their kids as they lost e thing in the 2008 property crash. But as a boomer I was taught manners, so l wouldn't dream of qualifying your omission of that catstrophe or what it might be attributed to.
November 9, 2025 at 5:44 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
An illustration made to look like an old Nancy Drew book jacket. Nancy has a candlestick in her hand, kneeling in front of a trunk she is opening, maybe in an attic. She looks back over her shoulder. The book title reads: Nancy Drew Mystery Series. The Case of the Missing Fucks.
November 8, 2025 at 8:13 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
And here comes the best part.
4/
'By now his reputation as an abrasive and short-tempered officer was well established. He was in the habit of answering the telephone with the words: "Gunnery Division. Hill-Norton. Kindly state your business briefly; we're busy men here." An inadequate response would result in the telephone receiver being slammed down.'
November 6, 2025 at 8:28 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Gotta love the qualification of 'one of the' -- wouldn't want to stick our neck out too far.
No pulling our punches with the next bit:
2/
'Almost from the beginning of his career some considered him destined either to be court-martialled or to end up as First Sea Lord.'
November 6, 2025 at 8:28 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Gosh, from the man who palled around with Gaddafi, and called the IDF the ‘most moral’ army in the world? And as to his intellectual rigour…
More recently, Lévy was publicly embarrassed when his essay De la guerre en philosophie (2010) cited the writings of French philosopher Jean-Baptiste Botul. Botul's writings are actually well-known spoofs, and Botul himself is the purely fictional creation of a living French journalist and philosopher, Frédéric Pagès. The obviousness of the hoax, with Botul's philosophy being botulism. led to suspicions that Levy had not read Botul. and that he consequentiv miaht have used a ghostwriter for his book.
November 5, 2025 at 9:47 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
For no particular reason following last night's elections, and those Republicans who might think their districts are now a hot seat, here is the origin of the word 'gerrymander':
1881: In 1812, while [Elbridge] Gerry was governor [of Massachusetts], the Democratic Legislature, in order to secure an increased representation of their party in the State Senate, districted the State in such a way that the shapes of the towns, forming such a district in Essex [County], brought out a territory of singular outline. This was indicated on a map which Russell, the editor of the Centinel, hung in his office. Stuart, the painter, observing it, added a head, wings, and claws, and exclaimed, ‘That will do for a salamander!’ ‘Gerrymander!’ said Russell, and the word became a proverb. H. C. Lodge in J. Winsor, Mem. Hist. Boston vol. III. 212
November 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM
judithflanders.co.uk
Their ‘careers’.
August 2025 Balmoral Castle The King and Queen this evening held a concert of music that was performed at the 2023 Honours of Scotland Service. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence were present. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh this morning departed from Heathrow Airport, London, for Monaco and were received this afternoon upon arrival at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, France, by the Ambassador from the Principality of Monaco to the Court of St. James's (Mrs. Evelyne Genta). His Royal Highness, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation, and Her Royal Highness, Global Ambassador, with Prince Albert of Monaco, this evening attended a Gala Dinner at Yacht Club de Monaco, Quai Louis II, Monaco. Mrs. Angus Galletley is in attendance.
November 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM