Caroline Butler

So it turns out genetics and viruses are key for most autoimmune diseases like ME and MS. Not just being a people pleaser. What does this mean one wonders for those quacks that have been saying (with no evidence) its the latter?

We do not need unelected representation on the global stage.

Don't understand why having a royal family is a really bad idea and it's just a bad egg? consider a) the met protection team & their role in all of this and what that implies re: accountability and b) how class ridden our society is (famously so) and what having a monarchy speaks to in that context.

I often feel it's a shame I don't have a teenage child to embarrass with my dorkiness.

Half Dutch households now have an emergency kit at home - DutchNews.nl Half of Dutch households now have an emergency kit at home or are in the process of putting one together, according to research by broadcaster RTL. This is a sharp rise compared with 2024, when only 1...

The Dutch government have been pushing people to get emergency packs for a few years. Now half of households have them. It's in case of major outages of some sort from banking services going down to no clean water.
www.dutchnews.nl/2026/02/half...

Listening to people talking about phone free gigs. It used to be when we had press at the front, taking photos at gigs (before everyone had a camera) they got to do the first 2 songs (no flash). Maybe an etiquette that was kinda the same could be encouraged? It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

I often wonder how some editors feel about various acquisitions as certain things come to light. Those books tick over steadily and likely sell a lot in the back catalogue for sure.

First day working at PRH and first author event? Peter Thiel. I don't remember anything he said but how really really fucking rude ans weird he was and that he had a bodyguard. Genuinely quite scary. But everyone seemingly enthralled by some sort of business genius they all thought he had.

Every recipe at the moment starts off delicious and then they add an unusual bean. This has to stop. NO MORE BEANS unless it's an actual bean originated recipe. I know the world has a lot of issues but adding beans where beans DO NOT GO must end NOW. Thank you.

VERY vivid dream last night that I had been selected to live on an island with John Cale alongside 8 other people to develop our creativity. The first task on arrival was to make our own outfits with the support of some designers. I wanted mine to include a crochet tam o'shanter hat in dark grey.

In 1935, a publisher named Allen Lane walked into a train station and asked a radical question:

“Why shouldn’t a great book cost as little as a pack of cigarettes?”

That question led to the paperback revolution. Books in kiosks, corner shops, train stations. Books not for elites, but for everyone.

First the flat *could* be flammable. We waited. Confirmed NOT flammable. Then half way thru sale - oops this is a fake certificate some fella signed a ton of them. Flat *could* be flammable. Everything fell through - twice. A whole year later we have the final result. Same rating and NOT flammable.

The columbian baddy in the new Night Manager totally looks like he should be third on the bill at an all-dayer at the shacklewell in 2014.

I say let them have a crack at it.

My new year’s resolution was to give up performing stunts from cowboy movies but I’ve already fallen off the wagon.

I also can't help thinking it's the opening to an updated version of an Agatha Christie novel.

The top half of a cat is concealed behind a gold curtain, its bottom half exposed.

David Attenborough [whispering]:

“Like a grain of sand in a vast desert, the predator blends seamlessly into its environment, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.”

We went skating today. It's all about how fast you can go in the NL. This means they have developed an entirely new breed of MAMIL. These speed freak dads just love to glide very fast indeed in the slipstream of each other.

Amsterdam Noord (het Sluisje) meets Zuid London

The Labyrinth of Suitcases at the Migration museum Rotterdam. I found it very moving.

Can't believe it's Christmas, and David Walliams is going to be visited by three Ghostwriters to show him the error of his ways.

It's a shame there is no GCSE in Dutch these days. I would love to have four languages to GCSE level.

BBC Sounds - The Reith Lectures - Available Episodes Listen to the latest episodes of The Reith Lectures on BBC Sounds.

If you missed this year’s Reith Lectures, I really recommend catching up.This week’s episode on the ‘god’s-eye view’ and what god-like intelligence (AI) really means was fascinating. @rutgerbregman.com www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

Poster for the How to Find Your Purpose talk, showing my ugly mug and Rutger's more pleasing visage.

On January 14, I'll be interviewing the extraordinary @rutgerbregman.com in London. Tickets will go fast, so get yours while you can. howtoacademy.com/events/rutge...

This is literally the most batshit crazy thing I've ever seen in my life.

Don’t think much of the Amazon Black Friday sales. I ordered The Two Ronnies on DVD but instead I got four Kindles

'What are they afraid of?' Historian's lecture cut by BBC YouTube video by LBC

BBC staff have now been banned from repeating the description of Donald Trump excised from Rutger’s Reith lecture. Makes his warning here all the more chilling.
youtu.be/9UlYdocG5Bs

The talk was just brilliant and felt so spot on. It feels shameful to me that this has happened.

They just played fools gold into the chimes of big Ben on Radio 4 ahead of the evening news. Mani has died. How sad. But what an epic and surreal thing to do...

blog: leeslinks voor op zondag (met Wednesday, Fleetwood Mac, Lily Allen, John Cale en oblique strategies), www.stereomedia.nl/2025/11/i-al...