Mike Parker
@mikeparker.bsky.social
Writer in the damp Welsh hills.
Books include All the Wide Border, Map Addict, On the Red Hill, The Wild Rover, Neighbours from Hell?
"No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker" - Ayesha Hazarika, Times Radio
Books include All the Wide Border, Map Addict, On the Red Hill, The Wild Rover, Neighbours from Hell?
"No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker" - Ayesha Hazarika, Times Radio
Terrific front page from @theweek.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Terrific front page from @theweek.com
Coventry Cathedral has the best postcode.
October 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Coventry Cathedral has the best postcode.
The festive market going up in Victoria Square is giving Birmingham a real Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang vibe.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
October 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The festive market going up in Victoria Square is giving Birmingham a real Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang vibe.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
No search function, but every cloud and all that…
October 8, 2025 at 11:56 AM
No search function, but every cloud and all that…
Camping in Jilly Cooper’s Cotswold village twenty years ago, my partner went to the shop and tied my dog Patsy up by the door.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
October 6, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Camping in Jilly Cooper’s Cotswold village twenty years ago, my partner went to the shop and tied my dog Patsy up by the door.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
The van proudly leading yesterday’s far-right march in Newtown, Powys. If you’re going to shag a flag, at least get it the right way round…
September 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
The van proudly leading yesterday’s far-right march in Newtown, Powys. If you’re going to shag a flag, at least get it the right way round…
In September, the audiobook of All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between is on Audible for £3.99.
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
September 1, 2025 at 12:36 PM
In September, the audiobook of All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between is on Audible for £3.99.
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
Should be a terrific evening of discussion and music next Saturday in #Aberystwyth, organised by Planet magazine.
I’ll be reading/performing a new piece, weaving together death and family…flags and fascism…queerness and Cymru. With some jokes.
Details/tickets 👇🏼
www.seetickets.com/event/planet...
I’ll be reading/performing a new piece, weaving together death and family…flags and fascism…queerness and Cymru. With some jokes.
Details/tickets 👇🏼
www.seetickets.com/event/planet...
August 30, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Should be a terrific evening of discussion and music next Saturday in #Aberystwyth, organised by Planet magazine.
I’ll be reading/performing a new piece, weaving together death and family…flags and fascism…queerness and Cymru. With some jokes.
Details/tickets 👇🏼
www.seetickets.com/event/planet...
I’ll be reading/performing a new piece, weaving together death and family…flags and fascism…queerness and Cymru. With some jokes.
Details/tickets 👇🏼
www.seetickets.com/event/planet...
August 1, 2025 at 1:53 PM
You should. This is very well worth reading. (Mr Sunlight begs a blog too, I suspect!)
July 25, 2025 at 7:15 AM
You should. This is very well worth reading. (Mr Sunlight begs a blog too, I suspect!)
A lot of hot, difficult and sad driving the last few days, but the company of @kitdewaal.com’s latest, The Best of Everything, has been the perfect tonic. She’s such a generous, intuitive and fiercely spirited writer, fluent in nuance and contradiction.
July 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
A lot of hot, difficult and sad driving the last few days, but the company of @kitdewaal.com’s latest, The Best of Everything, has been the perfect tonic. She’s such a generous, intuitive and fiercely spirited writer, fluent in nuance and contradiction.
It all stinks of grift, I'm afraid. And a particular kind of English grift in Wales which is horribly familiar.
Even their childish company logo smells off. "Happy to be Gangani" is the English version, and the utterly meaningless "Hapus' fi Gangani" in Welsh.
Even their childish company logo smells off. "Happy to be Gangani" is the English version, and the utterly meaningless "Hapus' fi Gangani" in Welsh.
July 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM
It all stinks of grift, I'm afraid. And a particular kind of English grift in Wales which is horribly familiar.
Even their childish company logo smells off. "Happy to be Gangani" is the English version, and the utterly meaningless "Hapus' fi Gangani" in Welsh.
Even their childish company logo smells off. "Happy to be Gangani" is the English version, and the utterly meaningless "Hapus' fi Gangani" in Welsh.
This was Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's first book, the self-published How not to Dal dy Dir (2012). One theme stated is "the divisions within Wales today", which sounds intriguing (and possibly infuriating).
Anyone have this book, or know of it? Or have insights from their time in and around Pwllheli?
Anyone have this book, or know of it? Or have insights from their time in and around Pwllheli?
July 7, 2025 at 10:58 AM
This was Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's first book, the self-published How not to Dal dy Dir (2012). One theme stated is "the divisions within Wales today", which sounds intriguing (and possibly infuriating).
Anyone have this book, or know of it? Or have insights from their time in and around Pwllheli?
Anyone have this book, or know of it? Or have insights from their time in and around Pwllheli?
Trespassed my way to see Gaveston’s Cross, near Warwick, yesterday, where the “hateful king’s minion”, Edward II’s lover Piers Gaveston, was brutally hacked to death in 1312.
I’ve been coming to Warwick all my life, and never knew of this until recently. Queer history still lurks in the margins.
I’ve been coming to Warwick all my life, and never knew of this until recently. Queer history still lurks in the margins.
June 24, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Trespassed my way to see Gaveston’s Cross, near Warwick, yesterday, where the “hateful king’s minion”, Edward II’s lover Piers Gaveston, was brutally hacked to death in 1312.
I’ve been coming to Warwick all my life, and never knew of this until recently. Queer history still lurks in the margins.
I’ve been coming to Warwick all my life, and never knew of this until recently. Queer history still lurks in the margins.
Was a first for me to do a reading in a neolithic stone circle yesterday (Mitchell's Fold, on the Wales-England border).
And that's either an appreciative audience or a deputation of the ancients come to tell me to pipe down.
And that's either an appreciative audience or a deputation of the ancients come to tell me to pipe down.
June 2, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Was a first for me to do a reading in a neolithic stone circle yesterday (Mitchell's Fold, on the Wales-England border).
And that's either an appreciative audience or a deputation of the ancients come to tell me to pipe down.
And that's either an appreciative audience or a deputation of the ancients come to tell me to pipe down.
Shall be hosting the ever-brilliant Jay Griffiths at the Welsh launch of her sizzling new book, How Animals Heal Us.
MOMA Machynlleth, Thursday 5 June. Tickets and more details from QR code on the flier attached,
MOMA Machynlleth, Thursday 5 June. Tickets and more details from QR code on the flier attached,
May 6, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Shall be hosting the ever-brilliant Jay Griffiths at the Welsh launch of her sizzling new book, How Animals Heal Us.
MOMA Machynlleth, Thursday 5 June. Tickets and more details from QR code on the flier attached,
MOMA Machynlleth, Thursday 5 June. Tickets and more details from QR code on the flier attached,
What a juxtaposition...
The Coventry Evening Telegraph front page for 16 January 1996, under its banner celebrating the centenary of the car. There was a city-wide festival in its honour, including a service in the cathedral that had a couple of cars chugging up the nave.
The Coventry Evening Telegraph front page for 16 January 1996, under its banner celebrating the centenary of the car. There was a city-wide festival in its honour, including a service in the cathedral that had a couple of cars chugging up the nave.
April 29, 2025 at 1:09 PM
What a juxtaposition...
The Coventry Evening Telegraph front page for 16 January 1996, under its banner celebrating the centenary of the car. There was a city-wide festival in its honour, including a service in the cathedral that had a couple of cars chugging up the nave.
The Coventry Evening Telegraph front page for 16 January 1996, under its banner celebrating the centenary of the car. There was a city-wide festival in its honour, including a service in the cathedral that had a couple of cars chugging up the nave.
No barrel left unscraped.
April 27, 2025 at 9:38 PM
No barrel left unscraped.
Ad from the Birmingham Gazette, September 1938.
April 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Ad from the Birmingham Gazette, September 1938.
This is wonderful! Chance for someone to undertake a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship at Cardiff Uni into the archive (now at Amgueddfa Cymru) of Reg and George, the heroes of my book 'On the Red Hill'. They would be utterly amazed, and thrilled.
Here www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
Here www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
March 31, 2025 at 4:36 PM
This is wonderful! Chance for someone to undertake a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship at Cardiff Uni into the archive (now at Amgueddfa Cymru) of Reg and George, the heroes of my book 'On the Red Hill'. They would be utterly amazed, and thrilled.
Here www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
Here www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
From earlier this month
February 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
From earlier this month
Leafing through a 1990s Wales from the Air book, and surprised to see that Caerfyrddin/Carmarthen appears to be built around a cosmic phallus. Is it Merlin’s?
February 19, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Leafing through a 1990s Wales from the Air book, and surprised to see that Caerfyrddin/Carmarthen appears to be built around a cosmic phallus. Is it Merlin’s?
Remembering Brian Murphy, and also how much I loved the Eurythmics.
February 5, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Remembering Brian Murphy, and also how much I loved the Eurythmics.
Next Monday, 3 Feb at 6.30pm, I'm giving an illustrated lecture at the Royal Geographical Society @rgsibg.bsky.social, entitled 'A Nation of Map Addicts'. There'll be history, politics, art and fun.
Tickets available, and it will also be livestreamed for free. Details:
www.rgs.org/events/upcom...
Tickets available, and it will also be livestreamed for free. Details:
www.rgs.org/events/upcom...
January 27, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Next Monday, 3 Feb at 6.30pm, I'm giving an illustrated lecture at the Royal Geographical Society @rgsibg.bsky.social, entitled 'A Nation of Map Addicts'. There'll be history, politics, art and fun.
Tickets available, and it will also be livestreamed for free. Details:
www.rgs.org/events/upcom...
Tickets available, and it will also be livestreamed for free. Details:
www.rgs.org/events/upcom...
A letter in today’s Times.♥️
January 1, 2025 at 9:06 AM
A letter in today’s Times.♥️