If I wrote historical fiction, I would probably steal all my characters from the case histories of Havelock Ellis. (archive.org/details/Stud...)
Simon Jones
@simonjones.bsky.social
Writes about old, unhappy, far-off things. Late museum curator. Shows polite interest. FRHistS. https://simonjoneshistorian.com/
Has anyone written more generally on the relationship between the Battle of the Somme and post-war British fantasy? A A Milne was also a Signals Officer at what he called 'that nightmare of mental and moral degradation'.
Dr Grace Khuri@gracekhuri.bsky.social · 3d ago'TOLKIEN AND THE SOMME' - for 110th anniversary of the #BattleoftheSomme the Commonwealth Graves Commission features blog post on #Tolkien and his experience on the Western Front. Mentions #BookofLostTales #FallofGondolin #WWI #WorldWarI #GreatWar #Somme #Silmarillion www.cwgc.org/our-work/blo...
Polish women soldiers learning to operate a machine gun, Russo-Polish War, August 1920.
#OTD 1 August 1932 the inauguration of the Memorial to 72,000 British soldiers missing on the Somme. The design by Edwin Lutyens symbolises Franco-British unity.
Simon Jones@simonjones.bsky.social · 2y agoUnveiling of the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, 1 August 1932, Albert Lebrun President of France and the Prince of Wales. Source: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
I'm going to this tonight. Mahler's 1st more than any other piece drew me into classical music, nearly half a century ago. I'd be fine with them performing with a score though, tbh.
Mahler’s First by Heart
Proms favourites Nicholas Collon and the Aurora Orchestra lift the bonnet on Mahler’s First Symphony. A dramatised first half featuring mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis introduces the piece, before a compl...
bbc.co.uk
Reminded that yesterday 18 years ago, a Hovis ad was being filmed round the corner from where I lived in Liverpool. It's Falkner Street, where the first A House Through Time was made. The folks from @greatwarhuts.bsky.social were behind this.
I recommend my last audiobook, Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, as the complete antidote to Wuthering Heights.
Simon Jones@simonjones.bsky.social · 4mo agoNinety minutes into the Wuthering Heights audiobook and I'm reaching for the Earnshaw Linton family tree.
Gerda Taro, geboren als Gerta Pohorylle am 1. August 1910 in Stuttgart, musste - als Jüdin und Sozialistin verfolgt - 1933 nach Frankreich fliehen. Nach dem Militärputsch 1936 ging sie nach Spanien und fotografierte mit Robert Capa den Spanischen Bürgerkrieg. 🧵
#OTD 1 August 1932 the inauguration of the Memorial to 72,000 British soldiers missing on the Somme. The design by Edwin Lutyens symbolises Franco-British unity.
Simon Jones@simonjones.bsky.social · 2y agoUnveiling of the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, 1 August 1932, Albert Lebrun President of France and the Prince of Wales. Source: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
A German prisoner awaits interrogation #OTD 31 July 1917, the opening day of the Third Battle of Ypres. Photo: John Warwick Brooke. Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
I'm driving a steam lorry in Lincoln or I'm a policeman in Tottenham.
Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 7d agoEnough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?
OMG thank you so much for tagging me!!! I can't say for sure if that's Marcelle (obviously) but it would make sense, and I hope it is. It was so hard to dig up photographs of her. I absolutely love this! ❤️
The French invented a way to drink wine under gas attack. Because of course they did.
Does anyone know what has happened to the page showing recently added and forthcoming titles and dates on the new British Newspaper Archive web pages? I used to check this obsessively.
Ancestral Enquiries - Tony Smith 🌳@ancestralenq.bsky.social · 3w agoThe British Newspaper Archive is moving to a new site on 28th July. 👇 blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2026/07/14/t...
Right, bills weigh me, and the coffers are close to empty. Who needs some research done/archive records copied? I’m excellent and there‘s no project too big or small!
Aida de Acosta 1st woman to fly powered aircraft solo. 1903 saw 1st dirigibles, took 3 flight lessons, then Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont showed her how to operate his No. 9 dirigible & Acosta flew it solo Paris-Château de Bagatelle. b. #OTD 28 Jul 1884 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aida_de...
A few years back a homeless guy was found to be living in this house by entering and exiting via the swimming pool.
Getty@gettymuseum.bsky.social · last wk.Peek into the hidden modernist gem on Getty's property. Here's your chance to look inside the "Trustee House" by architect Harry Gesner, which is not accessible to the public.
Patricia Turner, WRNS, by William Dring , 1942. IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 2420)
It's a simple trap but it catches 99% of all survivalists.
I'm 55 pages in, can anyone give me a good reason to carry on?
You’d like some Great War oddities from the French Research & Inventions Service files? OK, first up ‘Le Rampeur’ invented by Monsieur Caufer to assist crawling, Nov 1917. Further tests were recommended on shelled terrain. #WW1 Source: www.siv.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/siv/media/FR...
Simon Jones@simonjones.bsky.social · 2mo agoRuins of No. 3 Canadian General Hospital, Doullens, France, bombed during an air-raid on the night of 29 May 1918. Two surgeons, 3 nursing sisters, 4 patients, & 16 orderlies were killed. Journalists visiting on 27 July 1918. Photo: David McClellan #OTD #WW1 Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
You know, I think we'd all manage ok if you shared slightly fewer screenshots of Elon being awful on X.
"It looked at a couple of character strings that I typed in and found the best match. There's no intelligence there." Avtar's understanding of how he was helped by ChatGPT is way sounder than The Guardian's framing.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago‘I thought, I’ve tried everything else, why not give AI a shot?’: the long-lost family reunited by ChatGPT
West Country Manoeuvres: A Convoy Halts Near a Village. Listening to the Wireless at the Halt, by Edward Ardizzone, 1941. IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 1497)
