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Lesley Pitman

@lesleypitman.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.4K following 1.5K posts

Librarian at large. Chair of CILIP ILIG. Used to be a Slavonic librarian. Posts a random mix of libraries, Russia, food (gluten free) and the joys of life in Tooting. hcommons.org/members/lesleypitman

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Reposted by Lesley Pitman
Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 11h
The people holding up the internet sheets.works/data-viz/holding-up-th…
sheets.works
The people holding up the internet
Four billion phones ask one text file what time it is. One lecturer keeps it in his spare time. We counted the rest.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
If you care about the British Library, consider applying to join the Board! apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/9596?n...
apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk
Appointment details – British Library up to x7 Board Members – Apply for a public appointment – GOV.UK
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I started following when they posted something very interesting about my current home town, and now I am doubly rewarded.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
One reason I still love social media, despite, well, everything. This appeared in my feed this morning. It is the town where I grew up, filmed a few years before I was born. More rural before the mass housing programme, but still recognisable. There were still horses in my street when I was a child.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Thank you so much for sharing this. A real treat for me. I grew up on one of those rural streets a few years later, although it wasn’t as rural then. This must precede the big post war housing programme. I remember there being horses though. Wonderful.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
His book says just that the story was inspired by Maugham. That could mean anything. It is a straightforward reproduction of his plot, updated. I am not sure readers would know that.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Quite apart from everything else Jeffrey Archer did in what journalists have been calling his complicated life, there is the matter of his short story, the Luncheon. Paying tribute to Somerset Maugham is one thing, nicking his plot is another.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
As Nick later says he "WAS" the Tory Mayoral candidate and indeed it was as a result of running for the gig that he was ultimately brought to justice. This wasn't "a thing that happened"
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yes indeed I'm rather tiring of the coverage... a convicted perjuror who brazenly lied his way through life and continued to attend the House of Lords even as this poor woman's life fell apart.
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Stephen Graham @stephengraham.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I had this bit about Jeffrey Archer from the 1995 HIGNFY video memorised for whenever I needed a handy fact about him.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
“When the Russians occupy, the first thing they do – and we know this from the areas that were occupied and then liberated in 2022 in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions – is to go to the libraries, take the Ukrainian language books out and destroy them.”
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Incinerated novels and destroyed warehouses: Russia’s war on Ukrainian books
theguardian.com
Incinerated novels and destroyed warehouses: Russia’s war on Ukrainian books
A Ukrainian publishing boom sparked by the 2022 invasion is now under threat from the force and frequency of Russian attacks
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Their story is here ajr.org.uk/journal-high...
ajr.org.uk
Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and the 'Winton Children' - AJR
Ever since his part in the rescue of
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Following Esther Rantzen’s sad death that very moving clip with Nicholas Winton is being widely shared again, and the myth grows that he was a lone hero. If you admire him, as you should, please also remember Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick, Beatrice Wellington, and their colleagues.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Yes, so good that he was recognised in the end. Of course he was long dead when Nicholas Winton became famous.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I always have to take a breath when I see this story, as it is not the full truth. He did a great thing, but never claimed to work alone. He worked with Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and others, who took much greater risks in Prague, while he was in London. Their story is largely forgotten.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Local primary school just came out, and our front door bell rang. Nobody there, but two little figures running off down the road. I didn’t know knock down ginger was still a thing.
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The Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Academy of Sciences in Kyiv 🙏🇺🇦
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Is nobody talking to the French? No coalition of the willing? I think Europe is aware that the US might not step up.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I am two episodes into Wargame, watching largely through my fingers (Gove!). I have questions. It is oddly devoid of context. What happened to Ukraine? Surely the Baltic would be next? There are lots of easier ways of attacking the UK than using expensive missiles. And where is the rest of Europe?
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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
An excellent&long overdue essay on British (lack of) resilience, explaining just how dependent the UK is on circumstances it cannot guarantee itself, and why protecting your security means a lot more than to just spend more money on arms (although that is necessary, too). www.ft.com/content/ba80...
ft.com
How resilient is Britain?
As climate and geopolitical risks cast doubt on the UK’s ability to cope in a crisis, leaders are turning from ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’ as a governing philosophy
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R @liburghal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"Generic White Man" is the most common cause of failure in this.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Oh this is mortifying.
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Dr Nazlin Bhimani @nazlinbhimani.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Some good news – a new library! Shakespeare’s Globe has opened a new public library and archive holding more than 6,000 books, original texts, recordings of productions and other treasures from the theatre’s history. www.thebookseller.com/news/shakesp... #Shakespeare #TheatreHistory #Renaissance
thebookseller.com
Shakespeare library and archive containing 6,000 books opens under the Globe theatre
The theatre has opened its newly renovated research and collection centre, which features London’s only publicly accessible dedicated Shakespeare library and archive
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I so hope that today’s news is good news for the BL, but it is just sad that yet again it is someone with no background in libraries or the cultural sector. Can we really not come up with anyone suitable? Thoughts with the staff today.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Even more true for those with life threatening allergies, of course. Is there any coordinated work on this, @lucygobag.bsky.social?
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Any other coeliacs quietly stocking up on food you can safely eat? And that you might actually enjoy? This advice doesn’t quite work for us, and seems a little puritanical. There are many good things to say for chocolate, but one is that it keeps well. And in an emergency I will need treats.
bbc.co.uk
What food items should you stock up on in case of an emergency?
Extreme weather may be changing the way we need to shop, with the UK government urging people to stock up on canned goods.
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible
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Hanna Liubakova @hannaliubakova.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
#Belarus So much happiness today. Among those released are media professionals and not only: Andrei Aliaksandrau, Liudmila Chekina, Iryna Zlobina, Dzmitry Navazhylau, Tatsiana Kuzina, Pavel Belavus. Let's celebrate them & let's keep fighting for everyone who remains behind bars.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
All day Piddington's womminfolk have been telling news how they will be terrified of "hundreds of young men nearby, free to come and go as they please." NOT ONE JOURNALIST has asked: "How did you cope when it was an army base? Who came and went then? Nuns?" Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I hope Andy Burnham takes more than two days off. Two days is not enough, even if you are Prime Minister. Especially if you are Prime Minister.
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
University HR departments really forget what *H* in their name stands for, don't they? This gaming of the rules may be legally correct it definitely isn't morally. Much love to Wolverhampton colleagues and @plashingvole.bsky.social in particular.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This just sounds cruel. Because it is.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It was a very long time ago and the world has changed, but I still remember all the incredibly grand women who subsisted on a lettuce leaf.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
In that job I have a faint memory of being asked what school I went to. That is not a question that most people can answer in a meaningful way. Nobody would have heard of my school, and anyway it has changed identity twice since I went there.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
His mother was Bulgarian.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
That, of course, was the posh kid in question.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Currently seeing all the publicity about the latest series of 7 Up, and amazed anew that by an accident of education I knew the mother of one of the posh kids. We worked in the same organisation, and that job took me into a different and strange world, simply because I learned Russian at school.
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
More evidence of fighting age men swarming uninvited into our towns.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I don’t know what I would do without them, especially the cheese ones.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Classic coeliac lunch today. Small emergency packet of Nairn’s GF cheese oatcakes from the bottom of my bag and a bag of crisps. They had sold out of GF sandwiches. It was 12:10.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Oh dear.
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just keep muttering to myself "he was still trying to solicit another donation during the by election he held to avoid the investigation."
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The moment Reform admitted on camera the “grim reality” is they can’t bag any British donors was the moment I realised how bad it was
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Took them 3 hours, but now it’s their lead story.
bbc.co.uk
Farage senior aide filmed suggesting way to avoid donations law
A film broadcast by Channel 4 shows senior Reform UK figures discussing donations with an undercover reporter.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I wonder if there will be a problem pinning anything on Farage, as that big foreign donation wasn’t real and didn’t actually happen.
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Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
BBC News website quiet so far on the big Channel 4 News scoop. Somebody is having an unexpectedly busy evening checking out what Reform has been up to. I wonder how long it will take.
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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 01/09/2026
This is why we had a whole open access movement. You can't leave this stuff up to the good will of organisations who may take access away at a moment's notice.
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dread & circuses ♥️🖤🤍💚 @likeapen.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
A real gut punch: "If we could not digitize everything in response to the global pandemic when we could not go anywhere, we certainly do not have the time or resources to completely digitize all world cultures before international mass displacements of populations due to climate change."
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