iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

#histbookchat No new book this week but decided to pick 9 histories/biographies that left me thinking 'wow!' when I got to the end! Second choice photo not great but it is Faust's Metropolis, Alexandra Richie's astonishing history of Berlin pubbed in 1999, 1000+ pages of brilliant writing!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#histbookchat #sinology Many thanks to exhausted editor extraordinaire @shoumojitb.bsky.social for letting me loose in The Perfect Voice again: China, Corruption, the PLA, and a murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel! www.theperfectvoice.in/post/corrupt...

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#histbookchat #sinology New arrival! Inside China's Secret Prisons by Orville Schell from @columbiaup.bsky.social as supplied by Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who, through the years, has kept many a poor young man chained up in her bookshop...

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#histbookchat Great essay from Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social on the dystopian fiction of J.G. Ballard and war-torn Shanghai!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#histbookchat #PhotoFriday Some more fiction from me today. Rich man loses his daughter to heroin and then decides to take revenge on the dealers.... The Spoilers by Desmond Bagley (1969)

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#histbookchat some #truecrime from me today for #PhotoFriday The Murders at White House Farm by Carol Ann Lee (2015) - a deep dive into darkest Essex!!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#histbookchat #PhotoFriday Some fiction for the weekend!! A Tradition of Victory by Alexander Kent (1981) - It is 1801 and after 8 years of war there is a rumour of a peace between Britain and France....

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

#histbookchat Sorry I missed #PhotoFriday but exciting new arrival! A Dangerous Game: Thomas Cochrane's Life on the Edge by Peter Moore (2026) as supplied by award-winning businesswoman Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who has always known what to do with a spanker

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

#histbookchat #PhotoFriday my offering this week is the new biography of the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa by Gerald Martin (2026) from @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#histbookchat #PhotoFriday some more fiction from me: The Vivero Letter (1968) - an antique gold tray, a dull accountant, and the hunt for a lost Mayan city - what's not to love?

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

#histbookchat #sinology I'm a big fan of Yuri Pines (loved his book The Eternal Empire) so very excited to get hold of a copy of China's Aristocratic Age (2026) as supplied by Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social - the Duchess of Dromore herself #China #history 1/2

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#histbookchat It's September 1800 and Rear-Admiral Bolitho takes command of the Inshore Squadron for dreary blockade duty - but all the cold sea lanes are heading toward Copenhagen!! #fiction #BookSky 💜📚

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

#histbookchat #PhotoFriday My pick this week is the latest from Frank Dikotter! I like the cover of this one!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

#histbookchat #sinology My choice this week is A Murder in Yunnan by David Leffman from Blacksmith Books - it's 1875 and a British diplomat, Augustus Raymond Margary, is murdered on the remote China-Burma border. A bad luck encounter with bandits, or were complex geopolitics involved?

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

#histbookchat #sinology new release!! Laughter, Humor (spelt wrong), & Comedy in Middle Period China, 600-1300 ed. by Alexei K. Ditter & Xiao Rao (2026) open access which is great coz £155 😬 www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

#histbookchat Latest read!! Geologist Bob Boyd has lost his memory in an accident and there are people who want it to remain that way!! 😲 #thriller #amreading Landslide by Desmond Bagley (1967) #BookSky 📚💜

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

#histbookchat #sinology I was thinking about those people in HK detained for selling the wrong kind of book, so this week's choice is Treason By The Book by Jonathan Spence - my lovely 1st ed from 2001 - which tells the story of the Emperor Yongzheng & a 'police state' from long ago

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

#histbookchat #sinology #PhotoFriday my pick this week is a great collection of essays on China from Perry Link : The Anaconda in the Chandelier (2025)

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

My latest piece for The Perfect Voice written under the ever-watchful gaze of @shoumojitb.bsky.social on the history of surveillance in China...👀 #histbookchat #sinology www.theperfectvoice.in/post/the-par...

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Another thriller to help me cope with the heat!! LOL #histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜A hijacked plane and a desperate fight for survival in the bitter cold of the Andes - High Citadel (1965) #fiction

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Since it's the US's 250th birthday tomorrow for #PhotoFriday #histbookchat I thought I'd post one of my favourite biographies - many bios of Abe but very few about Jeff Davis. Thankfully, in all 800 pages + of this book, William J. Cooper Jr writes like an angel. Amazing book!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

some fiction to cope with the heat today #histbookchat thought I should take myself off for a thrilling ride across the ice fields of Iceland!! Running Blind by Desmond Bagley (1970) #BookSky 📚💜

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

New arrival!! The Cambridge Companion to Song China edited by Cong Ellen Zhang (2026) from @universitypress.cambridge.org as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who has more Chinese history books than you can shake a shaman's rattle at! #histbookchat #sinology 1/3

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

#histbookchat #sinology My rather long review for @asiancha.bsky.social of In Search of Green China by Ma Tianjie - a fantastic book but not without a few curious omissions Highly recommended Many thanks to Tammy @myetcetera.bsky.social for her sublime editing skills and her belief in dragons!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

#histbookchat #photofriday my offering today is an old-school thriller from 1966 - great fun!!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

#histbookchat #law #sinology #PhotoFriday A new arrival for this week!! Very happy to get hold of a copy of the recently published Chinese Law by @donaldcclarke.bsky.social

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

#histbookchat #sinology New arrival! The Broken China Dream by Minxin Pei (2026) from @princetonupress.bsky.social as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who has broken many a young man's dream

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Wasn't sure what to post today for #PhotoFriday #histbookchat but I was inspired by @halma.bsky.social to show off some post-WW2 Indian history. This book about the Sino-Indian border war of 1962 has been on the shelf for years and I am yet to get to it! China's India War by Bertil Lintner (2018)

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

#histbookchat #PhotoFriday Writing a book review at the moment (not of this book) and had to refer back to Judith Shapiro's classic from 2001 - always liked the cover of this book. Reminds me of some of yours... 😂@milhistreader.bsky.social

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

#histbookchat #sinology many thanks to editor extraordinaire @shoumojitb.bsky.social and The Perfect Voice, Mumbai for letting me write on China and the environment: The Greening of China www.theperfectvoice.in/post/the-gre...

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Bit late with #PhotoFriday #histbookchat Finally starting Marine Raider by Stephen Platt (2025)! #sinology

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Very sad news #histbookchat #RIP Philip Caputo - wrote one of the best war memoirs ever, A Rumor of War

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Exciting new arrival!! To Rule All Under Heaven (2025) by Andrew Seth Meyer as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who really believes that she rules all under Heaven! 😮 #sinology #histbookchat

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

#histbookchat About to write a piece on ecology soon and I'm thinking of Rachel Carson whose book, Silent Spring (1962), is considered by David Attenborough to have changed the scientific community the most after The Origin of Species - this #biography from 1997, Linda Lear

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

#histbookchat Research for novel!! By Ma Tianjie (2025) Hoping to write a review for @asiancha.bsky.social in a couple of weeks!!

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

#histbookchat I've been slowly working my way through the Alexander Kent Richard Bolitho novels. This is book 6 (in chronological order) - Sloop of War (1969) - it is 1778 and the Sparrow is just off the coast of America 😮 Fantastic stuff!! #BookSky 📚💜

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

#histbookchat Just in case anyone missed this! Great conversation with Bernard Cornwell and Sean Bean re Sharpe! www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCLe...

youtube.com

Sharpe's Confession, with Sean Bean & Bernard Cornwell

YouTube video by The Napoleonic Wars Channel

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Latest arrival!! Stalin's Apostles: The Cambridge Five & the Making of The Soviet Empire by Antonia Senior as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social code name 'Chocolate Fairy' #spy #histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

#histbookchat My aunt, who lived in Italy for years, thought I needed to read more Italian literature so she sent me this!! Looks like lots of fun!

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Reposted by Laurence Westwood

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal @asiancha.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

𝐍𝐄𝐖—Recalling childhood memories in a Xinhua Bookstore, X.H. Collins connects early reading experiences to an adult engagement with Zheng Liu's 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠 (Columbia University Press, 2026). She reassesses assumptions about politics, commerce, and culture. ⧉ chajournal.com/2026/04/06/l...

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Reposted by Laurence Westwood

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal @asiancha.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

𝐗𝐇 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬, in her upcoming essay for @asiancha.bsky.social: "Some of my earliest memories were formed in my father’s workplace, specifically on the wooden floor beneath the counters of a Xinhua Bookstore..." 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, read Laurence Westwood's essay: chajournal.com/2026/03/25/c...

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

#histbookchat #sinology Latest arrival!! The Wall Dancers by Yi-Ling Liu (2026) @yilingliu95.bsky.social from @ithakapress.bsky.social as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who, if all the old Irish folk tales are true, does a little dance every time she sells a book...

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Reposted by Laurence Westwood

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal @asiancha.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 # 𝟑 𝟐𝟎 - 𝟐𝟕 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social interweaves memoir and critique in his reading of Zheng Liu’s 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠. He acknowledges the study’s breadth but questions its reticence on political constraint. ⧉ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: chajournal.com/2026/03/25/c... 。。。。。

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Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

#histbookchat #photofriday Reading The Craft: How The Freemasons Made the Modern World by @johndickie.bsky.social (2020) This is great! Learning so much....

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