Wonderful to be interviewed by the fabulous @midgegillies.bsky.social about ‘Writing Women’s Lives’ tonight, at #CambridgeUni PACE programme.

Huge congratulations to the loveliest #MarinaPalmer aka @imogenrobertson.bsky.social on the publication of #TheLastRetreat! Great night at Bermondsey’s #BootandFlogger as we hit #London from #Passau at 100mph!…

Her photo was taken by the noted photographer #EugeniuszLokajski, aka ‘Brok’, who was killed a month later. Róża & her sister survived, & she died when living in France aged 59. The story of the Warsaw Uprising is told in my book #agentzo .

Róża (Różyczka) Goździewska served as a nurse during the #warsawuprising when she was 8 years old, bringing water to the wounded in a field hospital, 82 years ago (Aug-Oct 1944). Her father had been killed by the Gestapo the year before, & she served alongside a 19yo cousin.

Episode should be out mid-August, presumably when the sun goes down. Obviously they record virtually in the dark, but what a view from the windows by the lift!!

A little bit of side-eye here! Great fun recording @historyhits.bsky.social ‘s #AfterDark pod with the excellent @maddypelling.bsky.social & @anthonydelaney.bsky.social … 1/2

Deckchair break at @bletchleypark.bsky.social in between giving 2, hour-long, talks in the old ballroom to a great audience, & recording a pod, at the first #BletchleyPark Polish Codebreakers Festival… Wonderful to see a #Dakota fly past the house!

I’ll be telling this history at the @wehaveways.bsky.social fest, 11 Sept. If you can’t make it… there’s always the paperback!

Every 20 July, I think abt the attempt to assassinate Hitler OTD 1944. #ClausVonStauffenberg who courageously placed the bomb, was shot the next day. He has bn rightly honoured. #TheWomenWhoFlewForHitler tells the story of Melitta von Stauffenberg, whose diaries reveal another extraordinary story…

Peak Gladiator season again… Beautiful fields of grain, ripe blackberries in the hedgerows, kitchen smelling of pie... Except that it’s only July 🌞🌞😧🔥

Talking with lovely Tania Szabó, daughter of Second World War heroes Violette and Étienne, as the sun went down last night…

While the museum is focused on Violette, all the women, from 13 different countries, who volunteered to serve as SOE special agents behind enemy lines were remembered today, in a peaceful garden under a clear blue Hereford sky.

This afternoon I was privileged to speak at the annual #VioletteSzabò memorial picnic in Hereford, organised by Violette’s cousin Rosemary. Incredibly moving to hear Violette’s daughter, Tania, recite the famous poem, ‘The Life That I Have’, and talk about her courageous father Ètienne.

A privilege to speak at the #PolishAirForce day at the bofbbunker with #AlinaNowobilska & #JennyGrant , both of whom I greatly admire, ably chaired by #PhoebeStyle. Also heard #GeorgeDziedzic’s excellent talk on his parents’ extraordinary wartime lives & service - see his book #TwoPathsOneWar.

Park under the #Hurricane they said! Great to be at the #BattleofBritainBunker for the Polish Air Force day today!

Happy birthday to the only woman in Chiswick who knows how to use a Sten gun. #PatOwtram, 103 today, served at a Y station (wireless intercept) during #WW2, received the #LegionDHonneur, later devised #AskTheFamily for tv, wrote her memoirs #CenturySisters …

Wonderful to celebrate the 10th anniversary of my local bookshop Max Shorter with the fabulous @jojomoyes.bsky.social , Max, all the team, & half the town! Here’s to the next decade #HartsBooks! 🥂📚📚

Two talks in a prison today. It’s great to support this excellent welfare programme. Fascinating questions from inside today.

Murdered #OTD 1952. Britain’s longest serving 2WW agent, male or female, & among the highest achieving: Polish born #KrystynaSkarbek aka #ChristineGranville, #TheSpyWhoLoved. Never forgotten.

Great to meet avid reader #AngelRaynerMP at the #WomensPrize last night

Writing is a solitary act, but… celebrating great writing isn’t :) Brilliant eve at the #WomensPrize with founder #KateMosse & many book-lovers :) Huge congrats to #LyseDoucet: #thefinesthotelinkabul , & Virginia Evans: #thecorrespondent . Thank you all 📖📗📙📕📚

This year, I’m honoured to be the speaker at the Violette Szabo GC museum in Wormelow, Herefordshire. Join us from 1pm on 12 July 2026 at this year’s picnic at: Cartref, Tump Lane, Wormelow, Herefordshire, HR2 8HN. There will be plenty of parking, refreshments & entertainment…

82 years ago #OTD, 10 June 1944, SOE agent #VioletteSzabó was captured during her 2nd mission. Along with fellow SOE agents Lilian Rolfe, Denise Bloch & Cicely Lefort, she was later executed at Ravensbrück. Szabó was posthumously awarded the George Cross, shown here with her daughter Tania 🧵½

Before SOE sent agents to Nazi German-occupied Europe from #RAFTempsford, they used RAF Newmarket. It was a privilege to be there today, to remember & mark this history!

Fantastic day at the unveiling of a memorial blue plaque, & excellent information board, at Newmarket Racecourse, thanks to the #SecretWW2LearningNetwork.

Today, 80 years after flying secret wartime missions, an iconic Westland Lysander landed at Newmarket… (sound on, to hear its purring engine on landing & takeoff!)

‘Have faith. They’re here, they’re fighting,’ Pierre Hentic described his emotion at seeing a SDS Lysander arrive in German-occupied France in support of the resistance… 🧵

More on this in August… #WomensLibrary

I’m delighted you enjoyed the read… plenty more where that came from

#VitaSackvilleWest, author, garden designer & lover of #VirginiaWoolf, died #otd 1962… But not before sending a garden plant to my grandpa, #FWW veteran, #2WW fireman, & keen gardener. They had met when grannie and grandpa visited the Sissinghurst gardens & stopped to chat. I love this pic 🌿📗🖋️📷