alison turner

History nut. Qualified walks guide. Seeker-out of the City of London's secret corners & hidden histories. TV producer (history documentaries..!) & crime writer.

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

My history guide and crime novelist lives collided most fabulously this weekend when Le Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon asked me to give a talk on representations of death in Western culture through the ages. It’s the highlight of my year so far ☺️And the audience forgave my French!

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

Extraordinary find of a jewel marking the 24-year marriage of Henry VIII and the wonderful, under appreciated, Katherine of Aragon. @britishmuseum is appealing for funds to keep it in the UK. https://t.co/oom46H7KxI

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

Brilliant!

[Angela O'Brien @GrecianGirly]

When your dog hears a bag of treats being opened. #ClassicsTwitter #Archaeology

[Andy Marshall 📸 @fotofacade]

😍🫢A door of real beauty. It simply astonishes me to think that the base of the tower at All Saints in Brixworth is Anglo Saxon 7th century. Notice the murmuration of re-used Roman brick tiles in the stone coursing taken from Leicester and Towcester. #thread

[Christopher Howse @BeardyHowse]

St Margaret belts the daylights out of a devil. It's the only language they understand.
At the National Gallery's Siena exhibition, on loan from the MFA Boston.

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

Wow. Fascinating stuff. https://t.co/QBwE0GoeJz

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

Love the cheeky subhead… <Mystery appendage fascinates Bayeux Tapestry historians>

https://t.co/IpDXYalEGV

[AK Turner 🖤 @AKTurnerauthor]

Farewell and thank you to John Hemingway, aged 105, the last of the Battle of Britain pilots. Image via @thetimes https://t.co/9T3s1xtw6H

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

Outrageous. And funny…

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

😀😁😁

#archaeohistories

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

This is very cool. <Is this the face of the nine-day queen? Lady Jane Grey goes on display>

https://t.co/lRZAs1NEcM

[Anne Cater 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 @annecater]

Jane Gregory Bursaries applications open for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2025 https://t.co/xtoz4huusi

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

I’m up for this!!

[Dr Tim Rideout @TimRideout1]

Hotel already booked. This is a crime fiction festival that has friendliness & kindness hardwired into its very essence.

Under the leadership of @AnnCleeves & @vpeanuts, @bay_tales goes from strength to strength, celebrating readers & writers with good humour & loads of fun.

The best of festivals. Do not miss it!

@baytales26 🖤

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

Dear @JDVance I suggest you listen to this @TheRestHistory podcast on Hitler’s annexation of part of Czechoslovakia (before he came back for more…) I was struck by certain parallels, esp this quote from the Czech president after the Allies sold his country down the river.

[AK Turner 🖤 @AKTurnerauthor]

I can’t wait to read Smith’s scalpel applied to this long overdue revision of famous Roman women ⁦@polblonde⁩ https://t.co/XiHnjFODej

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

@DavidHHeadley @DavyFennell Oh wow. I’d never leave home 😍

[Lara Maiklem FSA - The London Mudlark @LondonMudlark]

The little Roman intaglio I found the other week isn’t a beetle, it’s a frog! Frogs were associated with fertility and harmony, and with debauchery in association with the goddess Venus. It is the first to have ever been found in Britain
1/3

#mudlarkingfinds #mudlarking

[alison turner @TurnerTourGuide]

@LadyMaher Black!!!!

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

- Just one dragonfly can consume over one hundred mosquitos in a day
- Dragonflies can fly backwards
- They have nearly 360-degree vision
- Their wings inhibit bacterial growth due to their natural structures
- They're actually beautiful

This is not stained glass, it's a wing.

[Simon Knott @SimoninSuffolk]

The Transfiguration on the early 16th Century rood screen at Westhall, one of Suffolk's very best churches. Christ faces us, flanked by Moses and Elijah. On the right, and not part of the story, St Anthony and his little pig look on.

Today is the feast of the Transfiguration. The Westhall representation is unique in medieval East Anglian church art. Eamon Duffy argued that it was evidence of a new devotion coming to fruition in the last years before the Reformation would snuff it out.

Westhall: https://t.co/sGMrTI2xpj

[AK Turner 🖤 @AKTurnerauthor]

Fabulous WW2 story. What a gal! >>The double agent who hid D-Day from the Nazis: Elvira Chaudoir – The National Archives https://t.co/ErPAq50eju

[Jo Callaghan @JoCallaghanKat]

So excited to see and hold this gorgeous American cover for In the Blink of an Eye. Thank you to @penguinrandom for doing such a beautiful job - I can’t wait to hear what US readers think of it when it comes out on August 6th!