I AM @HISTORYCRACKS.

Authors must tweet, or so I’m told, so I started tweeting a year ago and have gathered some 450 followers – thank you, people, whoever and wherever you are.

For those out there who have never read my tweets, here is what I do:

I post historical photos, like this Bolivian hat below, a present from the man who built the reed boat in which Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic.

Or of places I’ve visited, like this one: a rock sculpture at the back of LACMA in Los Angeles.

I never thought I’d tweet words. For one thing I didn’t think I could fit anything worthwhile saying into 140 characters. But other people apparently manage just fine, as in these examples:

• Hair: thick and seemingly warm enough to be the vest of some fabulous…creature (Howard Jacobson)
• Backstory: They don’t tell you in movies where people grew up…no history, no past, just them (Doctorow)
• There is no getting on, or getting over, just getting in (Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal)
• Keeping your distance: He engaged in verbal jabbing to maintain perimeter (Tad Friend)
• Habsburg soldiers: Best dressed army in the world (Edmund De Waal)

Like my selection of quotes? Check my tweets for more: @historycracks.