iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I was not expecting to be doing 8 weeks of physiotherapy.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Roll up, roll up, it's me again on BBC Oxford's Secret Oxfordshire, chatting (v. quickly!) about Deptford's 1880s middleweight boxing legend + '90s puma puncher... The Greatest Showman, Professor Alf Ball! Meet Alf in my book, THE DEVILS' DANCE FLOOR, next February 🥊🦁 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

bbc.co.uk

Secret Oxfordshire - St Giles' Greatest Showman - BBC Sounds

The story of a showman who knew how to draw a crowd at St Giles' Fair

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Booked in for post crash physiotherapy.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Yesterday I was rear ended when stationary at traffic lights. Injured but could have been worse, will need physio sessions. Car I was in is likely a write-off. Today was treat time. Hojicha 9 Layer Bingsu. Happy to report it was very nice. Shared with friend due to it being massive.

A bowl with a very large mound of what looks like light brown bobble hat but is black sugar syrup, hojicha ice cream, hojicha sauce, bingsu(shaved ice), mini mochi balls, biscuit crumbs, condensed milk, and grass jelly.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Very very tall and on stilts. The green man at the Manchester Caribbean Carnival parade. #Manchester #UK #Carnival

A very tall green person in a flowing light green outfit .

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I'm on a bus. Dripping wet due to unexpected rain for the 20 minute walk to the bus stop.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

If the voter turnout was any lower for the Greater Manchester mayoral election, you could probably win just by having a lot of friends vote for you. Not actually true but feels like it.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I'm going to see a total solar eclipse in Northern Spain next month ! Feeling very giddy. Flight out booked, not booked a flight back yet ! Hoping for, ahem, blue skies.

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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Today may be the 90th anniversary of the Wienermobile. According to some unreliable sources (and the semi-reliable HuffPo), the first one rolled off the production line at the General Body Assembly plant in Chicago on 18 July 1936 🧵 www.huffpost.com/entry/my-rid...

1960s or 70s colour photo of a weinermobile – a yellow/beige car/truck chassis with a huge sausage-shaped body mounted on it. The car says ‘yellow band weiners’ on the side, and the disconcertingly red sausage has a yellow band on it that reads Oscar Mayer

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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

On graduating medical school, Arthur Conan Doyle drew himself waving a diploma over his head with a caption: "Licensed to Kill." My book SLEUTH-HOUND is about Doyle's professor, Joseph Bell, who became the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Available for preorder: linktr.ee/drlindseyfitzharris

A simple doodle of Conan Doyle holding his diploma and jumping joyously in the air. The caption reads: Licensed to Kill

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Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

This is your occasional reminder that Agatha Christie wasn't just the bestselling crime writer of all time but also she had a surfboard called Fred

A black and white photograph of Agatha Christie as a young woman standing on a beach in front of a surfboard which has the name Fred written on it.

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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Today's the day! 3 pm EST (that's 8 pm if you're in the UK, like me)! And I have a very special surprise for attendees. Please join me, and bring your questions! Let's chat.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

You never see Mr Blobby and Count Binface in the same room at the same time.

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

If Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by election because he did lots of bus stuff - and I think aside from Covid that’s genuinely a source of a lot of his popularity - I will be expecting my peerage in the post 🚌

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, and Grubb.

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Lucy Betteridge-Dyson @lmbd1418.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Some military historians like to sneer at my study of equines in war. It says more about them than they realise. Animal history isn’t a soft option - it’s a methodologically rigorous field that forces us to interrogate how humans have used, exploited, and depended on non-human actors across 1/3

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I'm on the second best seat on the double decker bus. Top front left. In the 5 minutes of the journey so far, we've narrowly missed two cars, two sets of bollards round corners, and a large yellow tram. He really likes the bus horn. #bus

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I'm on a bus and it's gone on a long diversion to the usual route. I am traffic. #Bus

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FieldExplores (Gator Days) @fieldexplores.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

When August Met... (Part 1/4) - Gator Days

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Late night trip to the art dead drop. Not my art, I just drop it off. #art

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auntietiffa.bsky.social @auntietiffa.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Everybody knows that Pupper just won Downhill Gold

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

The Doll Tree never fails to horrify. I see it when I least expect it. #Horror #Tree #Dolls #Manchester

The upper part of a birch tree trunk with another to the right and many smaller branches in the background. The trunk is part covered in green moss, and has two plastic baby dolls climbing up it. One is wearing a previously white onesie that is now covered in moss. Out of shot are more dolls and parts of dolls climbing up the tree.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I've been finding art in a local forest for over 6 months. Some disappear, others are transformed or they are taken by the forest. New ones are still appearing. #SilentSunday #Forest #Art

A drinks coaster size slice of a tree branch painted blue/green with an abstract pink/white embroidery over the top. It is hanging on a tree branch in a forest.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

A cold snap followed by some mild weather has caused the local pigeon tree to bloom much too early. #Birds #Pigeons #Trees #Manchester #Parks #UK

A tree with a blue cloudless sky. The tree is a little less than 10 metres tall. The branches have no leaves on as it's winter, and the branches are full of pigeons.

Close up view of a lot of pigeons on a tree

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

I managed to get to the Santiago Yahuarcani exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester before it closes in a few days. Fascinating, disturbing, uplifting, and hypnotic. I liked it a lot. www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/exh...

whitworth.manchester.ac.uk

Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge | Whitworth Art Gallery

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Christmas Tradition sorted. Will be watching The Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve.

A dvd of The Muppet Christmas Carol. The cover has a red background and shows Kermit, Miss Piggy and Robin.

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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Fabric stall, Stockport market, 1976-77, photo by Heidi Alexander.

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Orkney Library & Archive @orkneylibrary.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The Plough and the #NorthernLights over Stromness this evening. #Orkney

Houses with lights on and a green glow from the Northern Lights overhead. The stars of The Plough are visible in the sky

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Moving 700+ shellac records from one house to another, then another house a week later was pretty much as tough as I expected. I didn't weigh them, but I'd guess around 100kg and bulky. #78rpm #78s #Music #Records

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

1960s/70s German desiccant. Found in a 1971 Triumph Adler Tippa typewriter made in Holland. #Typewriters

A tall rectangular white paper bag with German writing on.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Very floody on my short walk back from the supermarket a few minutes ago. I could not have been wetter if I'd jumped I to the River Irwell. #Manchester #Weather #Rain

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

It's been a "Captain it's Wednesday" sort of week. Friday to Sunday I was almost run over each day in the centre of Manchester, and I'm very careful crossing roads, but the cars were not moving when I crossed. Two of them decided to reverse toward me!

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

It's UK Black History Month. Resharing @lanre-bakare.bsky.social's article from Feb! The stories of Black boxers in 1880s England are missing from every boxing history or Black British history I've read. But there are LOTS! Feel privileged to help find them: www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

theguardian.com

From racist bans to lion-tamer fighters: the wild history of Britain’s unsung Black boxing superstars

A Thousand Blows, the knockout new drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, puts Victorian-era boxer Hezekiah Moscow in the spotlight. But it doesn’t even begin to do justice to the astonishin...

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Tube Mapper- Luke Agbaimoni @tubemapper.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Under Over Over - West Hampstead So it's taken a while, but I've finally found a location where you can clearly see London Underground trains traveling over London Overground trains. The vantage point is at West Hampstead Overground station at the end of the platform.

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

This post has reached the daftness threshold and so replies now turned off.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Plane landed in Bolton and will now fly along the A666 toward Manchester. Top Pun calling the eatery Steaks On A Plane. share.google/OyZm5DHWUspp...

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Seconds out! Round one! THE DEVIL'S DANCE FLOOR This isn't an official announcement from Duckworth. It's a page from my agent's newsletter and book fair rights catalogue, which is public. So, a tiny-text soft launch? Details subject to change. A lot of thank yous and less Disney, to come. 🐻🥊👊🏾👊🏻🦁🍺

Page from literary agency Curious Minds rights guide for Frankfurt Book Fair etc. Alongside a photo of me looking slightly drunk and a lot hostile, it says, in tiny font:

NEW DEALS
AGENT - Eli Keren
PUBLISHER - Duckworth
PUBLICATION - Spring 2027
STATUS - Manuscript due April 2026
LENGTH - 80,000 words
RIGHTS SOLD
World English (Duckworth)
The Devil’s Dance Floor
Late-Victorian London and the Last Bareknuckle Boys
SARAH ELIZABETH COX
An 1880s’ group biography of the last of Britain’s
bareknuckle boxers from the historical consultant behind
A Thousand Blows (Disney+/Hulu)
THE DEVIL’S DANCE FLOOR is the first popular book from Sarah Elizabeth Cox,
the historical consultant behind Steven Knight’s television series A Thousand Blows
and author of the historical blog ‘Grappling with History’.
A group biography of Victorian boxers, THE DEVIL’S DANCE FLOOR is a cultural
history that does far more than recount the true story behind the fictionalized
version now streaming. Taking a narrative approach, Cox charts the decline of
bareknuckle boxing over the 1880s, and, in doing so, explores subjects ranging
from policing and healthcare to the press and entertainment – all while offering a
personal-scale view of the melting point of Victorian London (think Hallie
Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper but
with a lot more getting punched in the face).
The subjects themselves hail from as far afield as London’s East End and the North
to the United States and the Caribbean. Each has a unique story to tell and reveals
something not only about our shared history but also about the world we live in
today.
Sarah Elizabeth Cox was a historical consultant on season one and two of Steven Knight's
1880s’ boxing and crime TV drama A Thousand Blows. She researches biographies of
Victorian and Edwardian boxers and wrestlers for her website ‘Grappling with History’ and
works as the British Science Association’…

1888 portrait of boxer Hezekiah Moscow, a slim Black or Black/East Asian mixed heritage man, taken by Harry Carpenter. He is shirtless, fists raised, wearing white tights and a chequered sash at the waist. There are painted palms on the studio backdrop.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

A feature I wrote for the print issue of BBC History Magazine earlier this year is now online! Introducing Alf Ball, Hezekiah Moscow, Henry 'Sugar' Goodson, the Sisters Mills and Jem Smith 🦁🥊🤜🏻🤛🏾 Steven Knight not going straight for that chapel fight is wild... www.historyextra.com/membership/f...

historyextra.com

From a lion-taming lightweight to the Muscular Maids: 5 Victorian boxing sensations you need to know about

Sarah Elizabeth Cox introduces the pugilists who punched their way into Britons’ affections during the dying days of bare-knuckle prize-fighting

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Update on the possessed rocking horse. I survived the night.

Side view of the head of a rocking horse. It is off white, and looks very rough.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I've just helped collect & deliver a large rocking horse that looks like it has been possessed by at least one demon or ghost.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Not posted for a while. Panics. Posts crows. #Crows

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Happy Friday! It's a shame it's not 1888 and we're in Leamington, because I'd suggest popping to the circus tonight for wrestling on horseback, normal boxing, and BOXING ON DONKEYS. Plus tug of war etc Hahahaha, boxing on donkeys. Slightly more sophisticated than boxing with donkeys, admittedly.

Faded copy of a story from Banbury Guardian in 1888, detailing a Gymnastic Display at the circus as a benefit for Professor H. Walker. There was a good attendance, the programme included horizontal and trapeze performances, sword exercises and boxing, wrestling on horseback, boxing on donkeys and a tug of war between volunteers and yeomanry.

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Tony Wells @tonyjwells.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Busy day but I met my crow friend again.

A carrion crow on a muddy path looking toward the camera.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

You know when you have about ten subscription services but can't find ANYTHING to watch? People in 1894 never really had that problem, because whatever you were looking for, if you couldn't find it, there was always the option of a woman cutting up potatoes on a man's wrist, neck, and throat (?) ⚔️🥔🫳

Screengrab of an 1894 Oxfordshire newspaper article about the performers at a Sept 1894 fairground. Miss Norah is drscribed as exceedingly strong, honoured with the title of the female Jem Mace. It adds "her principal feats were cutting potatoes, with a sword, on a man's wrist, neck and throat, and carrying with her teeth a barrel with a man seated on the top.

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