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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech

@profjasperh-b.bsky.social
288 followers 265 following 515 posts

Maverick historian-archaeologist. Offbeat books include 'What-iffery in History: A Dozen Things That Didn't Happen (But Nearly Did)' and 'Thirty Annoying Things in History'. 'An A-Z of WTFs in History' OUT NOW...

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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 8h
Just started reading a big biography of Sir Edward Grey, Britain's Foreign Sec when World War One began. Yes, the chap who gave us that famous prescient quote... Perfect bedtime reading, being an ideal read when the lamps are about to go out. #History #WorldWarOne #HistoryBooks #Books #GoodReads
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Candle Flame Goes Out - Lights Out
ALT: Candle Flame Goes Out - Lights Out
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Looking forward to the follow-up: Bumps in the Night at Bell End.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
😂😂
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I may have misunderstood what Dr Doug Pitt was saying but I told him that, if he wanted a practor, Cairo seemed an awful long way to go for one.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I always go for archaeologist's tea. It's like builder's tea but a lot older.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Offended someone yesterday during my seminar on co-emperorship in the Severan period. Well, they kept disagreeing with me! We had a bit of a flare-up so I slapped them down by telling them there wasn't a room they could go into without being the least important person in it. Cue big flounce-out!
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Ryan Higa's Dramatic Exit
ALT: Ryan Higa's Dramatic Exit
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
😂Not very invasion-friendly.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Just been to see #Pressure. One of the best history-based films I've ever seen. Inspirational. Emotional. Outstanding. Ignore the mediocre reviews. #NewMovies #NewFilms
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Laughter's the best medicine. But prescription charges still apply.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Essential service!
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
😂😂
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
#Bunkfest latest: barman at the excellent Cross Keys joked that beer's double the price today. I retorted: "that fine, as long as you're doing 2 for 1..." #Wallingford
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Best Morris outfit at #Wallingford #Bunkfest today... Member of the Black Path Border side...
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Fever pitch as we build up to #Wallingford's brilliant #Bunkfest free festival this weekend. Always one of the highest highlights of the year. Folkin' heaven (and much more besides), not the other one.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Just been listening to a great old folky tune apparently written by someone on their deathbed. All the more impressive, seeing as they were apparently a harpist.
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Intensa Arpa en Got Talent España
ALT: Intensa Arpa en Got Talent España
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I think you should be able to book rain for specific days.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The word 'career' has always amused me. In the sense that a term meaning 'the course of one's professional life' also means 'plunge headlong out of control'. In my case, it's probably no coincidence.
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Benjammins Throwing Away Career
ALT: Benjammins Throwing Away Career
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Underrated Historic Towns #1: Wallingford. On the middle Thames in Oxfordshire. Photos: part of the sprawling imprint left by its once-mighty castle; awesome Anglo-Saxon earthworks built as a bulwark against the Danes in the 9th century. #History #Wallingford #castles #Anglo-Saxons
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A rattling good read plus some nifty photography! 🙂
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Delighted to report that exciting things are currently bubbling away over at Weird Wiltshire, the brilliant blog run by epic Emma @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social. I'll be adding insights and experience forged through years of exploring ancient and mysterious sites mainly when it's not raining...
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Lily cat decided I needed just a little bit of help with my jigsaw of Canterbury Castle...
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Cult archaeologist Dr Doug Pitt has just told me he's eating tuna fish for lunch. "Well, Doug," I quipped. "Never forget: you can tuna piano but you can't tuna harpsichord, not without a slightly different set of specialist skills." He seemed slightly confused.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
My humble submission for name of the day, thrown up by my current researches: Tigernomalus, a 7th century Cornish bishop. I do hope it catches on again. #History
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Michael Fisher: That Is A Fantastic Name
ALT: Michael Fisher: That Is A Fantastic Name
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Crikey, it's nearly September and I'm not even used to it being 2025 yet, let alone 2026, and thus nowhere near ready to wrap my head around it being almost 2027...
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Quartz Clock with Thermometer and Hygrometer
ALT: Quartz Clock with Thermometer and Hygrometer
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Emma Weird Wiltshire @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I’m giving my pal, the Professor, a mini-boost here! 😁 If you like slightly bonkers history and lots of humour, this is the book for you (all his books are awesome though)! Give it a try. 📕
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
History. A bubbling, broiling cauldron of processes, forces, movements, events, actions, personalities...and plain-old strange stuff. 'An A-Z of WTFs in History. The Bizarre. The Bonkers. The Barely Believable'. Available from Amazon, or direct from me. #Books #History #HistoryBooks #Weird
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Blimey! Just got back in my car in the car park beside the Barley Mow in Clifton Hampden and the dashboard told me it was 41 Celsius! I'm a Fahrenheit man and that's 106!!! Never experienced anything like it in the UK. #Heatwave
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Paris Hilton: That's Hot
ALT: Paris Hilton: That's Hot
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Never realised the Moon was that shape. #GreatDiscoveries
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Still on the August reading pile: Ben Wilson: Heyday - The 1850s: Dawn of the Global Age Virginia Woolf: A Haunted House & Other Stories Alice Roberts: Domination - The Fall of the Roman Empire & the Rise of Christianity (the period my PhD covered) #Books #History #RomanHistory #VictorianHistory
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Out in the garden playing with my new Flightradar24 app. Just spotted a Dreamliner heading from Mexico City to Heathrow. Definitely makes you want to book a holiday.
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Sara Poyzer as Donna: I Need A Break, I Need A Holiday!
ALT: Sara Poyzer as Donna: I Need A Break, I Need A Holiday!
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I mean, what were the chances of finding a tray as well? The very definition of serendipitous!
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Emma Weird Wiltshire @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Today I headed to Windmill Hill, Avebury, with my intrepid fellow adventurers @profjasperh-b.bsky.social and archeological legend Dr Doug Pitt! We walked, took photos and I tried to do some videos, and we laughed A LOT! Avebury - always good for the soul. 🌞⭐️🌞 #avebury #wiltshire
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I think you mean 'a classic'! 😂😂
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Great day up at #Avebury filming at the Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Windmill Hill with Emma from Weird Wiltshire @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social and cult archaeologist Dr Doug Pitt - here in the magnificent Henge Shop afterwards, trying out some new headgear...
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99-vLj @mstoodley.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Looks like a fun read #BookSky
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
That's very much the intention. It explores a wide array of history's less well known byways in, hopefully, an entertaining, engaging and, above all, accessible way. 🙂
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Reposted by Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech
Emma Weird Wiltshire @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Am I the only one watching devastating wildfires break out across Europe while our governments green light data centres, more fossil fuels and more. Great swathes of materialistic humans building huge monster homes, buying jets and cars that just pollute. And none of them seem to care. ☹️
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Great trip up to the #Proms at the #RoyalAlbertHall yesterday. London Phil. That was the orchestra, not the nickname of the conductor... Excellent Alpine Symphony. I've still got mild vertigo this morning! #BBCProms #ClassicalMusic #BBCRadio3
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
As you know, I do love a library! But I always think the Science section should be divided between books about resistive contact forces and the rest. Friction and Non-Friction. #libraries #science
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Hand Reaching for Book in Library
ALT: Hand Reaching for Book in Library
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
@weird-wiltshire.bsky.social Just for inf - figure of 8, basically, and skipping the Amesbury 42 long barrow (bit too far!).
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Had some queries about the route we take on our #Stonehenge rambles: Visitor Centre; Greater Cursus; Fargo Wood (Monarch of the Plain round barrow); Cursus barrow cemetery; Mesolithic postholes; Stonehenge; King Barrows (refreshment stop); the Avenue; Stonehenge; Visitor Centre. Join us on Aug 6th!
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Stonehenge Architecture
ALT: Stonehenge Architecture
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
To confirm: our delayed #Stonehenge Solstice Stroll will now be on Thursday August 6th. The exact midpoint between Solstice and Equinox!!! Meant to be!!! Care to join myself, Dr Doug Pitt, Emma @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social and others on a 3-hour landscape ramble thru' 10,000 years? Just let me know!
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Meant To Bee: Clam River Honey
ALT: Meant To Bee: Clam River Honey
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Perfect hot weather survival strategy!
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Exactly! "Ten went out...only two came back... And so, a legend was born!" 🤣🤣
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Due to the hot weather (in June!) we've had to postpone Thursday's #Stonehenge landscape ramble. At least the Air Ambulance won't have to pluck cult archaeologist Dr Doug Pitt off Salisbury Plain. Shame, because he'd bought himself a special pair of Solstice flip-flops! @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social
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Cancelled No More! Hot Tub Fun
ALT: Cancelled No More! Hot Tub Fun
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Weather's shaping up PERFECTLY for next Thursday's History Walk 'n' Talk around the inimitable #Stonehenge landscape, with me, Emma @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social and cult archaeologist Dr Doug Pitt. Care to join us and our guests on our solstice-y stroll through 10,000 years of history?
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Really needs to add "OF WINDSOR" to "FREE HOUSE" at the bottom. But the sign stills seems too stiff and dated for these less deferential times we live in. Maybe change to something more informal, e.g. The Royal Oaky-dokey.
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Why not settle down with a nice book? Or this one. #History #Books #HistoryBooks #NewBooks www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GY8C487...
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Breaking news about the Stonehenge walk on June 25! Doug and I will have a VERY SPECIAL GUEST! Emma @weird-wiltshire.bsky.social will join our merry band to add mystery (and a shrewd eye for giftshop nick-nacks) to the history. Still 2 places left! @paulidilge.bsky.social @marikalmuller.bsky.social
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Prof Jasper Heathcoat-Beech @profjasperh-b.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
In the WTF world we find ourselves trapped in, at least we can reflect on the WTF way we got here... #HistoryBooks #NewBooks #Books #History www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GY8C487...
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An A-Z of WTFs in History: The Bizarre. The Bonkers. The Barely Believable. : Heathcoat-Beech, Professor Jasper: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Buy An A-Z of WTFs in History: The Bizarre. The Bonkers. The Barely Believable. by Heathcoat-Beech, Professor Jasper (ISBN: 9798257592089) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delive...
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