Dr Alastair Dunn
@alastairdunn.bsky.social
European | Edinburgh-born | Deputy Head | Teacher | Historian of the Middle Ages | Northern Renaissance | Romanesque sculpture | Peasants’ Revolt | victory to Ukraine
Returning to Lubeck after 21 years. It’s still a jewel but the Hanse Museum in its current form is extraordinary. They have done with data what The Mary Rose museum has done with artefacts. It’s extraordinary.
October 29, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Returning to Lubeck after 21 years. It’s still a jewel but the Hanse Museum in its current form is extraordinary. They have done with data what The Mary Rose museum has done with artefacts. It’s extraordinary.
Gorgeous spring day in the Nene valley
April 27, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Gorgeous spring day in the Nene valley
Just heard a fascinating interview with @maxhess.bsky.social on Times Radio. This has completely changed my understanding, like reading Tooze’s ‘Wages of Destruction’ for the first time. I need to read Hess’s book.
Maximilian Hess (@maxhess.bsky.social)
Founder - Enmetena Advisory, Fellow @FPRI & @IISS_org. Eurasia, political economy, sanctions, international affairs, debt & sovereignty.
Buy my book Economic War: Ukraine & The Global Conflict Betwe...
maxhess.bsky.social
April 3, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Just heard a fascinating interview with @maxhess.bsky.social on Times Radio. This has completely changed my understanding, like reading Tooze’s ‘Wages of Destruction’ for the first time. I need to read Hess’s book.
Reposted by Dr Alastair Dunn
The Donne Triptych, a triptych altarpiece by Hans Memling now in the National Gallery, London. It contains portraits of Sir John Dwnn [Donne] of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire d. 1503, his wife Elizabeth and a daughter.
March 13, 2025 at 9:26 PM
The Donne Triptych, a triptych altarpiece by Hans Memling now in the National Gallery, London. It contains portraits of Sir John Dwnn [Donne] of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire d. 1503, his wife Elizabeth and a daughter.
Interesting to see an EDC back on the agenda. Caused massive division in France in the early 1950s when last debated. The Assemblee National hugely polarised and the A de T leadership not happy to be in uniform alongside their former occupiers. Its time might now have come though….
February 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Interesting to see an EDC back on the agenda. Caused massive division in France in the early 1950s when last debated. The Assemblee National hugely polarised and the A de T leadership not happy to be in uniform alongside their former occupiers. Its time might now have come though….
All that remains of Simon de Senlis’ motte and bailey castle at Fotheringhay, later rebuilt as a favourite residence of the dukes of York; birthplace of Richard III 1452. Mary Queen of Scots executed here Feb 1587. I wonder if the weather was bleak like today.
February 15, 2025 at 11:40 AM
All that remains of Simon de Senlis’ motte and bailey castle at Fotheringhay, later rebuilt as a favourite residence of the dukes of York; birthplace of Richard III 1452. Mary Queen of Scots executed here Feb 1587. I wonder if the weather was bleak like today.
Today in international diplomacy we witnessed a betrayal on the scale of August 1939.
February 12, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Today in international diplomacy we witnessed a betrayal on the scale of August 1939.
As I turn 50 I remember the optimism of listening to BBC Radio Four ‘From our own correspondent’ and reading Newsweek and believing in a brighter world to come. Am a child of the Gorbachev years.
February 10, 2025 at 11:00 PM
As I turn 50 I remember the optimism of listening to BBC Radio Four ‘From our own correspondent’ and reading Newsweek and believing in a brighter world to come. Am a child of the Gorbachev years.
Reposted by Dr Alastair Dunn
NIGEL: ...all the way up. You’re on ten on your guitar...where can you go from there? Where?
MARTY: I don’t know....
NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do?
MARTY: Put it up to eleven.
MARTY: I don’t know....
NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do?
MARTY: Put it up to eleven.
January 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM
NIGEL: ...all the way up. You’re on ten on your guitar...where can you go from there? Where?
MARTY: I don’t know....
NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do?
MARTY: Put it up to eleven.
MARTY: I don’t know....
NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do?
MARTY: Put it up to eleven.
This is my twenty-first year of teaching the collapse of German democracy and the rise and fall of Hitler. It has never felt more relevant.
January 20, 2025 at 8:44 PM
This is my twenty-first year of teaching the collapse of German democracy and the rise and fall of Hitler. It has never felt more relevant.
As the son of two print journalists, who worked at a time of higher ethical standards, I am so saddened by the takeover of this estate by autocrats and dirty money at a global level.
December 24, 2024 at 8:01 PM
As the son of two print journalists, who worked at a time of higher ethical standards, I am so saddened by the takeover of this estate by autocrats and dirty money at a global level.
Returning to #TwoDoorsDown. Doon Mackichan and Elaine C Smith knocking every line out of the park.
December 24, 2024 at 4:46 PM
Returning to #TwoDoorsDown. Doon Mackichan and Elaine C Smith knocking every line out of the park.
/‘well so could anyone’
December 23, 2024 at 11:42 PM
/‘well so could anyone’
Layers of history at Jimena de La Frontera - Roman, Moorish and Christian.
December 18, 2024 at 7:42 PM
Layers of history at Jimena de La Frontera - Roman, Moorish and Christian.
Reposted by Dr Alastair Dunn
"Research from the Centre for Economic Performance, a think tank based at the London School of Economics, said Brexit led to a 6.4 per cent drop in the UK’s global exports and a 3.1 per cent decline in imports into the UK from the rest of the world."
UK exporters suffer £27bn hit from Brexit
Smaller companies bore the brunt of trade barriers with the Continent as trade in services remains resilient
www.thetimes.com
December 18, 2024 at 6:53 AM
"Research from the Centre for Economic Performance, a think tank based at the London School of Economics, said Brexit led to a 6.4 per cent drop in the UK’s global exports and a 3.1 per cent decline in imports into the UK from the rest of the world."
I started teaching in secondary education 2003 with no teaching qualifications, basically ignoring pedagogical guidance until c2013. The current orthodoxy would suggest that my students were not disadvantaged by this. But I increasingly feel that the tyranny of data & ‘impact’ impoverishes learning.
December 15, 2024 at 7:18 PM
I started teaching in secondary education 2003 with no teaching qualifications, basically ignoring pedagogical guidance until c2013. The current orthodoxy would suggest that my students were not disadvantaged by this. But I increasingly feel that the tyranny of data & ‘impact’ impoverishes learning.
Just finished watching the BBC adaptation of #TheMirrorandTheLight This was done so well. Mantel’s original was treated with respect, although not slavishly, and there was none of the cosplay vibe that so easily comes with Tudor period drama on TV.
December 15, 2024 at 5:56 PM
Just finished watching the BBC adaptation of #TheMirrorandTheLight This was done so well. Mantel’s original was treated with respect, although not slavishly, and there was none of the cosplay vibe that so easily comes with Tudor period drama on TV.
22 years ago I was disappointed to leave university teaching having failed to secure a permanent job. Looking at the sector now, I realise it was a very lucky escape.
December 14, 2024 at 11:04 PM
22 years ago I was disappointed to leave university teaching having failed to secure a permanent job. Looking at the sector now, I realise it was a very lucky escape.
Warming myself like something out of the Tres Riches Heures
December 14, 2024 at 9:05 PM
Warming myself like something out of the Tres Riches Heures
Last day of a job that was very challenging at times, but with an amazing team. Have learned more in adversity than from smoother seas. Don’t be put off by a job where you have to climb aboard a burning deck. It will stretch and strengthen you. Excited by new role in Jan. Always learning (I hope).
December 13, 2024 at 7:48 PM
Last day of a job that was very challenging at times, but with an amazing team. Have learned more in adversity than from smoother seas. Don’t be put off by a job where you have to climb aboard a burning deck. It will stretch and strengthen you. Excited by new role in Jan. Always learning (I hope).
One of the joys of being on this site as a teacher is not having to listen to Edu influencers telling me not to do things that I already knew to be self evidently pointless, and then telling me to do things that I was already doing anyway. (And then trying to sell me the book of the tweet.)
December 11, 2024 at 8:42 PM
One of the joys of being on this site as a teacher is not having to listen to Edu influencers telling me not to do things that I already knew to be self evidently pointless, and then telling me to do things that I was already doing anyway. (And then trying to sell me the book of the tweet.)
I have bought ‘On Freedom’ because I greatly enjoy Tim Snyder’s writing but also because, in a very small way,I want to support his mission.
December 8, 2024 at 3:41 PM
I have bought ‘On Freedom’ because I greatly enjoy Tim Snyder’s writing but also because, in a very small way,I want to support his mission.