Dr Francis Young
@drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
Historian of religion and belief | folklorist | Balticist | indexer | lay canon @stedscath.bsky.social | series editor for @universitypress.cambridge.org
Pinned
Many people think they know what fairies are. Francis Young's book demonstrates that the truth about belief in fairies is far stranger than clichéd images of wings and wands.
Get 25% off @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social's 'Fairies: A History' from Waterstones. Details ⬇️
waterstones.com/book/fairies...
Get 25% off @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social's 'Fairies: A History' from Waterstones. Details ⬇️
waterstones.com/book/fairies...
You can now pre-order my forthcoming book ‘Fairies: A History’ with a discount code at @waterstones.bsky.social! 📚
Illustrations from ‘The Gates of Horn’ (1926) by Bernard Sleigh, a novel about a fictional Fairy Investigation Society that inspired the creation of the real Fairy Investigation Society 🧚♀️ #ostension
November 11, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Illustrations from ‘The Gates of Horn’ (1926) by Bernard Sleigh, a novel about a fictional Fairy Investigation Society that inspired the creation of the real Fairy Investigation Society 🧚♀️ #ostension
This is such nonsense, Athanasius Kircher wrote a whole book about them showing that they are living creatures
November 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
This is such nonsense, Athanasius Kircher wrote a whole book about them showing that they are living creatures
Reposted by Dr Francis Young
In St Mary's Church, Stottesdon, the medieval sedilia (stone niches where the clergy could sit during mass) are decorated with faces. The carving below is thought to depict the Devil.
#Medieval #Churches #Churchhistory #Shropshire #Folklore #Devil
#Medieval #Churches #Churchhistory #Shropshire #Folklore #Devil
June 29, 2025 at 7:40 AM
In St Mary's Church, Stottesdon, the medieval sedilia (stone niches where the clergy could sit during mass) are decorated with faces. The carving below is thought to depict the Devil.
#Medieval #Churches #Churchhistory #Shropshire #Folklore #Devil
#Medieval #Churches #Churchhistory #Shropshire #Folklore #Devil
I’m delighted that ‘Silence of the Gods’ is one of
@universitypress.cambridge.org's Books of the Year! Currently on display at @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social, and on special offer online too: www.cambridgebookshop.co.uk/products/sal... 📚
@universitypress.cambridge.org's Books of the Year! Currently on display at @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social, and on special offer online too: www.cambridgebookshop.co.uk/products/sal... 📚
November 10, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I’m delighted that ‘Silence of the Gods’ is one of
@universitypress.cambridge.org's Books of the Year! Currently on display at @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social, and on special offer online too: www.cambridgebookshop.co.uk/products/sal... 📚
@universitypress.cambridge.org's Books of the Year! Currently on display at @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social, and on special offer online too: www.cambridgebookshop.co.uk/products/sal... 📚
£90 for a Barabi-Chan the Baltic forest mushroom pin badge on Ebay, when will affordable merch become publicly available? Asking for a friend
November 10, 2025 at 3:09 PM
£90 for a Barabi-Chan the Baltic forest mushroom pin badge on Ebay, when will affordable merch become publicly available? Asking for a friend
Reposted by Dr Francis Young
Now that's what I call news.
Somerset church tomb collapse exposes 1700s stone crypt
The church says it is currently unclear whether the collapse has damaged any surrounding graves.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Now that's what I call news.
Reposted by Dr Francis Young
Is this a golden age of sculptures of, and by, women?
Licoricia of Winchester, Jewish business women (d. 1277) & her youngest son, Asser. Sculpture by Ian Rank-Broadley, Jewry Street, Winchester (Hampshire) installed in 2022. Photo: Pat Goodall / Art UK.
Licoricia of Winchester, Jewish business women (d. 1277) & her youngest son, Asser. Sculpture by Ian Rank-Broadley, Jewry Street, Winchester (Hampshire) installed in 2022. Photo: Pat Goodall / Art UK.
November 9, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Is this a golden age of sculptures of, and by, women?
Licoricia of Winchester, Jewish business women (d. 1277) & her youngest son, Asser. Sculpture by Ian Rank-Broadley, Jewry Street, Winchester (Hampshire) installed in 2022. Photo: Pat Goodall / Art UK.
Licoricia of Winchester, Jewish business women (d. 1277) & her youngest son, Asser. Sculpture by Ian Rank-Broadley, Jewry Street, Winchester (Hampshire) installed in 2022. Photo: Pat Goodall / Art UK.
TIL a member of my church who I’ve been talking to for years is a Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling author 🤯
November 9, 2025 at 11:48 AM
TIL a member of my church who I’ve been talking to for years is a Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling author 🤯
Reposted by Dr Francis Young
The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!
November 8, 2025 at 7:20 AM
The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!
This eldritch marshmallow entity is the worst Christmas decoration I’ve seen so far this year
November 8, 2025 at 4:35 PM
This eldritch marshmallow entity is the worst Christmas decoration I’ve seen so far this year
I found the shamanic gonks
November 8, 2025 at 4:26 PM
I found the shamanic gonks
And even if there was one, he wouldn’t be in it would he?
PLEASE DO NOT ASK STAFF WHERE DRACULA’S GRAVE IS THERE ISN’T ONE.
Iconic sign from St Mary’s Church next to Whitby Abbey. I love that people think Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a real person/vampire who lived and died in Whitby.
Iconic sign from St Mary’s Church next to Whitby Abbey. I love that people think Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a real person/vampire who lived and died in Whitby.
November 8, 2025 at 11:33 AM
And even if there was one, he wouldn’t be in it would he?
Tbh I still have my doubts whether even this pay package would buy you a 2-bed in Zone 1 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Quiz: How big is one trillion?
Can you fathom the scale of Elon Musk's pay rise?
www.bbc.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Tbh I still have my doubts whether even this pay package would buy you a 2-bed in Zone 1 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
👀 Extremely excited to see Aleksander Pluskowski has a new history of the Baltic Crusades coming soon with @yalepress.bsky.social ⚔️✝️ yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
The Black Cross - Yale University Press London
A wide-ranging new history of the Baltic Crusades and their legacy Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, crusading armies unleashed a relentles...
yalebooks.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 4:31 PM
👀 Extremely excited to see Aleksander Pluskowski has a new history of the Baltic Crusades coming soon with @yalepress.bsky.social ⚔️✝️ yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
Reposted by Dr Francis Young
The Ipswich Portal on the Corn Hill. You can step through it into the streets of Vilnius.
Not really. But we can see them, and they can see us. Give us a wave!
(I've reposted this, edited on a PC, because the one I edited on my phone got labelled as 'AI generated content'.
Not really. But we can see them, and they can see us. Give us a wave!
(I've reposted this, edited on a PC, because the one I edited on my phone got labelled as 'AI generated content'.
November 7, 2025 at 12:50 PM
The Ipswich Portal on the Corn Hill. You can step through it into the streets of Vilnius.
Not really. But we can see them, and they can see us. Give us a wave!
(I've reposted this, edited on a PC, because the one I edited on my phone got labelled as 'AI generated content'.
Not really. But we can see them, and they can see us. Give us a wave!
(I've reposted this, edited on a PC, because the one I edited on my phone got labelled as 'AI generated content'.
Somehow safeguarding goes out of the window when it comes to trendy technologies that it would simply be Luddite not to allow into every aspect of our lives
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Somehow safeguarding goes out of the window when it comes to trendy technologies that it would simply be Luddite not to allow into every aspect of our lives
TIL the Primary Chronicle of Rus’ blamed the Mongol conquest of Kyiv on divine punishment for ‘trumpets and clowns’ 🎺🤡
November 7, 2025 at 12:30 PM
TIL the Primary Chronicle of Rus’ blamed the Mongol conquest of Kyiv on divine punishment for ‘trumpets and clowns’ 🎺🤡
Why has no-one published a book of Hertfordshire ghost stories called ‘Lost Herts’
November 7, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Why has no-one published a book of Hertfordshire ghost stories called ‘Lost Herts’
It's weird that the small Roman town between Lackford and Icklingham (Camboritum) isn't on any known Roman road
November 6, 2025 at 8:13 PM
It's weird that the small Roman town between Lackford and Icklingham (Camboritum) isn't on any known Roman road
My daughter very much wants a Blue Peter Badge, so I wondered aloud if she could wear mine on the right hand side like the campaign medals of a deceased relative
November 6, 2025 at 5:11 PM
My daughter very much wants a Blue Peter Badge, so I wondered aloud if she could wear mine on the right hand side like the campaign medals of a deceased relative
Reposted by Dr Francis Young
Do share! The Catholic Historical Society of Ireland’s annual conference is on Daniel O’Connell and his Legacies - 22 Nov in @dculibrary.bsky.social - all welcome! (Small fee on the day) @nmireland.bsky.social @nlireland.bsky.social @jdmccafferty.bsky.social www.eventbrite.ie/e/oconnell-a...
O’CONNELL AND HIS LEGACY
Join us to celebrate the life and enduring impact of O'Connell and his legacy at our upcoming event!
www.eventbrite.ie
November 6, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Do share! The Catholic Historical Society of Ireland’s annual conference is on Daniel O’Connell and his Legacies - 22 Nov in @dculibrary.bsky.social - all welcome! (Small fee on the day) @nmireland.bsky.social @nlireland.bsky.social @jdmccafferty.bsky.social www.eventbrite.ie/e/oconnell-a...
What the Royal Family could do is lure Andrew into an RC church and hire a private detective to photograph him walking in on an RCIA class or something; with plausible evidence of conversion, even if he denied it, he could be removed from the succession www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...
November 5, 2025 at 8:12 PM
What the Royal Family could do is lure Andrew into an RC church and hire a private detective to photograph him walking in on an RCIA class or something; with plausible evidence of conversion, even if he denied it, he could be removed from the succession www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...
In my area people gather on the highest point of ground to watch the fireworks go off - and since we’re in the Fens you can see them a long way off 🎆🎇
November 5, 2025 at 7:40 PM
In my area people gather on the highest point of ground to watch the fireworks go off - and since we’re in the Fens you can see them a long way off 🎆🎇
I don’t want to be *that Guy*, but…
November 5, 2025 at 6:08 PM
I don’t want to be *that Guy*, but…
There should be the odd sporadic complaint fired off as dusk is falling, with complaints being registered in both organised and more reckless forms during the evening, culminating in a spectacular volley of complaining emails to the council around 9pm
The most British headline I've seen in a long time.
November 5, 2025 at 5:19 PM
There should be the odd sporadic complaint fired off as dusk is falling, with complaints being registered in both organised and more reckless forms during the evening, culminating in a spectacular volley of complaining emails to the council around 9pm