Christopher Guyver

Christopher Guyver

@cguyver.bsky.social

NHS substance misuse service administrator. Writing a biography of King Leopold I of the Belgians. Beautiful Surrey.

1.3K followers662 following4.2K posts

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

Werner Herzog is someone I ought to know more about because he's famous etc. But I can tell he's a real fan of people exchanging meaningful glances.

X-Ray Eyes@xrayeyes.bsky.social

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Aguirre, the Wrath of God), Werner Herzog (1972)

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

'I know I can do anything' - including leaving me cold when I read Possession.

British Library@britishlibrary.bsky.social

From early drafts to the finished novel: we’re so excited to share that the archive of A S Byatt is joining the British Library collection 📚 Read all about it here in @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...

theguardian.com‘I know I can do anything’: new archive of AS Byatt’s papers looks inside the writer’s extraordinary mindThe Booker-wining author of Possession was known for her voracious research. Now, 68 boxes of her notebooks, letters and diaries acquired by the British Library reveal how she assembled the raw materi...

Christopher Guyver reposted

Willem de Prater
@willemdeprater.bsky.social

Replying to @willemdeprater.bsky.social

Dit boek gaat niet alleen over de Tiendaagse Veldtocht, maar ook de gebeurtenissen die tot deze veldtocht leidde, worden beschreven. Wat mij betreft een aanrader over een stukje onbekende geschiedenis.

Christopher Guyver reposted

Willem de Prater
@willemdeprater.bsky.social

Antwerpen, 27 oktober 1830. Oorlogsschepen onder commando van generaal Chassé bombarderen de stad aan de Schelde. Twee maanden daarvoor waren de Zuidelijke Nederlanden in opstand gekomen tegen koning Willem I, die de revolutie hard wilde neerslaan.

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

That first sentence.

Simon Jones@simonjones.bsky.social

In 1914, the town of Ypres, a jewel of medieval and renaissance Flanders, was nearing the end of a major restoration. By 1918, it was utterly destroyed. The ruins of the 14th century Cloth Hall & Cathedral, #OTD 27 October. US Signal Corps cameraman. Source: catalog.archives.gov/id/24775

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

I was going to make an arch comment but my finger muscle memory typed Putin rather than Pugin

Jonathan Foyle@jonathanfoyle.bsky.social

Pugin’s St Giles Cheadle, Staffs, 1841-6. On one hand, turning back the clock to the Catholic Middle Ages. On another, a blueprint for a generation of Anglican churches of the High Victorian era.

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

seeing an e-mail from David G. Troyansky about Limoges on H-France reminds me of when we met at a conference in 2003. A nice who was actually interested in what I had to say.

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

had the virtue of precision until first the spoilsports in 1937 & then the Nazis in 1940 changed it

Simon Kuestenmacher@simongerman600.bsky.social

Before standard time zones, the Netherlands used Dutch (Amsterdam) Time: GMT+0:19:32, based on solar time at the Westerkerk tower. Rounded to +0:20 in 1937, it kept clocks and train schedules 20 minutes off until abolished in 1940. Weird. Source: buff.ly/w0G5msX

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

believe it or not, this isn't as bad as racism

LadyFluffyOrca 🫍📎 🇬🇧🇵🇸🇺🇦@ladyfluffyorca.bsky.social

Oh my god, can you believe how far they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel? They’re all as mad as a box of frogs. www.lbc.co.uk/article/refo...

lbc.co.ukReform plan to 'bring back imperial measurements' as party announces list of pledges it says will create jobs | LBCAt a speech on Monday, Robert Jenrick will unveil a rival "teal" budget book setting out the different choices Reform would make
Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

1959 people 'where did we put the shipwreck???'

rogueclassicist ~ david meadows@rogueclassicist.bsky.social

Roman “Ghost Shipwreck” Rediscovered Off Italy After 67 Years with Ancient Wine Amphorae | Arkeonews arkeonews.net/roman-ghost-...

arkeonews.netRoman “Ghost Shipwreck” Rediscovered Off Italy After 67 Years with Ancient Wine Amphorae | ArkeonewsA Roman ghost shipwreck lost for 67 years has been rediscovered off Italy, revealing nine ancient wine amphorae dating back more than 2,000 years.
Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

People like to say that the armed services keep the rest of us safe. When was the last time they did this? I'm personally sceptical that they did this when they were in Cyprus, Suez, Aden, N.Ireland, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan but am willing to listen...

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

has anyone done a film of what happens when the found footage from a horror film is actually found? Some really boring, painstaking, inconclusive missing-persons police investigation would be brilliant.

Christopher Guyver reposted

rogueclassicist ~ david meadows
@rogueclassicist.bsky.social

Nine amphorae on the seabed: a long-lost Roman shipwreck resurfaces in Camogli (Genoa) www.finestresullarte.info/en/archaeolo...

finestresullarte.infoNine amphorae on the seabed: a long-lost Roman shipwreck resurfaces in Camogli (Genoa)In the waters of the Portofino Marine Protected Area, the Carabinieri Diving Unit discovered nine Roman amphorae, reopening an archaeological case first documented in 1959 by Duilio Marcante and verif...
Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

Maybe; but a majority of the British public didn't need Putin to tell them to vote for Brexit. (Before the self-righteous pile-on starts, I didn't vote for it & I work with the British public so I know what they're like.)

Scott Horton@robertscotthorton.bsky.social

Brexit was a successful influence operation run by the Russian intelligence services, and it has taken the British political world more than a decade to digest this simple fact. Now it's important to focus on the fact that Nigel Farage was little more than their willing agent in the process.

bylinetimes.comSaying the ‘Unsayable’: Russian InterferenceAndy Burnham has broken a decade of establishment silence over Putin’s plan to get Britain out of the EU. Peter Jukes reports
Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

The idea for the referendum was Cameron's & he wanted to remain. Of course, Putin had some input & it suited him to have Europe more divided than not: but other factors were more important.

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

I can only read the headline but this is yet another stage in the degradation of intellectual life in London (the reading rooms are not the café btw, though that has become expensive & unusable over the years). www.timeshighereducation.com/news/british...

timeshighereducation.comBritish Library to turn reading rooms into paid-for workspacesAreas dedicated to science and social science in national institution to be ‘repurposed’, sparking the ire of scholars
Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

HELLO!!!!

Jay Troyer@gr8flbluejay.bsky.social

Gil de Ronza, Flemish-Spanish (c 1483-c 1534), Death, 1522-25, funerary chapel of Vázquez de Cepeda at the Convent of San Francisco, wood, 62 x 169 x 48 cm, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, Spain

Christopher Guyver
@cguyver.bsky.social

I'm sure in my childhood that adults & esp. older adults were more morbid than are similarly aged people now. The war must have been at least in part responsible but things like disasters were a fixation. Toxic positivity has done its work in the intervening generations.