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Birthday congratulations and best wishes to Wing Commander John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway DFC, the last known surviving Battle of Britain pilot who is an incredible 105 years old today.

So excited to see and hold this gorgeous American cover for In the Blink of an Eye. Thank you to Penguin Random House 🐧🏠📚 for doing such a beautiful job - I can’t wait to hear what US readers think of it when it comes out on August 6th!

Fabulous WW2 story. What a gal! >>The double agent who hid D-Day from the Nazis: Elvira Chaudoir – The National Archives beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-co…

- Just one dragonfly can consume over one hundred mosquitos in a day - Dragonflies can fly backwards - They have nearly 360-degree vision - Their wings inhibit bacterial growth due to their natural structures - They're actually beautiful This is not stained glass, it's a wing.

The Transfiguration on the early 16th Century rood screen at Westhall, one of Suffolk's very best churches. Christ faces us, flanked by Moses and Elijah. On the right, and not part of the story, St Anthony and his little pig look on. Today is the feast of the Transfiguration.

The little Roman intaglio I found the other week isn’t a beetle, it’s a frog! Frogs were associated with fertility and harmony, and with debauchery in association with the goddess Venus. It is the first to have ever been found in Britain 1/3 #mudlarkingfinds #mudlarking

I can’t wait to read Smith’s scalpel applied to this long overdue revision of famous Roman women ⁦Joan Smith⁩ telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fict…

Dear JD Vance I suggest you listen to this The Rest Is History podcast on Hitler’s annexation of part of Czechoslovakia (before he came back for more…) I was struck by certain parallels, esp this quote from the Czech president after the Allies sold his country down the river.

Jane Gregory Bursaries applications open for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2025 thebookseller.com/news/jane-greg…

I’m up for this!!

This is very cool. <Is this the face of the nine-day queen? Lady Jane Grey goes on display> thetimes.com/article/2ebb33…

Outrageous. And funny…

Farewell and thank you to John Hemingway, aged 105, the last of the Battle of Britain pilots. Image via The Times and The Sunday Times thetimes.com/article/f23c38…

Love the cheeky subhead… <Mystery appendage fascinates Bayeux Tapestry historians> thetimes.com/article/34b4a4…

Wow. Fascinating stuff. search.app/5m313WQP4CpCTF…

St Margaret belts the daylights out of a devil. It's the only language they understand. At the National Gallery's Siena exhibition, on loan from the MFA Boston.

😍🫢A door of real beauty. It simply astonishes me to think that the base of the tower at All Saints in Brixworth is Anglo Saxon 7th century. Notice the murmuration of re-used Roman brick tiles in the stone coursing taken from Leicester and Towcester. #thread

Brilliant!

Extraordinary find of a jewel marking the 24-year marriage of Henry VIII and the wonderful, under appreciated, Katherine of Aragon. British Museum is appealing for funds to keep it in the UK. britishmuseum.org/tudor-heart-ap…