Terry Stiastny
@terrystiastny.bsky.social
Author of Believable Lies, a story of wartime propaganda and fake news, out in June from WH Allen. Discussing politics and more on Times Radio and Monocle Radio. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/452994/believable-lies-by-stiastny-terry/
Pinned
BOOK NEWS! It’s a true story of wartime fake news, with secret radio stations, huge political rows, intrigue and scandal. It’s also a serious look at the risks you run when you create deliberate lies. My first non-fiction book, BELIEVABLE LIES is out in June.
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
This description from Bruce Lockhart (a lush himself) was pretty on point:
December 19, 2025 at 10:41 AM
This description from Bruce Lockhart (a lush himself) was pretty on point:
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
I read somewhere that the secret key to postwar British history is that in any incident, meeting, whatever, there’s a high chance that most participants are a bit tipsy and someone round the table is absolutely steaming drunk.
Happy 79th anniversary to this diary entry from Evelyn Waugh, in which he drinks enough to make you wonder how he lived for a further 19 years:
December 19, 2025 at 10:19 AM
I read somewhere that the secret key to postwar British history is that in any incident, meeting, whatever, there’s a high chance that most participants are a bit tipsy and someone round the table is absolutely steaming drunk.
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
Rob Reiner: the guy who directed that film you love. A short piece about one of the greatest runs of terrific movies from any director in the history of cinema.
thecritic.co.uk/than...
thecritic.co.uk/than...
December 15, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Rob Reiner: the guy who directed that film you love. A short piece about one of the greatest runs of terrific movies from any director in the history of cinema.
thecritic.co.uk/than...
thecritic.co.uk/than...
Imagine my delight when I got a long, seemingly personal email praising my book and its ‘real depth of moral inquiry’.
Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a probably AI-written offer to sell me ‘strategic Goodreads placement’.
Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a probably AI-written offer to sell me ‘strategic Goodreads placement’.
December 15, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Imagine my delight when I got a long, seemingly personal email praising my book and its ‘real depth of moral inquiry’.
Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a probably AI-written offer to sell me ‘strategic Goodreads placement’.
Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a probably AI-written offer to sell me ‘strategic Goodreads placement’.
Boy, the holidays are rough. Every year I just try to get from the day before Thanksgiving to the day after New Year's.
December 15, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Boy, the holidays are rough. Every year I just try to get from the day before Thanksgiving to the day after New Year's.
Student home for the holidays = The Tiger who came to Tea
December 13, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Student home for the holidays = The Tiger who came to Tea
So does this mean Joanna Trollope worked for the IRD? @rorycormac.bsky.social what do you think? Perhaps we could have had Joanna Trollope the spy writer?
December 12, 2025 at 3:02 PM
So does this mean Joanna Trollope worked for the IRD? @rorycormac.bsky.social what do you think? Perhaps we could have had Joanna Trollope the spy writer?
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
Have YOU been missold a podcast appearance? Were you promised book sales or a seat in the upper chamber? You might be entitled to compensation! Call PodcastLawyers4U TODAY!
Still waiting for my ermine, going to make an official complaint.
December 11, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Have YOU been missold a podcast appearance? Were you promised book sales or a seat in the upper chamber? You might be entitled to compensation! Call PodcastLawyers4U TODAY!
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @terrystiastny.bsky.social and Simon Brooke on that tin-eared bit of Irish government comms and the day's other stuff, and Monocle's Lily Austin meets "A House Of Dynamite" screenwriter Noah Oppenheim. monocle.com/radio/shows/...
Ukraine and the EU finalise a fresh peace plan to present to Trump - Monocle
Ukraine prepares to show a revised peace plan to the US – what will Donald Trump make of it? Then:...
monocle.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @terrystiastny.bsky.social and Simon Brooke on that tin-eared bit of Irish government comms and the day's other stuff, and Monocle's Lily Austin meets "A House Of Dynamite" screenwriter Noah Oppenheim. monocle.com/radio/shows/...
This is beautiful:
‘There was rage and pain and iron in him’: Patrick Marber on the great hits – and fond smokes – he had with Tom Stoppard
‘There was rage and pain and iron in him’: Patrick Marber on the great hits – and fond smokes – he had with Tom Stoppard
The director worked with theatre colossus Tom Stoppard on two smash hits. Here, he remembers their heated rehearsals, the night they stayed up watching Jaws – and the last four cigarettes they smoked together
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:10 PM
This is beautiful:
Miss Mariah, the pub cat, disdains you.
November 30, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Miss Mariah, the pub cat, disdains you.
PSA: tickets for the Arcadia production at the Old Vic still available, opens in January. You can have this info now that I’ve booked mine.
November 30, 2025 at 9:58 AM
PSA: tickets for the Arcadia production at the Old Vic still available, opens in January. You can have this info now that I’ve booked mine.
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
The Observer: Tom Stoppard 1937-2025 #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 29, 2025 at 10:39 PM
The Observer: Tom Stoppard 1937-2025 #TomorrowsPapersToday
Remembering this day when at the first preview of Leopoldstadt, a man shuffled in to the empty seat in the row behind me just before the curtain went up. It was Tom Stoppard. And glad that I took the chance to shake his hand and thank him for his work.
November 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Remembering this day when at the first preview of Leopoldstadt, a man shuffled in to the empty seat in the row behind me just before the curtain went up. It was Tom Stoppard. And glad that I took the chance to shake his hand and thank him for his work.
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter
The playwright Tom Stoppard, whose playful erudition dazzled the theatregoing world for decades, has died aged 88.
One of a select band of writers from any discipline to earn his own adjective – “Stoppardian” – in the Oxford English Dictionary, he delighted in the most improbable juxtapositions: philosophy and gymnastics in Jumpers (1972); early 19th-century landscape gardening and chaos theory in Arcadia (1993); rock music, dissident Czech academics and the love poetry of Sappho in Rock ’n’ Roll (2006). Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
For anyone who now has an extra hour this afternoon and would like to read about the pre-‘disastrous budget leak’ career of Hugh Dalton: www.penguin.co.uk/books/452994...
Believable Lies
The true story of the the misfits and mavericks who waged psychological warfare against the Nazis
September, 1939. While Britain hovered on the brink of the Second World War, a team of unlikely and i...
www.penguin.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 12:19 PM
For anyone who now has an extra hour this afternoon and would like to read about the pre-‘disastrous budget leak’ career of Hugh Dalton: www.penguin.co.uk/books/452994...
Reposted by Terry Stiastny
Modular reactors scrapped, to be replaced by hooking generators to Hugh Dalton's grave
November 26, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Modular reactors scrapped, to be replaced by hooking generators to Hugh Dalton's grave
*Flicks quickly to pp 55-6*
November 26, 2025 at 12:05 PM
*Flicks quickly to pp 55-6*
Hello to all my new followers. I’m not sure how you’ve found me but good to see you. Expect sardonic comments and weird British political references as well as some history x
November 20, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Hello to all my new followers. I’m not sure how you’ve found me but good to see you. Expect sardonic comments and weird British political references as well as some history x
Is the Christmas dress code this year ‘1980s Laura Ashley’, because it certainly seems like it in the shops.
November 19, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Is the Christmas dress code this year ‘1980s Laura Ashley’, because it certainly seems like it in the shops.
‘They say Islington is coming up.’
‘It is, they’ve turned the greengrocer’s into an antique shop and the pub does salad.’
Prick Up Your Ears, Alan Bennett
‘It is, they’ve turned the greengrocer’s into an antique shop and the pub does salad.’
Prick Up Your Ears, Alan Bennett
November 13, 2025 at 8:18 PM
‘They say Islington is coming up.’
‘It is, they’ve turned the greengrocer’s into an antique shop and the pub does salad.’
Prick Up Your Ears, Alan Bennett
‘It is, they’ve turned the greengrocer’s into an antique shop and the pub does salad.’
Prick Up Your Ears, Alan Bennett
Ah, the Book Tokens game. Love being reminded of great books like The Fruit Blanket and The Seasonal Holidays.
November 13, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Ah, the Book Tokens game. Love being reminded of great books like The Fruit Blanket and The Seasonal Holidays.
Calling for a full independent inquiry and resignations over why I can’t reliably get BBC Sounds to play on my laptop.
November 10, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Calling for a full independent inquiry and resignations over why I can’t reliably get BBC Sounds to play on my laptop.