Christopher Hadley

Uncomfortable with blowing my own trumpet...but ta-ta-tat-ta-ta! 'Magnificent…no dry and prosaic history, but a work of imagination..deeply literary..an absolute joy to read and an early contender for every list of History Books of the Year' 🙏 Harry Sidebottom @Telegraph

@RoryWaterman I'll be there. Looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to reading at Bishops Stortford Library on 3 October. I don't know anyone in that part of the country, yet. Tickets here: forwardartsfoundation.org/event/open-mic…

@andrew_poho @NellytheWillow @MedievalG @sarahjigpoon I speculate as to why there are three crosses in my book Hollow Places. (Nearby are the graves of the wife and two children of the man who probably cut them.) The original crosses are filled in with flints. Here they are in an anonymous early C19th watercolour.

@andrew_poho @NellytheWillow @MedievalG @sarahjigpoon Thanks Andrew. The Brent Pelham crosses are intriguing - with a fair bit of debate over them and their relationship to Shonks' tomb. There are three crosses, two on one buttress and one on the other. Here they are in 1912.

An exceptionally rare survival. An external consecration cross on the tower buttress at Wethersingsett church, Suffolk. Surviving internal crosses are rare. External crosses even more so. medieval-graffiti.co.uk/page102.html

Today, Asthma + Lung UK launch a clean air campaign centred around school playgrounds. As someone who’s lived with asthma my whole life I know only too well how air pollution affects us all. Children especially are the most vulnerable to the impact of toxic air which can cause damage to their health for a lifetime. Join @asthmalunguk in the fight for clean air: bit.ly/3TpYIzV #ToxicAirPlaygrounds

Self, on dragons and Norman knights lincolnshirefolktalesproject.com/2024/09/11/ant… @unilincoln @adversecamber20 @FiveLeavesPub @edward_parnell @hadleywrites @TolkienSociety

Just a month to go until the wonderful Barkway Literary Festival returns. Grab your tickets now. I'll be talking about Romans, dragon slayers and ways to the past at 7pm.

The best exhibitions, festivals and theatre shows to get in your diary timeandleisure.co.uk/things-to-do/a… Including this year's fab Clapham Book Festival. Tickets at payhip.com/claphambookfes…

An exciting day for me as 'Eerie East Anglia', the new book I've edited for @BL_Publishing 's 'Tales of the Weird Series', is published today. And it's already out there in the wild, with this lovely display in @NorwichStones. For more info see: shop.bl.uk/collections/br…

'It was once said that you could trace the ancient roads the Romans used by looking for the cherry trees that grew beside them – presumably from cherry stones spat out by marching soldiers.' True or not, I love this from @BenTheEpicure 's new book.

I've just read a very enjoyable @LRB Diary by @tomlukejohnson Tattered mss., outlandish corbel stones, restless spirits and M.R.James.

@Sarah_Laws @Book_Nook_Shop Thank you Sarah. You're right. I loved researching and writing it.

@hadleywrites @Book_Nook_Shop Really enjoyed your book about The Road. Your enthusiasm for the project came through so clearly.

I do enjoy writing and giving talks about my work and I try to make each one different - so as not to bore myself. My next talk and reading will be at the wonderful @Book_Nook_Shop next month. Details below. (I might weave in a few words about Hollow Places as well.)

@fiona752 @Mat_at_Brookes @paradesendbooks Thank you Fiona. Hope you're enjoying it.

'So landscapes are mutable, holistic in character, ever-changing, always in the process of being and becoming.' Tilly & Cameron-Daum cited in @hadleywrites Another fascinating read, Chris. Sifting through the strata of place & time is dear to my heart.

@andrew_poho @kwilsonlee @DrFrancisYoung @Waveney_Arch Thank you Andrew. I do. What did you have in mind? DM me.

There aren’t many churches that can boast the tomb of an actual dragonslayer

@SophieMHistory @mwnciod Thank you Sophie. You should write it. Take your time.

@mwnciod According to legend, his gravestone! There's a great book about evidencing folklore by @hadleywrites which made me want to write a book about the Hickathrift legend. Probably won't though, have enough unwritten books in my brain.

Fun fact: there's a care home named after him at Marshland St James

Extraordinarily interesting & portentous discovery from Roman Wales, its early indications echoing John Reid’s 2023 revisionist interpretation of the military scale & endemic violence of the Roman presence in Scotland. theguardian.com/uk-news/articl…

@bakerpictures Haha. Thank you Richard.

'Enthralling' has an interesting history, and is high praise. Thank you Richard.

View from the office this month. The Haute-Savoie works wonders for my spirits and the book in progress. Lots of reading, writing and hiking, and a little bit of missing the kids - it was our first summer getaway without one or more of them for 23 years.

@Old_Red_Dog Spooky!

If you've experienced the visual & verbal joys of hwaet! zine, you'll understand why I was honoured to be asked to contribute to the new Forests & Ancient Woodland issue. I hope you like my words; you'll definitely like diddumsdoodles' magical take on them hwaetzine.co.uk/product/zine-i…