My latest book cover embroidery. The plan is to embroider all the covers of books I have loved (or recently written), using materials I already own:

My York Festival of Ideas 2024 session is on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=XyPY...@foxlanebooks.bsky.socialwww.foxlanebooks.co.uk/product-page...

Penning Poison: A history of anonymous letters - Emily Cockayne

Receiving an unexpected and unsigned note is a disconcerting experience. Historian Emily Cockayne, author of Penning Poison, turned sleuth to trace the stori...

'I see conspiracy fictions as a form of reassurance ... Climate breakdown? It’s a hoax. Covid? All fake. Power? Just a tiny cabal of Jews. In other words, our deepest fears are unfounded.' www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘You’re going to call me a Holocaust denier now, are you?’: George Monbiot comes face to face with his local conspiracy theorist

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset … Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? There’s only one way to find out: ask a believer

Book recommendation! Penning Poison, A History of Anonymous Letters by Emily Cockayne. Focuses on threatening letters, obscene messages & celebrity hate mail sent between 1760 & 1939. An entertaining & thought-provoking read.

Saw the film #WickedLittleLetters & it called to mind my painting from a few years ago Laughing While Addressing 2016 Oil on Linen 50 x 50 cm Private Collection The poison pen or ransom reference was emblematic, it's so potent a signifier of transgression.

Oh wow!

Review of Penning Poison in the New York Times! www.nytimes.com/2023/12/30/b...

If you're looking for the answer to the question why QMUL is in the dire state it is in, then I don't think management could have been more clear than with its evasive non-answer and refusal to interact even with a key journalist in a national newspaper. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The miserly tale of how a university took its staff’s wages – and the public paid the price | Ad...

Even Scrooge would marvel at Queen Mary’s pay-docking over a marking boycott. No wonder higher education is in turmoil, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

Not content with being philistines, the UK government is now going the full vandal, planning to destroy all wills and associated documents held since 1800. Please please please take a moment to email what a loss this would be to history. Consultation closes 23 Feb.

Easier access to historic wills under new government plans

Genealogists, historians and amateur family archivists will be better able to access historic wills under proposals published today (15 December 2023).

… those words might well work a way into the film (Wicked Little Letters), due out early next year … Thank you for the review!

DDdjbduncan.bsky.socialDec 14, 2023 12:31pm

I reviewed @rummage.bsky.social’s excellent "Penning Poison" for the Washington Post. Sadly the phrase "foxy ass piss country whore" didn't make it past the editors. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/1...

Review | Think trolls are bad? Look at the history of poison pen letters.

“Penning Poison” chronicles the fascinating history of the anonymous letter.