My appreciation of @j_amesmarriott’s good taste, already high, goes through the roof as he includes @TheRestHistory in his list of the best podcasts to listen to.
“Thoughtful, wise, informative and buzzing with clever ideas.”
Indeed, The Times’ podcast critic names @TheRestHistory as his favourite podcast!
The only downside is that @dcsandbrook, previously described as Eeyore, has now been promoted to the rank of Owl.
I, however, continue to be described as Tigger.
Here, if you haven’t tried @TheRestHistory, is our most recent episode (and we may, if I can only persuade @dcsandbrook, record a special episode on St Cuthbert to go out tomorrow, St Cuthbert’s Day...)
Today is St Cuthbert’s Day, & - since I am unable to head for Durham or Lindisfarne – how better to celebrate it than by going on an insanely long walk in search of the scattered trace elements of #AngloSaxonLondon?
Anglo-Saxon London lacks the physical traces that makes a walk round Roman London so satisfying. For all that, though, it offers its own pleasures. Place-names, street-plans, churches: the stamp of the early Middle Ages can be found on them across the city.
“Anglo-Saxon London,” @Rory_Naismith writes, “is not reflected in any monuments that still stand today. Like Conrad’s London, it sits in a well-known landscape but hovers just out of our grasp in the shadow.”
So my walk today will be a grasping after shadows...
'Tis the evening before St Cuthbert's Day - one of the most magical days of the year!
Even though I won't be celebratin it as I normally would, by drinking to the memory of the great saint with @jonawils & @PhilippeAuclair, I will not be letting his feast day go by unmarked.
First - I'm excited to announce that there will be a special St Cuthbert's Day episode of @TheRestHistory, available tomorrow.
Grateful to dour socialist @dcsandbrook for agreeing that we could do it.
Second - I will be doing a monster walk around #AngloSaxonLondon. Not just the old Roman city, not just Lundenwic, not just Edward the Confessor's great abbey, but some of the settlements, assembly points & trading centres that surrounded what was then London.
Was football really invented in China? Why did it emerge in England? How did it spread to become a global popular sport? Why did the FA ban women from playing on their grounds in 1921? What is the link between the invention of barbed wire & Maradona? How did football get so rich?
“I think it is a major subject not in itself perhaps, but in the way it is woven in to almost everything else we do" - Robert Colls on sport.
Even if you've never watched football, it is a fascinating subject for a historian to mine.
Anne of Cleves' House is indeed the most remakarkable place to visit: as though you are entering the subconscious of an entire English county, and exploring its memories.
I made this film about Anne of Cleves' House with @jamiembrixton last summer. We are trying to ensure that @sussex_society survives the pandemic to celebrate its 175th birthday this summer. I hope it gives some sense of the fascination of its holdings.
Every 2 weeks we release a short film to celebrate the work of @sussex_society. Today's is about a remarkable place that boasts Britain's longest moat, & has hosted, variously, Edward I, evacuees from Rotherhithe & the Canadian military: @MichelhamPriory
Prompted by reading #ThisSportingLife to wonder if there would be a market for a self-consciously retro public school? One that gave free play to the bloods, was governed by totally arcane rules, & didn’t bother with any mollycoddling nonsense, but just aimed to raise sportsmen?
No, they’re not. They’re all about anti-bullying policies & self-realisation programmes these days.
“Of course there were always those who preferred to go blackberrying or read a book or be left alone with their feelings (“All English training is a system of deadening feeling’)...” #ThisSportingLife