Why subscribe?

For over 20 years I’ve been writing about Liverpool FC, including five years as the weekly columnist on the club’s official site, and have written more than a dozen books on Liverpool FC and football in that time. (I also used to use Twitter quite a lot.)

And since 2009, thousands of readers have paid to read my work on The Tomkins Times (TTT, at www.tomkinstimes.com), which grew from just my own small blog – originally created due to my inability to work a ‘proper’ job due to (ongoing) chronic illness – into a site that employed other writers and editors (Chris Rowland, Daniel Rhodes, Andrew Beasley and many others), and hosts a vibrant and intelligent, well-mannered community. In many ways it was a precursor to the Substack model.

(Scroll down for a brief explainer as why I moved TTT to Substack.)

To further fund the site and its contributors, as well as this, the Main Hub, I devised different sub-Substacks, or spokes, to create the TTT Network. Rather than raise the price, The Main Hub is £4.99, and the additional spokes are priced more cheaply (the cheapest option Substack allows).

The link below explains what each different spoke offers. (It’s a smörgåsbord approach!)

The Tomkins Times - Main Hub

The Full TTT Suite of Substacks – Now Live! Explanations and Links

With the necessary impending demise of the technical nightmare of www.tomkinstimes.com, you may have seen that I have devised a suite of sites – a series of sub-Substacks, or spokes – to work in conjunction with (this) the Main TTT Hub. (That said, I’m constantly amazed by how many people who say “why haven’t you mentioned X before?!”, after 15 articles, 11 emails and 73 tweets about the subject…

Read more

3 months ago · 47 likes · 56 comments · Paul Tomkins

There will be free newsletters and paid newsletters, with the aim to replicate TTT, as it was, as closely as possible on Substack, but with the many added benefits, and new features.

As well as getting emails of the articles, this Substack (TTT Main Hub) will have commenting, as close to the same format as is possible, and with the same rules as before (no dickheads, thanks). Thank to existing subscribers for your patience, and welcome to anyone new who is coming along for the ride!

Why we moved

In September 2022, due to the ongoing technical issues with WordPress and the different subscription software we’d been forced to use over the years (as well as fifty one different sodding plug-ins, which often ended up clashing), the existing site (Legacy TTT) had become unviable, and as such, we moved the entire operation over to Substack.

(The old site still exists as an archive only.)

Stay up-to-date (Substack explainer)

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and this Substack website. Never miss an update.

You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.

To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.