👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #DownhamMarket #Norfolk Rose - 📷 08.09.2025 #elevensestime
Music librarian. Churchcrawling, art, stained glass, Baroque music, manuscripts, ships. Also #embroidery, mostly cross stitch and blackwork 🪡 Learning Welsh <3 Ych a fi ! Profile picture by glass artist Nancy Sutcliffe + mask by Insta honteuzaikonfu
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👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #DownhamMarket #Norfolk Rose - 📷 08.09.2025 #elevensestime
St Francis, in St Matthew's, Langford, by A K Nicholson, 1924. I am fond of the wolf, sitting on a bed of flower-strewn turf, emerald green pranked with blue & pink; & "Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets;" from: P B Shelly "The Question".
Vine Cottage, #Looe #Cornwall 18th Century set of buildings. Part of small house & coach house grouping. #AdoorableThursday #LocalHistory
For #ThrowbackThursday: 14 years ago our #MonumentoftheMonth looked at a couple of wall monuments in Bedfordshire churchmonumentssociety.org/monument-of-... with a lot of text and lovely baroque decoration
A marriage of faith, farming, landscape and language, placenames remind us of the personal, poetic origins of a location. This is true for Llangua. 1/10
qrp with something watery #art
A stop in #Llangollen on our way back from Portmerion yesterday to see finds from the Bryneglwys excavation, in an excellent temporary display at the very interesting little local museum there🏺 #BronzeAge #archaeology #NorthWales
Former pub #Liskeard #Cornwall “The Old Stag” public house (Tavernan-carow in #Cornish) Built in mid-19th Century for Cornwall Railway passengers. The station is only just across the road. ALT text for building stone. #HistoricEngland Grade II listed #WallsOnWednesday #LocalHistory #Railways
My new book of cartoons is out soon. I am bringing it to SPX/BETHESDA TORONTO, NEW YORK, CHICAGO, MONTREAL and QUEBEC CITY starting this weekend! Visit www.tomgauld.com for more details and preorder links!
Look at this! 😍 My new book, #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems, invites readers to add in their own choice of poems at the end - the lines which transport them into moments in the past, whether history or their own memory. The brilliant @wendycaitlin.bsky.social has taken up the invitation! Thank you!
An incredible night: the @ihr.bsky.social Creighton Lecture - me in conversation with poet Hannah Lowe on 'Doing #History with #Poetry', chaired by @clairelanghamer.bsky.social - then the launch for #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems. Bowled over by how many managed to come. A few posts coming up...
Church of St Torney, #NorthHill #Cornwall 15th Century ceiled wagon roof. The nave & south aisles have small panels of finely carved work. Amazing to think they produced such work over 500 years ago. #Woodensday #WoodcarvingWednesday
Happy 5th Birthday to the Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog! Started as a way to debunk common myths about ancient buildings inc secret tunnels, ship timbers, oldest pub claims, fighting on spiral staircases and, most recently: Myths, Media & Money... triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/mediaeval-my...
The Hall of Queens' College in Cambridge #windowsonwednesday
Wonderful launch this evening at @ihr.bsky.social of ‘A History of England in 25 Poems’ @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social by @cathamclarke.bsky.social. Catherine was discussing the book with the poet Hannah Lowe, and the discussion was chaired by IHR director @clairelanghamer.bsky.social.
River #GreatOuse Relief Channel, #Stowbridge #Norfolk #Reflections #Clouds
Are you a #school #teacher introducing students to #Chaucer? Come along to this amazing #free #event on Saturday 4 October, to discover resources & share expertise. From tackling the #medieval language to creative methods. I'll be there! ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/... Please share! Booking info 👇
A great turn out for @cathamclarke.bsky.social and Hannah Lowe at the IHR Creighton Lecture - Doing History with Poetry @ihr.bsky.social
“We will find it, we will bind it We will stick it with glue, glue, glue We will stickle it, every little bit of it We will fix it like new, new, new.” 🎵🫶💞🫶🎵
Both excited and VERY nervous about this, as I love #Bagpuss with all my heart... Did you know #Bagpuss makes an appearance in my new book A History of England in 25 Poems? Of *course* he does - but in a chapter on a #medieval part-song and monastic life...?
Look how I have cruelly betrayed them by leaving home and going into work #cats
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #TheGardenHouse #Dartmoor #Devon Scarlet Ginger Lily - 📷 06.09.2025 #elevensestime
A few more photos of the #FTWeekendFestival on Saturday. I had a great time talking to FT Deputy Books Editor Maria Crawford about #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems, with readings by wonderful actors Anna Burnett and Anant Varman. #history #book #skystorians
Serenity: South Elmham, St James, Suffolk #suffolk #churches #heritage
The Supreme Court just ruled this meme is constitutional.
Fascinating world of ancient #glass: glass square bottles were a common type of storage and transport vessels in the #Roman Empire. The square shape makes packing easier and saves space. The bottles were used to store/transport spices, medicines, balms,...🧵1/2 🏺#archaeology
Deliciously veggie 😋
Lovely, lively sails on a lovely gravestone 🫶🌬️🫶
On the sunny side of this gravestone, a lovely boating roundel. I located Andrew Bushell's death announcement & it sounded as though he'd contributed much to the Transplantation Research Immunology Group (TRIG) in the Department of Surgical Sciences, Oxford University. @horatioforever.bsky.social
I like to see interesting headstones by modern stonemasons. On a Cotswolds ramble recently, my attention was caught by this @carolineirwin3.bsky.social A hybrid Tree of Life & double helix - a life spent in science perhaps? At the foot (this is the back) the design becomes the word OUTSTANDING.
The eloquent 18th-century Friends Meeting House at Coanwood in Northumberland will be open 8am to 8pm from Friday 12 September to Sunday 21 September for Heritage Open Days. 1/6
So, if you're coming to my #BookLaunch and the Creighton event with poet Hannah Lowe at Senate House tomorrow (Tues), it's not going to be easy due to the tube strikes. But there'll be plenty of wine and nibbles - and lots of gorgeous publication goodies for those brave souls who make it. Thank you!
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #TheGardenHouse #Dartmoor #Devon Dahlia - 📷 06.09.2025 #elevensestime
Rogatons Rediffusions - 05/05/2023 - "Coup de Foudre" Source: www.bouletcorp.com/rogatons/202...
Thank you to Ian for this remarkable review of my new book - I'm deeply touched and honoured. I think Ian's response really reflects the magic of #poetry and its power to connect across lives and across #history. Thank you. #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems
Yet another historic church for sale. Offers over £870k. North Leith, Edinburgh.
#MementoMoriMonday from St Laurence, Ludlow.
Stone sculptures of Romanesque monsters from the 13th century church of St Mary, Apollonia, Albania.
Sur les hauteurs de Chambéry hier soir #eclipse #lune @astropierre.com
Mosaic of an angel’s head (detail) #Venice, 12th century Originally Santa Maria Assunta, #Torcello #Italy In @museelouvre.bsky.social #Paris #MosaicMonday #MedievalMonday
The afterlife of Orpheus: here he is the pattern for this representation of King David in a synagogue in Gaza (AD509) #mosaicmonday
Heritage Open Days are upon us and some kind folks in Suffolk and Lincolnshire have invited me to jabber on about Mythbusting over the next couple of weekends...
My cartoon for the @theguardian.com books autumn reads special.
It was 8 years ago today when my daughter's teacher asked every pupil to write down one worry and one hope for the year ahead. My daughter wrote her worry that stag beetles might become extinct. And her hope was that #StagBeetles would survive. ❤️😄 Photo: flowers picked for me by my kids yesterday.
Its pretty much 5 years since I started writing the Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog. In this new article, I have a look at the combustive mix of Myths, Media & Money... A warning on the dangers of what can happen to history when cash gets involved: triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/2025/09/07/m...
The 14thC fragments of glass at St Mary the Virgin, Meysey Hampton are well worth making a detour to see. The anguish in the face of The Good Thief is depicted with such intensity. #StainedGlassSunday
Loving this safety-conscious display in Waterstones Tunbridge Wells, via @adamchapman.bsky.social - fire extinguisher at the ready for when you're reading the chapter on the Great Fire of London... 👏🔥❤️ #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems #history #book #new #GreatFireOfLondon #Dryden #AnnusMirabilis
#StandingStoneSunday Ferntower, Crieff.
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #TheGardenHouse #Dartmoor #Devon Dahlia “Sunny Boy” - 📷 06.09.2025 #elevensestime
#SundayStonework from Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire. This C12th stone carving by the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculptors may represent the Angel Uriel.
A sample of the #audiobook of #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems, read by me, with additional readings by my @ihr.bsky.social colleague @juanitacox.bsky.social & actor Roy McMillan. (The Spotify preview is more cringe, with me saying 'c*ck & balls' in the first 3 seconds...) www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UKP...
"A captivating journey through Britain and Ireland's ancient sites ... lyrical and charming ..." Many thanks to @waterstones.bsky.social for naming Upon A White Horse as one of September's best books. www.waterstones.com/book/upon-a-...
“Pour parvenir a bonne foy” cutlerslondon.co.uk/the-company/...
St Nonna’s Church, #Altarnun, #Cornwall A pre-reformation, possibly #medieval (about 500 years old) stained glass window. Maybe St Nonna or St John the Evangelist (at the time of the crucifixion). #StainedGlassSunday
The elephant and castle was a symbol of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers and their motto means "to succeed through good faith". #stainedglasssunday from the Refectory of Salisbury Cathedral
🏴☠️Practices and Narratives of Early Modern Piracy: Connecting the Seas, 1550–1800, edited by @susannegruss.bsky.social & Marcus Hartner, the newest book in @amsterdamupress.bsky.social Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800 book series is out *22 Sept 2025* Available to preorder: www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...
Had a great time at the #FTWeekendFestival today, in conversation with Maria Crawford, FT Deputy Books Editor, about #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems, with beautiful readings from actors Anna Burnett and Anant Varman. Champagne was drunk.
Brompton Cemetery, London, UK.
I really enjoy finding graves that indicate the persons occupation. Brompton cemetery, London, Uk.
Two can play at this - Waterstones in Tunbridge Wells this morning. Outside and in!
@cathamclarke.bsky.social Spotted (not once, but twice) in the window of Hatchards in St Pancras
"A beacon for the importance of the #Humanities". Perhaps the best thing anyone could have said about my new book. Thank you. ❤️ @ihr.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #TheGardenHouse #Dartmoor #Devon Rudbeckia flower in the foreground with Cornus controversa 'Variegata' behind. (One of Anne’s favourite trees)- 📷 Today #elevensestime (delayed)
The problem for those who make performative cruelty the centrepiece of their governing strategy is that you have to endlessly escalate he spectacle or your audience gets bored and starts to notice that for all your vicious sadism against the Other, you're not actually making THEIR lives any better.
Like mothers across the centuries, Elizabeth probably read to Mary, Anne, and George. She also may have used hornbooks - alphabet tablets, which were used in the medieval period to teach children their letters.
It's #nationalreadabookday, and I thought I'd celebrate by discussing the role of medieval mothers in teaching their children to read. We can be almost certain that Elizabeth Boleyn taught Mary, Anne, and George how to read.
“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood” (“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura”) The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri #BookWormSat
Signing my way across #London on the way to the #FTWeekendFestival today. Signed copies now in Waterstones Hampstead (lovely display!) and on the table in Foyles Waterloo ❤️ #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems
A very beautiful, and true, line The woven version by Sue Hufton is splendid 💎
Such a lovely photo, Caroline 😍👏
I had previously seen a beautiful piece of woven lettering by Sue Hufton, but having met her at the conference in Cambridge I think I should carve that text on stone. But what kind of design?... rob-kearley-pj3n.squarespace.com/blog-1/2024/... letterexchange.org/members/port...
Fancy a taster of my new #book? It's #BookOfTheWeek on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 22 September! You can listen to 5 slightly abridged chapters, taking you from the Battle of Maldon in 991 to the present day. I'm reading! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... #history #listen #radio #skystorians
St John the Baptist Church, #Hatherleigh #Devon A west tower of three stages, with battlements & surmounted by a wooden shingle spire. Tonight’s entertainment ….. a brass band 🎶🎶, a pasty & cider in the town square. What’s not to like? 😉 #SteepleSaturday
For sale on my little Etsy store – "Shell Nature Studies: September Flyway" in excellent condition. "An Autumn rush of migrants...driven across the North Sea." www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1...
Fascinating world of ancient #glass: This magnificent #Roman #fish-shaped flask was found during the excavation of a storeroom in Begram/Afghanistan. It was probably made in a workshop at Alexandria/Egypt, dating 1st/2nd century AD. Begram was a....🧵1/2 🏺 #archaeology
something fun about this fragment is that the text combines parts of two different chants, but the melody is continuous across them like it was supposed to be that way all along. chant remix! #FragmentFriday
#Cawsand #Cornwall #Moonlight - #Plymouth Sound
The #lettering conference at the Faculty of English at #Cambridge Uni had many highlights and will lead to many rabbit holes. Highlights tho, seeing #Baskerville's type punches; Baskerville's sample sheet; the print room and #letterpress equipment. My brain is still fizzing.
Got a couple of Mythbusting gigs coming up later this month in Suffolk and Lincolnshire as part of Heritage Open Days...
The theme of this year’s Heritage Open Days is architecture and, rather fittingly, the three FoFC churches taking part in the South of England have some fascinating architectural features. 1/8 📷 Waddesdon Hill Baptist Chapel © Hestia Architects
How to style my new book for autumn: #NewSeason #NewBook #history 💗
#Combeinteignhead #Devon Signs through the centuries - • 19th Century • 20th Century • 21st Century #FingerpostFriday
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 - #Plymouth #Devon Gaillardia - 📷 Now #elevensestime
“Poems aren’t just a bridge to history, they connect us intimately with the emotions and experiences of those who lived it.” “We listen in on distant griefs, share laughter, re-kindle old anger, draw breath alongside companions from centuries long gone in awe and wonder.” @cathamclarke.bsky.social 💎
Warnock to RFK jr: "For the first time, we are seeing deaths of children from measles. We haven't seen that in two decades. We're seeing that under your watch. You are a hazard to the health of the American people."
Pareil
Church of St Cyriacus & St Julitta, #Luxulyan #Cornwall Norman Font - c.1150 Of the so called #Bodmin design. Carved with heads at four corners. The bowl has carvings of animals & foliage - could this be symbolising the “Tree of life” or the tree in the Garden of Eden? #FontsOnFriday #Romanesque
Pen and ink drawing by US poet Sylvia Plath #WomensArt
Absolutely one of the most exhausting things about this time is that we're constantly being forced to listen to deranged or uninformed or some combination of both fucking muppets, and they're in charge. Of a superpower. Like this is normal. Like, I hated Dick Cheney, but he wasn't *dumb*.
The Society recently applied to get 79 Maidstone Road, a substantial Victorian building, added to the statutory list of nationally significant buildings. The former house (and later school), was to be converted into flats, with a supermarket to be built in its grounds. 🧵 #Victorianhouse
The “problem” with vaccines? They so effective at preventing deaths that they create generations of people that question whether disease was a problem in the first place because they have never experienced the horrors of a world without vaccines.
Perfect end to the day: a Waterloo sunset, and my book on the table at Foyles in the station ❤️
For #ThrowbackThursday: a 2011 #MonumentoftheMonth featuring a Bourchier monument at Halstead churchmonumentssociety.org/monument-of-...
September's #MonumentoftheMonth is an unassuming wall monument with an intriguing story behind it - and a double Welsh connection! churchmonumentssociety.org/monument-of-...
... Waterstones Gower Street and South Kensington Books. Signed copies available in all these shops!
What a lovely day of bookshop visits across London! Just a few here: Heywood Hill on Curzon Street, Hatchards Piccadilly, Waterstones Piccadilly, Daunt Books Marylebone High Street. Plus...
Having another one of my regular treatments tomorrow to keep the cancer at bay, which always makes me ill for a couple of weeks, so any support, either via kofi ko-fi.com/annelouiseav... or my patreon is very, very welcome, and enables me to keep writing and creating.
A great visit this morning from delegates at the 'Craft, Texture, & Aesthetics of Letter Forms' conference, to visit our Historical Printing Room & see a range of materials from our collection, including John Baskerville specimens, the Kelmscott Chaucer, & woodblocks & designs by Reynolds Stone!
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...