Euan Williamson

Had a great first day on Mull. I wasn’t allowed in the distillery though 😔

Farewell Ozzy. A huge loss to Metal and to music. ❤️

‘Model trains are my meditation' | The Observer Model railways offer a ticket to a safe world – no wonder it's good for hobbyists' mental health

Often when consumed by anxiety and feeling awful in the head, I calm myself by following disused railway lines on maps, and imagine the layouts I might build based on them. For The Observer, I've written about engines big and small, masculinity and mental health:

observer.co.uk/news/first-p...

You don’t get that on the Norwich to London Liverpool Street line

Sounds very interesting. My grandfather was a Protestant and was confirmed a catholic in order to marry my grandmother. It’s a funny old mix! There’s a magisterial beauty in the crossing of the old world and the emerging liberalism of the new.

Surely theology and Victorian history is still essential to understanding the Second World War!?! That generation is a direct product 😀

As legends like you Maureen doesn’t need to be concerned with who is speaking!! 😉

Hi James, that’s very reassuring!! It’s my first boat so I’m a little (a lot) nervous. Hopefully it’s all good!

Well this is a bloody lovely way to start the weekend!

Ah well this is lovely to see!

I’ve spent the majority of the week in Perth. Beautiful weather and beautiful place. Equally wonderful was the @museumbw and the staff there. Super helpful and knowledgeable. I got a lot of great material for my book.

Some great recognition over at the other place @luketurner.bsky.social. Much deserved!

Things is, it’s close enough to a Telegraph story to make you think. Anything by Allister Heath is akin to this level of madness.

Several exceptional historians have released books recently. On the one hand it’s inspiring and on the other it reminds how far I’ve got to go. I need to up my writing output!!

One thing that never occurred to me before writing Ring of Fire - when men were mobilised in 1914, there was no one left to collect the rubbish in Paris. The city began to stink. Here’s one journalist’s account: 'Strolling through the main streets of my neighbourhood, I realize that some public services are completely disorganized by the mobilization which deprives them of any manpower. Refuse, foul smelling, sits on the edge of the pavement, abandoned? In the August heat, the smell was nauseating. Then he saw a lorry with four men on it. The driver was a teenager, two others were well over forty. They appeared to be collecting rubbish, and so Delecraz asked the boy if they might swing past his street. ""Address yourself to the colonel," he replied, pointing out to me a man in an English cap walking alongside. I walk forward to meet him. "Are you the colonel, sir?" I examine him on the sly. Tall, straight, slim. The elderly man had a pronounced regal bearing, and an imperious white moustache: I am indeed a retired colonel... I have two officer sons. Too old to return to the fire, at the age of seventy, I'm trying to be useful. You see, I am running temporary rubbish collec-tion, while waiting for the business to be reorganized. You have to serve as best you can, at such a time...' And when he opens his jacket to take a note [of my street]... I see the rosette of an officer of the Légion d'Honneur. Photo from Musée Albert Kahn

One thing that never occurred to me before writing Ring of Fire - when men were mobilised in 1914, there was no one left to collect the rubbish in Paris. The city began to stink. Here’s one journalist’s account:

I’m thrilled that #AgentZo has been awarded silver in the #MilitaryHistoryMatters magazine #BookOfTheYear2025 awards. Wonderful to get this recognition for her story, especially among such an impressive shortlist! 🧵1/3

My thoughts on Facebook earlier

In the early hours, #OTD in 1940, 2/Lt Alan Orr Ewing of 1st Btn Black Watch, led a patrol in the woods east of Remeling in NE France. There was a firefight with German troops. No British casualties were reported.
TNA

On this day in 1940, the entirety of 51st Highland Division relieved the French at the Hombourg-Budange section of the Maginot line. Including the recently arrived 7 Norfolks.
51HD War Diary, TNA

In one account of the fighting in the Saar, May 1940, an officer 2/Lt Alan Orr Ewing describes using a Beretta. In the context it’s likely more than a pistol. Does anyone know if it’s simply slang or whether it was privately purchased by Orr Ewing?

On this day in 1940, the remainder of 51st Highland Division arrived at the Maginot line, north of Metz. They were there to gain combat experience under French Command. It was the start of a fateful journey. IWM

Now even book publishers are starting to ask if I am going to do another podcast on Post-SWW topics!

Archive on 4 - Kenneth Williams: Said the Actor to the Bishop - BBC Sounds Kenneth Williams recorded excerpts from the Bible. They've not been broadcast until now.

I found this episode of Archive On 4 very moving: Kenneth Williams reading Bible stories in full and fine voice (his Satan is particularly good), and the programme weaves these into his own life story and complicated Christian faith, much of which feels familiar.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Had a great time at Kent Battle of Britain Museum this morning. The museum makes the connection between the machines and the pilots’ stories in an incredibly effective way. It was a very moving experience.

Few days away with the family, walked along the beach at Dungeness this morning. Lovely day for it!

Any fellow IC members visiting Normandy between 4th -7th June?

Happy publication day+1 to @joedunthorne.bsky.social for a fantastic book about his journey into a family history that wasn’t as it seemed - radioactive toothpaste invented by his great-grandfather in the 1920s was the surface of a far more sinister narrative. Read it like a thriller in two goes A*

🚨Forgotten Armour: Tank Warfare in Burma is coming out in paperback!🚨

Get your copy from Sunday 13 April, what better way to celebrate the 81st anniversary of the Battle of Nunshigum - the epic battle by tanks of the 3rd Carabiniers on the mountains above Imphal.

#tanks #ww2 #history #author

Keep up the good work!!