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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One of the joys of accumulating old books (‘collecting’ would be too grand a word) is that they often belonged to interesting people. This copy of ‘The Five Jars’ by M. R. James once belonged to the naturalist Ian Heslop en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hes... 📚

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Dr Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

'It has been a long time coming, and eagerly awaited by many, and in this year of the 90th anniversary of James’s death, it does justice to the man and does not disappoint.' @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social on FOR THE DEAD REMEMBER: THE LIFE OF M.R.JAMES by Darryl Jones @oxfordunipress.bsky.social

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Julia Lundman 🩵🧚🦄🧌 @paintkatt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Picked up @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social books at the Cambridge Bookstore just now. Magic in Merlin’s Realm, Twilight of the Godlings, and Silence of the Gods. Essentials. Looking forward to reading these soon.

Books: Magic in Merlin’s Realm, Twilight of the Godlings, and Silence of the Gods

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Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

29th September is the Feast of St Michael and All Angels. Here is a prayer to St Michael BL Egerton MS 1139; The 'Melisende Psalter'; 1131 CE-1143 CE; Eastern Mediterranean (Jerusalem); f.205r @blmedieval.bsky.social

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The British-Lithuanian Society’s next event will be an online talk from Sandra Petrukonytė, Chief Curator at the Lost Shtetl Museum on 22 October. Please email blssecretary@hotmail.com if you would like to receive a Zoom link

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Darryl Jones @profdarryljones.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hem hem. A seriously gratifying review from someone who really knows what they’re talking about.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This week over on ‘All Old Strange Things’ I take a look at ‘Astercote’ (1970), the first of Penelope Lively’s remarkable novels for children about the past returning to haunt the present 📚 drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/return-to-...

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Mary B @beesincampanula.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A Suffolk time slip this week: in October 1926, Miss Ruth Wynne, a teacher,walked to Bradfield St George, with a pupil. Near Bradfield’s church they passed the high walls and wrought iron gates of a grand Georgian house - but the next spring on the same walk the house had vanished. #SpookySunday 🧵

The village sign is a millennium project crafted by Gedding Hall Forge. It features St George as its main theme, portrayed alongside local rural elements in wrought iron silhouette.

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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

if you say "The Museum of English Rural Life" three times in a mirror, nothing happens. but if you speak it a fourth time, a man in a smock appears and asks you to incant the poem on the side of this rather menacing jug

harvest festival jug featuring a rather spooky sunshine design

the reverse of the jug, featuring a poem. it reads: "Harvest is come all
busy now in making
of the Barley mow if
you the Barley mow
neglect of Good ale you
can not then expect"

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I've just finished translating Book II of Jan Radwan's Radivilias (the national epic of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), so my translation is now 54% complete! It may be a Latin poem in hexameters, but it's a text of intense contemporary political relevance 📜⚔️🇱🇹

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I certainly didn’t have the Russian Communist Party emerging as a doughty defender of democracy on my bingo card

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

From 18 October there will be a new exhibition at the Museum of Cambridge devoted to folklore (and supported, among others, by the @folkloresociety.bsky.social)

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

What do you call a sad Polish clown? Pierrótg.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

For The Booksellers Remember My Pre-Order (eventually). Can’t wait to get stuck into this! 📚 @profdarryljones.bsky.social

Front cover of Prof Darryl Jones’s new biography of M.R. James

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just signed a contract to write for a new Arden Shakespeare volume with @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social - more in due course! 📚🧚‍♀️

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Oxford Lifelong Learning, University of Oxford @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk · 22/09/2026

Congratulations to @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social, tutor on our Diploma in English Social and Local History, whose book, Silence of the Gods, has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize! 🎉 Find out more about Silence of the Gods: buff.ly/I2Wrsll

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It feels satisfying Barthesian that CUP congratulates my book rather than me in its announcement of the Wolfson shortlistings on fb

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

In the surest sign of success in life I have made my LOCAL PAPER 😂https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/people/peterborough-author-shortlisted-for-top-award-with-ps50000-top-prize-9090929

peterboroughtoday.co.uk

Peterborough author shortlisted for top award with £50,000 top prize

A Peterborough author has been shortlisted for a top literary award – with a £50,000 top prize on offer for the winner.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Although not quite as bad as writing a book with AI, this kind of contempt for writing a book *as a worthwhile activity in itself*, in the desperate desire to get ‘content’ into print, shows how we got to the point where using AI to write a book is deemed OK

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Trying to read a book that appears to be assembled from an audio transcription of the author’s podcast, what fresh hell is this

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Pipa💙 @pipapipia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The beautiful Romanesque bell tower of the Benedictine Abbey of Cuixà. Northern Catalonia.🤎

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Cambridge University Press @universitypress.cambridge.org · 17/09/2026

'Silence of the Gods' by Francis Young has been shortlisted for the 2026 @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social Prize. 🎉 The #WolfsonHistoryPrize is the UK’s most prestigious history writing prize, recognising books that combine the highest quality of research with readability. 🔗 cup.org/4xXRN3d

The image shows a promotional poster for the Wolfson History Prize 2026. It features the book "Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan Peoples" by Francis Young.

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cambridgebookshop.bsky.social @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We're thrilled that @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social has been shortlisted for the 2026 @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social with 'Silence of the Gods'! ⭐ We're honoured to have hosted the book launch in our bookshop last June. 📚 Congratulations Francis, we're all rooting for you! #WolfsonHistoryPrize! 👏

Two men, Alex Wright and Dr Francis Young, stood either side of a window display at Cambridge University Press Bookshop, with a selection of books by Dr Francis Young, and large sticker text across the window reading "Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan Peoples. Francis Young"

Books displayed on the top of a bookshelf include "Twilight of the Godlings," "Magic in Merlin's Realm," and "Silence of the Gods," all by Francis Young. A potted plant is in the background.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It’s incredible to have ‘Silence of the Gods’ shortlisted for @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social, and I’m so pleased that the largely forgotten history of northern and eastern Europe’s last pre-Christian religious traditions is finally receiving the attention it deserves 📚

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St Edmundsbury Cathedral @stedscath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

We have set up a prayer station as the search continues here in Suffolk for Noah. You are welcome to come and light a candle.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I’ve just been elected to the Council of the Folklore Society! Wassailing bowls all round 🍻

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Today I realise there is a Latin verb, 'ceveo', for which 'twerk' is actually a pretty literal translation

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I can't decide whether this is an infelicitous acronym or a wholly appropriate one, given the relative poverty and obscurity of the field of modern Pagan studies paganstudies.com

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Serene @serenegoose.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

finished "Fairies: a history" by @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social . I read a woefully small amount of non-fiction but I got a lot out of this without feeling overwhelmed or completely out of my depth. Excellent stuff.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

‘Three books, one author: Baltic paganism in the Anglosphere’. Huge thanks to Vilius Mėdžius for this heroic review of all three of my books on Baltic religion for the journal Naujasis Židinys-Aidai! 📚 nzidinys.lt

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Over at 'All Old Strange Things', this week's post is about the Mermaid of Zennor 🧜‍♀️ drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/z-is-for-z...

drfrancisyoung.substack.com

Z is for Zennor

Folklore and religion in a Cornish village

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The imminent demise of the internet from AI bot swarms should have us treasuring our online lives. Don’t waste a moment getting distracted offline. Write those hot takes you always wanted to. Don’t let your account die without telling FuhrerLover88 what you really think of him &c

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It was great to speak at Moyse’s Hall Museum this evening about the cult of St Edmund in the Norse world 👑🏹🐺🇳🇴🇸🇪🇩🇰

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

What in the name of all that's holy is THIS 🤢

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

In the early modern Grand Duchy of Lithuania people wrote Latin epic poems about everything, seemingly with the ease someone might knock out a TikTok today. Here's The Iosaphateid, a 1628 epic by Iosaphat Isakowicz about the martyrdom of St Josaphat

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Richard Wells @slipperyjack.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

During last year's dance I accidentally captured a video in slow mo. This time I made a point of it, got loads of videos like this! Crank up the volume for full effect, the child's triangle rendered a clang of doom...

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I have a new (open access!) chapter out, ‘Competing Ethnographies of the Pagan Baltic’, in a volume about learned Latin ethnographies of Northern Europe edited by Per Pippin Aspaas, Anna Fredriksson and Andreas Klein. Free to download! brill.com/edcollchap-o...

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This October I'll be returning to Vilnius University to speak at a conference on medieval and early modern hagiography; my paper is on Nicolaus Hussovianus's 1525 poem On the Life and Deeds of St Hyacinth (incidentally, the patron saint of weightlifters...) 🇱🇹🏋️‍♂️🪻

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Every time I see AI-generated imagery it feels like my soul has died slightly, so I now tend to avoid looking at images at all on social media in case I see slop. The deluge of slop is debasing the currency of the visual image itself.

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

In a new free post on 'All Old Strange Things' I look at a strange Decadent house overlooking the Isle of Wight, and a very particular moment in the history of British architecture... drfrancisyoung.substack.com/p/in-the-hou...

drfrancisyoung.substack.com

In the House of Pan

A Decadent house on the Solent

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This looks extremely interesting! 📺

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Ritterton here and elsewhere! @ritterton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Have 16 min left in my #onehourread having finished #WhatsNext. So keys start @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social #FairiesAHistory and see where this on takes me. #onehourreads #Fairies #Fey

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I’m pleased to say I have been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, so I am now officially an Antiquary and have to have a Cabinet of Curiosities, embark on ill-advised investigations of barrows, and write ghost stories 🪔 👻

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

At @royalacademyarts.bsky.social Richard Dadd; Beyond Bedlam. Fantastic. Being “insane” & incarcerated didn’t stop Dadd being an outstanding illustrator of botany. From imagination, memory, printed flora, observation in Broadmoor’s garden? Who knows? Perhaps a mix of all. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Gosh this is bad, even by the standards of the AI-generated fake book marketers who flood my inbox several times a day 😂

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