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David Clifford

@djhc2.bsky.social
45 followers 92 following 31 posts

Assoc Professor English, @homertoncollege.bsky.social. Research/writing on origins of language and storytelling.

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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Who else here has a direct relative responsible for purloining the Rosetta Stone from Egypt in 1801? Just me then? open.substack.com/pub/djhc2/p/...
open.substack.com
Origin Stories Object No. 1: The Rosetta Stone
To set this collection apart from more established marques
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Someone in my own family turned out to be responsible for plundering the Rosetta Stone from Egypt! How will I live this down? Origin Stories Object No. 1: The Rosetta Stone substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
Origin Stories Object No. 1: The Rosetta Stone
To set this collection apart from more established marques
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
My forthcoming book, Origin Stories, is all about storytelling. There are quite a few interesting stories that didn't make it into the final draft, so I'm posting some of those up for free on Substack - The Story of Storytelling in 100 Objects. Find out more below. open.substack.com/pub/djhc2/p/...
open.substack.com
The Origin Story of *Origin Stories*
And whether 100 objects to talk about them is likely to be enough
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Philip A. Suggars @philipasuggars.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Everyone likes cheaper books, right? Waterstones are offering 25% off preorders: Enter a London like no other in this fast-paced, captivating fantasy filled with warring gods, alternate realities & a working class kid caught in the middle, for fans of V.E. Schwab & Genevieve Cogman. #fantasybooks
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Richard Strachan @richardstrachan.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Delighted that the paperback of The Unrecovered (pub 9 Oct) is in the Waterstones 25% off pre-order! www.waterstones.com/book/the-unr... Offer runs until 23.59 on Thursday 31st July, enter: SUMMER25 to redeem the offer and receive 25% off on the Waterstones website and app #WPreorder #Booksky
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I have to say, I'm liking my zero-effort wildflower garden as much as the bees seem to be
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
An excellent essay on the politicized orthodoxy of the humanities, alienating academic jargon, and the need for constant, robust scholarly scrutiny. By @ianpace.bsky.social. thecritic.co.uk/we-need-high...
thecritic.co.uk
We need higher standards for academic writing | Ian Pace | The Critic Magazine
At the end of 2024, a short-lived Twitter/X storm raised significant questions about the nature of academic work and public engagement with such work, especially on social media.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
I'm curious about what lay behind the decision to title the UK version of Catherine Nixey's latest 'Heresy' and the US one 'Heretic'. The distinction between two very different words must have mattered to someone. Terrific book, though.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Artist son tells me he's a bit bored, really looking forward to restarting Life Drawing classes. Rather hurt by his response to my offer that I, his mother or his sister could possibly put some time aside to model if it would help 😔
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
And of course, no devotee of Middlemarch can stop by in Rome and not pay a visit to St Theresa (Bernini)
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Ben Smith @mrbensmith.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
fine work being done by the Guardian picture editor today.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
When I was a kid at Sunday school in Essex our church was probably decorated with, at most, illustrations from a Ladybird book showing the Sermon on the Mount, or the Wedding at Cana. In Rome, they have Caravaggios.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Cheers, #ZeroDay. We all knew #WhoKilledBambi was shit and irritating when it came out. It wasn't the earworm I craved 40 years later.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
theguardian.com
‘Impressive, ingenious and affecting’ poem about missing an absent son wins National Poetry Competition
Fiona Larkin’s poem uses Finnish grammar to explore her feelings about her son’s move from the UK to Brisbane
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Cormorant flexing his guns over the Cam just now
Silhouette of black cormorant spreading wings perched high on a tree branch.
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Paintings of London @paintingsoflondon.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
'Girl Writing', St John's Wood (1931) by Harold Knight (Grundy Art Gallery)
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Somehow I was slow to pick up on How to Speak Whale by @tommustill.bsky.social when first out, but delighted to have given it time now. Novel, fascinating and uplifting - with warnings. Beautifully clear writing, Mustill also knows the power of a good metaphor, and of crafting a memorable line.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Rather handsome little egret spotted yesterday, of all places, at Sainsbury's. Probably picking up lunch too, I suppose.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
On a weekend course on Roman /Anglo Saxon archaeology - fabulous late Roman (c.450 CE) pottery samples. The pale marks are where the potter held the pot with her/his fingertips when dipping it in the coloured slip before firing.
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Very sad news - a great scientist (and a great friend)…
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
I have to say, this was not the news I wanted after a lovely evening with students and alum www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...
theguardian.com
Warning: if your name is David, you won’t survive a horror movie
A survey has revealed the most likely characters to be killed off before the end credits. Actors would be ill-advised to take on any Davids, Hollys or Dicks
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Admiration for this guy off the scale www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Michael Sheen buys £1m worth of people's debts
The Hollywood actor has helped 900 people in south Wales with their debts for a new documentary.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Ooh, now THAT'S how to wrap a book! Great job @goldenharebooks.bsky.social. But what's inside..?
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Very moving in many ways www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
A moment that changed me: I was 16, gay and bullied for it. Then my father wrote to the Guardian …
Britain in the 90s seemed to see homosexuality as something shameful. My father told the world how proud he was of me
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Who'd have thought a novel about Hellenic Syracuse told in modern Irish vernacular would be so brilliant and funny? Ferdia Lennon, obviously
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
I think the Society should at least ballot the Fellowship to gauge the strength of feelings about this matter..(and I’m sure they are very strong)…
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Rather lovely sky outside my house right now - Venus and the newest Moon I've seen for some time
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
This looks like a great charity Tesco. But how about this: instead of asking me to round up my £2.20 bill by 80p, how about you reduce my bill by the same amount and donate it yourself?
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Where is Starmer's statement of support for Zelenskyy. No excuses. No equivocation.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
I must say it's AWFULLY nice to have a contract with a publisher to write a book for them! 🍾 But oddly weird as you read into the detail and see the conditions that apply should your still unwritten book be subject to legal action, remaindered, or pulped... 😬
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Atticus Finch (of Georgia) @atticus59914029.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
My favorite Gene Hackman movie is Hoosiers but my favorite Gene Hackman scene is in Mississippi Burning when he literally grabs a racist good ol boy by the … well … sensitive parts. RIP to one of the best ever.
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Whenever I see Musk doing politics he's never seated. Are the rooms deliberately set up for a laugh with one too few chairs, with everyone else rushing in to sit down first, or does the world's richest man suffer from some condition that makes sitting down uncomfortable? Thoughts and prayers if so.
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Bookshelfie ⭐️ @bookshelfie.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
#booksky
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Er, no Amazon
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Ancient DNA Unlocks a Lost Chapter of Human History The genomes belong to Ranis13 and Zlatý kůň. These results offer a glimpse into an isolated population of early H. sapiens that interbred with Neanderthals—but ultimately left no genetic trace in modern populations glassalmanac.com/the-oldest-m...
glassalmanac.com
The oldest modern human genomes ever sequenced - Glass Almanac
In a groundbreaking achievement, an international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has successfully sequenced the oldest known genomes of modern ... Cont...
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David Clifford @djhc2.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
I'm completely charmed by the format of this book! 23.5 x 13.5cm (9.25 x 5.25 in). Tall and slim. Also delighted to read primatology narratives by a fellow 19C English scholar, Mary Sanders Pollock of Stetson Uni, FL. Much looking forward.
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