Matthew Kilburn
@matthewkilburn.bsky.social
Freelance writer, editor and consulting historian - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Doctor Who Magazine - and Alzheimer's carer. Ex-History of Parliament, also liable to write about North-East England and Oxford as well as television.
Here is Buttons from next door asserting her right to my mother's orthopaedic chair.
September 17, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Here is Buttons from next door asserting her right to my mother's orthopaedic chair.
(You might appreciate this map detail:)
August 14, 2025 at 9:18 AM
(You might appreciate this map detail:)
Editor: Biddy Baxter. One of the first television credits I noticed. Farewell to someone with a distinctive understanding of what the modern British childhood should and could be.
August 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Editor: Biddy Baxter. One of the first television credits I noticed. Farewell to someone with a distinctive understanding of what the modern British childhood should and could be.
Evaluating illustrations of Hadrian’s Wall by Ron Embleton.
August 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Evaluating illustrations of Hadrian’s Wall by Ron Embleton.
In London for Target Book Club 2025 tomorrow. Today, the sun - tomorrow, the deluge (of rain and facts and reminiscences of Doctor Who books old and new).
July 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
In London for Target Book Club 2025 tomorrow. Today, the sun - tomorrow, the deluge (of rain and facts and reminiscences of Doctor Who books old and new).
In which Doctor Who fans fond of a character played by Christopher Benjamin in a 1977 story (etc.) realise where Robert Holmes might have found his character's name. Henry Gordon Jago, music hall impresario, translated from the real and now late football manager Gordon Harold Jago, perhaps.
July 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
In which Doctor Who fans fond of a character played by Christopher Benjamin in a 1977 story (etc.) realise where Robert Holmes might have found his character's name. Henry Gordon Jago, music hall impresario, translated from the real and now late football manager Gordon Harold Jago, perhaps.
I loved The Phoenix and the Carpet on television. My dad bought the book for me one evening after diverting into Newcastle city centre after work. However, this wasn't the TV tie-in edition but an earlier one with a cover adapted from one of the original line illustrations.
July 13, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I loved The Phoenix and the Carpet on television. My dad bought the book for me one evening after diverting into Newcastle city centre after work. However, this wasn't the TV tie-in edition but an earlier one with a cover adapted from one of the original line illustrations.
The first of the new batch of Doctor Who novelizations through the letterbox is Scott Handcock's Empire of Death. Presumably this means Sutekh is supreme, as in Pyramids of Mars 4.
July 8, 2025 at 1:15 PM
The first of the new batch of Doctor Who novelizations through the letterbox is Scott Handcock's Empire of Death. Presumably this means Sutekh is supreme, as in Pyramids of Mars 4.
Frank Graham's 1974 edition of volume 4 of John Hodgson's History of Northumberland (1840). Very much brought into the Graham list, with a new introduction by Eric Birley and jacket illustration by Ron Embleton.
June 27, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Frank Graham's 1974 edition of volume 4 of John Hodgson's History of Northumberland (1840). Very much brought into the Graham list, with a new introduction by Eric Birley and jacket illustration by Ron Embleton.
Back at the Lit and Phil.
June 25, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Back at the Lit and Phil.
A curious paragraph in today's Times report on the waning fortunes of Kemi Badenoch. Something is evidently thought to be up with Oliver Dowden - a job incompatible with remaining an MP, perhaps - but they don't speculate what.
May 24, 2025 at 8:23 AM
A curious paragraph in today's Times report on the waning fortunes of Kemi Badenoch. Something is evidently thought to be up with Oliver Dowden - a job incompatible with remaining an MP, perhaps - but they don't speculate what.
Just through the door - Toby Hadoke's book on the making of The Quatermass Experiment. Extraordinary detail, including contributions from a real life Quatermass.
May 8, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Just through the door - Toby Hadoke's book on the making of The Quatermass Experiment. Extraordinary detail, including contributions from a real life Quatermass.
"No cheating, your last saved celeb pic is your therapist."
April 5, 2025 at 9:40 AM
"No cheating, your last saved celeb pic is your therapist."
The Covid-19 pandemic has a sort of half-life, seen here at 55 Broadway, London.
April 4, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The Covid-19 pandemic has a sort of half-life, seen here at 55 Broadway, London.
Perhaps this literary figure, Thomas Gwynn Jones (1871-1949) inspired the new name for WHSmith's High Street business. Or perhaps not.
March 28, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Perhaps this literary figure, Thomas Gwynn Jones (1871-1949) inspired the new name for WHSmith's High Street business. Or perhaps not.
My copy came on Wednesday (pictured with another purchase which arrived at the same time):
March 21, 2025 at 5:07 PM
My copy came on Wednesday (pictured with another purchase which arrived at the same time):
Anthony Read calls the theme of the season 'the quest for the Key to Time' in TARDIS 3/5, Sept/Oct 1978:
March 15, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Anthony Read calls the theme of the season 'the quest for the Key to Time' in TARDIS 3/5, Sept/Oct 1978:
An ingeniously coloured print of the City of Durham from the 1770s - or Ron Embleton for Newcastle publisher Frank Graham in the 1970s? I'll be speaking on their collaboration and other Frank Graham works, mainly on Roman Britain, at the Durham Centre for Classical Reception, Thursday 13 Mar, 5pm.
March 12, 2025 at 11:50 PM
An ingeniously coloured print of the City of Durham from the 1770s - or Ron Embleton for Newcastle publisher Frank Graham in the 1970s? I'll be speaking on their collaboration and other Frank Graham works, mainly on Roman Britain, at the Durham Centre for Classical Reception, Thursday 13 Mar, 5pm.
Some upper-tier women's publications on their way at the British Newspaper Archive: Englishwoman's Review 1871-1909 (1910 is there already), English Woman's Journal 1858-1861, Ladies' Field 1899-1919, 1921-1928, Lady's Pictorial 1881-1908, 1910-1921, and The Queen, 1874, 1918-1945, 1947-1960, 1962.
February 26, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Some upper-tier women's publications on their way at the British Newspaper Archive: Englishwoman's Review 1871-1909 (1910 is there already), English Woman's Journal 1858-1861, Ladies' Field 1899-1919, 1921-1928, Lady's Pictorial 1881-1908, 1910-1921, and The Queen, 1874, 1918-1945, 1947-1960, 1962.
It seems from this newsletter that Guy Opperman might intend to contest Hexham again for the Conservatives, despite losing it to Labour's Joe Morris at last year's general election.
February 18, 2025 at 11:58 AM
It seems from this newsletter that Guy Opperman might intend to contest Hexham again for the Conservatives, despite losing it to Labour's Joe Morris at last year's general election.
While I can't solve the ills of the world being aired here, I can share a picture of the cat next door, Buttons.
February 1, 2025 at 11:27 PM
While I can't solve the ills of the world being aired here, I can share a picture of the cat next door, Buttons.
An admission from me; but if I ever knew that one Barbara Clegg had written the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article on Sir John Moores, I had assumed this was a business historian with the same name as the Doctor Who writer, not the same person. Wrong. (Not my commissioning area...)
January 22, 2025 at 11:08 PM
An admission from me; but if I ever knew that one Barbara Clegg had written the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article on Sir John Moores, I had assumed this was a business historian with the same name as the Doctor Who writer, not the same person. Wrong. (Not my commissioning area...)
An addition to my small collection of Other Works by Doctor Who writers...
January 22, 2025 at 11:34 AM
An addition to my small collection of Other Works by Doctor Who writers...
So sorry to see this - she pops up a lot in Oxford student magazines in the mid-1940s. Here she is in Isis, 7 May 1946.
January 11, 2025 at 1:52 PM
So sorry to see this - she pops up a lot in Oxford student magazines in the mid-1940s. Here she is in Isis, 7 May 1946.