Simon Jones

@simonjones.bsky.social

7332 Followers 3170 Following

Writes about old, unhappy, far-off things. Late museum curator. Shows polite interest. FRHistS. https://simonjoneshistorian.com/

I learned from every working-man I could get hold of the use of all ordinary carpenters' tools, and how to weld hot iron, pave, lay bricks and turf, and so on. "When I was about 11 my parents got more mortified at my behavior and perpetually threatened me with a boarding-school. I was told for months how it would take the nonsense out of me 'shape me,' 'turn me into a young lady.' My going was finally announced to me as a punishment to me for being what I was. "Certainly, the horror of going to this school and the cruel and unsympathetic way that I was sent there gave me a shock that I never got over. The only thing that reconciled me to going was my intense indignation with those who sent me. I appealed to be allowed to learn Latin and boys' subjects, but was laughed at. "I was so helpless that I knew I could not run away without being caught, or I would have run away anywhere from home and school. I never cried or fretted, but burnt with anger and went like a trapped rabbit. From Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol 2 Sexual Inversion (1927), p. 237.
Black & white photo a man wearing uniform and dark glasses sits at a desk in front of a typewriter. He wears earphones, on the desk next to him is the same recording apparatus as in the previous photo.
Black & white photo a man speaks into a tube attached to a box on which is a disc and recording apparatus.
Black & white photo of wrecked one-storey building with no roof, heaped debris, in foreground twenty coffins.
Black & white photo of six soldiers push forward a metal shield.
Packed royal Albert Hall
a Georgian terrace street, scarlet bandsmen and khaki soldiers march.
title page and illustration of book mentioned in post. Image source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122130064521098733&set=gm.4470666483222799&idorvanity=1564214813867995
Black and white photo of two men in uniform, one bearded, one moustached, face each other wearing steel helmets with visors.
Photo of a memorial comprising a series of arches beyond a field of flowers.
Black & white photo bearded man in uniform wearing slatted metal eye shield.
Black and white photo British and German soldiers, two opponents seem to face one another in a wordless confrontation.
Black and white photo of interior of dugout, two American soldiers lie on bunks, one rather uncomfortably.
Joanna (British Newspaper Archive) 29 Jul 2026, 3:02 pm BST Good Afternoon Thank you for getting in touch. We have responded to feedback from other customers regarding the loss of the upcoming titles. As we have migrated the site at the moment adding new titles is paused briefly until we are satisfied the site is fully stable. We will be adding a tab for this on the homepage page soon In the meantime please use the following link - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/newspapers/latest Kind Regards Joanna
black and white photo of a man in uniform wearing a moulded facemask with projecting filter, and a woman in a dark plain dress wearing a respirator and goggles.
Black & white photo of a man wearing a French ARS respirator to which is connected a water bottle by a rubber tube. The water bottle has a respirator filter attached. the man holds the water bottle in the air.
Printed sign on post in parkland reading SURVIVALISTS GUILD THIS WAY
Cover of Barbara Pym, A Glass of Blessings.
Black & white photo of a man lying on his front with rollers strapped to his thighs and blocks on his forearms.
Rough ceramic head looking surprised, with a rectangular mouth.
Her half-brother sees things differently. "Right now, Al is still a glorified search engine. It is a piece of software that recognises a pattern in a string of characters, and it can look at millions of responses that match that character set and give you the highest probability best answer. What did it do? It looked at a couple of character strings that I typed in and found the best match. There's no intelligence there." Avtar remains as sceptical as ever about giving big tech his data, even though it was ChatGPT's readiness to scrape blogs and give out personal information that led him to his maternal family. Had Avtar chosen to ask another AI, he might not have found Nicci at all. When he came back to Canada, he put the same prompt into Anthropic's Claude, to see what it would say, just for fun. "It replied, 'We don't want to infringe on anybody's privacy, so we don't give out that information," Avtar tells me. Then he shrugs. "I think that's a good response." The Guardian | 25.07.26 | SATURDAY | 13
U ICONIC BRICKS READING DINO TRAIL TYRANNOSAURUS REX SKULL (tie-ran-o-saw-rus rex) 79,252 BRICKS .. 2 BUILDERS 197 HOURS DID YOU KNOW? The Tyrannosaurus Rex lived around 72-66 million years ago in what is now Western North America Its name means Tyrant Lizard King THE ORACLE READING BROAD ST. MALL READING Reading BID Business Improvement District
It's a T-Rex skull made of Lego. It's in Reading.
Black painted steel helmet.
Steel helmet painted with words Hospital ARP.
Circular tin with colour photo of collie dog and boy captioned Lassie.
Model tank painted in camouflage pattern.
Square biscuit decorated in colour with the badge of the WAAC.
Cast bronze eagle. He's splendid but he's lost his wings.
Lovely model of a medieval wharf, Reading Museum.
Panel of embroidery with name Mabel Challinor along the lower margin.
Detail of crouching man from Bayeux Tapestry, wearing stripey underpants.
Bayeux Tapestry copy detail, William on a big blue horse.
Detail of embroidered comet from Bayeux Tapestry copy in Reading Museum.
Black and white photo of crowds lining a water-filler moat and bridge leading to ornate stone memorial gate.
Cat in my kitchen watching a small rat next to the compost bin.
Wooden box with wooden hammer laid on top in orchestra at Royal Albert Hall.
Cowbells in the timpani and percussion section of an orchestra.
An Eric Ravilious mug and card and a cake.
Watercolour: A view down the length of a runway of an airfield with two Spitfires in flight above against a cloudy sky.
Detail of oil painting of richly-dressed little girl with mane of light brown hair. It is a detail from Diego Velázquez, Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress (1660).
Albert Hall
Video of a pond at sunset, deer arrive and wade into the water. It's in Windsor Great Park.
screenshot Guardian website link to review of Ann Droid
If I'm trying to sleep on a plane, I'll go on YouTube and play six hours of second world war history facts' Adam Peaty
It was good to read David Kynaston's appreciation of Juliet Gardiner's writing (Obituary, 16 July). The school we both attended, leading to a lifelong friendship, failed to recognise her talent. On the bus together one morning, Juliet let me read her latest piece of homework: 11 strikingly imaginative pages about the stone effigies of knights in St Peter's church, Berkhamsted. At the end I found her teacher's only comment: "This essay is too long." Ann Segrave Lewes, East Sussex (From The Guardian 18/7/2026)
Black and white photo soldiers carry a casualty on a stretcher from the back of a motor ambulance, behind a sign over a doorway reads Triage.
Book cover Juliet Gardiner Wartime Britain 1939-45, photo of little girls on rubble of Anderson shelter.
Black and white photo of about 10 shirtless soldiers parading in front of a hut. Most are small and physically underdeveloped.
Black and white photo of woman with tray labelled France’s Day.
Elephant with mosaic decoration, Windsor Castle in background. https://trunksacrossthethames.co.uk
What vexes me now about my earlier account of a nascent lesbian subculture in modern Britain is that—from the very start-I believed I knew more about female sexuality in the 1920s than the individuals I was researching; equally troubling was my inattentiveness to the purpose of my history writing. Extract from Laura Doan, Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality, and Women's Experience of Modern War (2013).
Terraced houses, one has a Norwegian flag.
Video of a pond in Windsor Great Park at sunset, a deer and her fawn are in the water.
Side of a box of tomatoes: THE HERITAGE TOMATO COLLECTION A CAREFULLY CURATED RANGE OF HERITAGE TOMATOES
Black and white photo soldiers and civilian women stand in a street with scattered debris.
Black and white photo army doctor and orderlies treat wounded man illuminated by electric light.
Hi, I'm a history teacher and I'm taking my students to the Lochnagar Crater in October. I just wanted to say thanks so much for your detailed research on this and for making it freely available, it has really brought my understanding to life and will help no end in being a tour guide to the students. I've been several times but felt I needed to know more and your website has really helped. Thank you!
Engraving of entrances in brick rampart, sandbags and soldiers in front.
Black and white photo nighttime view of rockets firing into the air. Caption info from Imperial War Museum photos H 21130, H 21141.