Sometimes dust jacket designs are simply beautiful...

The first episode of my five part radio series Beautiful Strangeness goes out on BBC R4 today. Commissioned back in January and produced by the iconic @LoftusMedia If it's your kind of thing, you can find all five episodes on BBC Sounds. From apparitions to quantum entanglement..

Sadly this was my very last programme on BBC A Point of View as at the end of March the programme is being laid to rest after 17 years on the wireless....

So sad. Such a terrific programme to have been part of. Such a terrific programme to listen to. A highlight of the week. Nothing else on radio like it… thanks to superb producer @AdeleJArmstrong

Birders do take a listen to this morning's Point of View on R4 - anyone who's been captivated by the song of a Nightingale, indeed any bird that catches you in the moment, will understand Murdoch's 'there is nothing now but Kestrel' https://t.co/KGkqg2CHYq

https://t.co/hOsxeN3nXg Iris Murdoch: 'I am looking out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind, brooding .... Then suddenly I observe a hovering kestrel. In a moment everything is altered... There is nothing now but kestrel.'

A nightingale painted onto a garden mural in Pompeii AD 60.

Does anyone in the world of 18th-century French art history out there know who the children are in this Drouais portrait?

"If we want to enter the past we have to try to see the world through our ancestors’ eyes, believe what they believed, feel the things that they feared, their superstitions and their religious beliefs." @RebeccaStott64, author of Dark Earth, says. More at https://t.co/V9hEpaGYG8

My 7-yr-old neighbour has just been in to fix my vacuum cleaner. His curiosity about fixing things knows no bounds. I made a @bbcPoV radio programme about him - oh and about #childhood #curiosity more generally. https://t.co/KKI0CgyYMt.

‘ I never dust. After four years it doesn’t get any thicker. You just have to not lose your nerve’. Quentin Crisp. Here’s a little radio piece I made about dust. https://t.co/cfRL0BnlGP.

If you are in #Lewes next week come to my talk for @LewesLitSoc on 6th century abandoned #Londonium and my novel #DarkEarth. Tues. 21st Nov. Tickets available here:

@nicolaz @rachelhengqp @MElizabethLowry @Kiran_MH @kimtsherwood @RebeccaStott64 @DamianDibben @TheSallyGardner View complete list on bookshop https://t.co/mVoubj35u7

Very honoured that Dark Earth has been long listed for such a fine prize. Thank you. Dark Earth was five years in the making - it is moments like this when all of that dreaming and research and world making - glorious experience in itself - feels even more special.

Dark Earth: Rebecca Stott A spellbinding tale. Two sisters fighting for survival in a post-Roman London where violence and superstition stalk them. Filled with folklore, myth and evocative world-building, this is an immersive and endlessly vivid novel #HWACrowns23 #Gold #histfic

In a remarkable archaeological discovery, a 15-foot-long dugout canoe was unearthed in the depths of Wisconsin's Lake Mendota. This ancient vessel, shrouded in mystery, offers a unique glimpse into the past as it was meticulously scanned and carbon-dated, revealing its origins to

https://t.co/55VK0bNXNW Ticehurst (Sussex) Literary Festival launches next weekend. Writing workshops, comedy and talks by writers including Alex Preston @ahmpreston, @Jyoti__Patel and me. Do come. It's going to be a great weekend. You can book a ticket for a day or for weekend.

A 9,000-year-old skeleton was discovered inside a cave in Cheddar, England, and was affectionately dubbed "Cheddar Man." DNA testing confirmed that a living relative lived approximately half a mile away, tracing their lineage back nearly 300 generations. In 1903, while

All the time I was working with @RebeccaStott64 on her memoir about growing up in the Brethren IN THE DAYS OF RAIN she hoped her book would shine light on its oppression of women - and this excellent and powerful article helps do just that. Very moving to read.

Fascinating piece in the @guardian about a co-housing project for older women - how it happened and how it works. Inspirational and trailblazing

Thanks for a fascinating conversation