Ollie Randall
@ollie-randall.bsky.social
Writer and cartoonist. Author of Writers in Whites: https://fairfieldbooks.co.uk/shop/writers-in-whites/
Hot damn! My first UK review of SLEUTH-HOUND and it's amazing! Huge thank you to @ollie-randall.bsky.social for his thoughtful analysis of my book, which is out on October 20! You can get SIGNED & DEDICATED copies from @foxlanebooks.bsky.social: shorturl.at/KeFvY
Matthew Cobb@matthewcobb.bsky.social · 2w ago@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social Congrats! “Writing with panache and verve, Fitzharris has produced a hair-raising, page-turning read.”
It's me!
Doings of Doyle@doingsofdoyle.com · last mo.NEW CONAN DOYLE LECTURES: The Lausanne Conan Doyle Collection, with Laurence Pernet: youtu.be/xyWQnOeHv_I Jean Leckie: From Mistress to Medium, with Anna Behrens: youtu.be/pIpCd_YgB1s Doyle and Cricket: A Passion for the Game, with Ollie Randall: youtu.be/awQwze5l-4k
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT "Lord's and Maharajas: Cricket, Empire and India's First Test Tour" will be published by Fairfield Books on 12th October It's an epic tale of scheming princes, bitter rivalries and imperial decay - it's crazy that nobody has written it before fairfieldbooks.co.uk/shop/lords-a...
Lord's and Maharajas - Fairfield Books
The astonishing story of India’s arrival into international cricket.
fairfieldbooks.co.uk
England v Pakistan: tourists release seven players, call up seven and release coach Sarfaraz Ahmed www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...
I am so excited for this. The child in me can't believe I got to see a film of The Odyssey and read a revival of Redwall discourse in the same week
👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻@oldenoughtosay.com · 2mo agoHappy Friday everyone, as promised, here is my personal theory on this. I think Redwall takes place in our world, after an apocalyptic event of the nuclear variety caused rapid but varied growth of all animals, including humans, leading to our extinction and their mental development. Okay? 🧵
Hammersmith Bridge's present seems pretty bloody driverless to me
Delighted to say I'm now a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society!
Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 3mo agoWe are very pleased to welcome 223 historians who join the Society today - as Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and Postgraduate Members: bit.ly/3TEhyWM Our Fellows and Members teach, research, write and promote #history, within the UK and internationally, in and beyond education #Skystorians 1/2
"This book is an absolute triumph... Randall has made a valuable contribution to cricket's rich social history. His book is a valuable addition to the game's literature." I'm delighted with this review of Writers in Whites, by Paul Edwards in The Cricketer
Loved this book!
Dr Lindsey Fitzharris@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 3mo agoLook what just arrived in the post! WRITERS IN WHITES by @ollie-randall.bsky.social is the untold story of cricket’s influential role in London’s literary world. PG Wodehouse, JM Barrie, Conan Doyle! History and sports lovers rejoice: shorturl.at/3htcn #skyhistory #booksky
Look what just arrived in the post! WRITERS IN WHITES by @ollie-randall.bsky.social is the untold story of cricket’s influential role in London’s literary world. PG Wodehouse, JM Barrie, Conan Doyle! History and sports lovers rejoice: shorturl.at/3htcn #skyhistory #booksky
Last call to sign up to my Zoom talk this evening, "Doyle and Cricket: A passion for the game". Starting at 7pm! wegottickets.com/f/22404
Ollie Randall: Doyle and Cricket: A Passion for the Game
To an extent that is rarely recognised, cricket played a central part in Arthur Conan Doyle's life. It played an important part in his public persona, his relationships, his self-image, and even his c...
wegottickets.com
And the weather was so hot that we almost witnessed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian umpire.
Andrew Nixon@andrewnixon.bsky.social · 3mo agoAway from the big cricket news of yesterday, Austria became the fifth team to score over 300 in a men's T20I as they racked up 322-7 against Hungary, the second highest men's T20I total. Captain Karanbir Singh made the second highest individual score with 164 from 57 balls.
For all the talk of what "this Bazball team" has been through, Root is now the sole survivor of the original team
Most people think Sherlock Holmes began at 221B Baker Street. But Holmes began somewhere far stranger: in a Victorian hospital ward in Edinburgh, where surgeon Joe Bell taught students to read a body like a crime scene.🧵 Here's the US 🇺🇸 trailer for SLEUTH-HOUND. Preorder: linktr.ee/drlindseyfit...
You can sign up here for my talk about Doyle and cricket on Tuesday 1st July!
ACD Society@acdsociety.bsky.social · 4mo agoNow is also a very good time to register for NEXT WEEK’S Worldwide Doyle lecture by Ollie Randall (“Doyle and Cricket: A Passion for the Game”), Tuesday, July 1, also at 11am PT, 2pm ET, 7pm BST, also online and free, and also easy to register for: wegottickets.com/f/22404.
Writers in Whites has been out for a full month! It's the untold story of a clique of famous writers - from JM Barrie via Evelyn Waugh to Michael Morpurgo - who all played cricket together, and how their cricket-based friendships transformed English literature and culture. "Superb" - @lrb.co.uk
Fun fact: unless I've gone wrong somewhere, Clement Attlee and Ted Heath are the ONLY prime ministers in British history whose time as PM began with winning a General Election and ended with losing one. And both of them eventually lost to the same man they initially beat.
I’m an writer and I don’t use AI because, as you might recall my mentioning earlier, I’m a writer.
Laura Keating@lorekeating.bsky.social · 6mo agoI keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines. Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."
Bleak thread. I just got an article placed in a peer-reviewed journal. Yesterday I got the finalised proofs, with a 72-hour window to sign off on them. The journal's publisher has subedited with AI, mangling some sentences into nonsense. I refuse to have this inserted drivel published under my name
Jeff Sharlet@jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 4mo agoAt the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
My only regret from yesterday's interview with the incomparable @norcrosscricket.bsky.social is that we didn't coordinate our outfits better
Lovely tea time chat between @ollie-randall.bsky.social and @norcrosscricket.bsky.social on the Surrey livestream, talking Writers in Whites 🏏 #Cricket
May highlight #1: launching Writers in Whites at a cricket match, and speaking on writers' affinity for playing cricket while proving, with my own inept performance, that this is not always the case
My piece, about Writers in Whites and the literary cricket culture wars, is out in The Times today: www.thetimes.com/sport/cricke...
The decline of literary cricketers and ‘Englishness’
From PG Wodehouse to JM Barrie, famous writers were proud to play for Conan Doyle’s ‘Author’s XI’ — until shifting attitudes led to brutal lampooning
thetimes.com
"I became a detective in women’s cricket and found treasure in an old Lancashire cowshed." The Women in Whites is out on 1 June! www.waterstones.com/book/the-wom...
The Spin | I became a detective in women’s cricket and found treasure in an old Lancashire cowshed
The MCC Library has gone from three books to a proper archive with scrapbooks, letters, diaries and newspaper cuttings
theguardian.com
“Westminster needs to wake up…” An important statement from the RHS today on the unfolding situation in UKHE.
Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 5mo agoThe Society's President and Council have released the following statement on the proposed closure of undergraduate degrees at the University of Hertfordshire, in #History and the wider humanities bit.ly/4dmV5oO This comes at a time of further bad news from Essex and Nottingham #Skystorians
I'm still so pleased with how they put the book together
NOW ON YOUTUBE: Two bonus episodes: Bonus 1 - The Feldkirchian Gazette with Philipp Schöbi www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XBm... Bonus 2 - ACD and Literary Cricket, with Ollie Randall www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGku...
