Things have gone from bad to worse this morning. Honestly the research better be worth having come to this hell hole.

I regret to inform you that I am now in Antigua and researching the hell out of it guys. This historian-ing is a rough gig.

Join me and Chris for a zoom talk about Beyond the Ocean: Thursday at 6:45pm eastern. We each picked one thing and one person from the book to illustrate some of its main themes. #earlymodern #atlanticworld #skystorians smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...

Off to Antigua tomorrow to complete the final outstanding research needed to finish the new book, which includes a fieldwork element of roaming around the woods looking for the first plantations. I did the same on St Kitts in the rainforest in February and it was a career highlight. Really excited!

I see the actor Tom Holland had to face his most difficult role yet: spending time with his namesake - who was frequently referred to as ‘Not Spiderman’ on the other place - and not clawing the skin from his own face in horror.

Re-reading Diane Purkiss @janetanderson.bsky.social superb The English Civil War, which I often used extracts from when teaching the topic. But turning to it today for my own writing and it's one of those books where every page distills a complex subject matter into captivating little nuggets.

Imagine complaining that a work place is committed to equality. This is where we are in the UK in 2026. Heartbreaking to watch a society voluntarily roll back decades of progress.

Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis

My home and place of work are about 250 miles apart and both places are currently experiencing wildfires. The country is literally on fire after three heatwaves. My mum on the phone this morning: aren’t we having a lovely summer.

wasted life bro

My phone updated last night and ever since I woke this morning it’s blaring at me to VERIFY YOUR AGE telling me to use a credit card or an ID. What the fuck! You’re a telephone, you don’t need to know my goddamn fucking age you stupid fucking inanimate object.

Best “remove glasses to look at something unbelievable” in cinema history.

Never forget that time Sam Neill gave a quote about murder that was so beautifully kabonkers, we all assumed it was a Clickhole bit initially

Noooooooooo

The LLM generation are struggling to read The Hobbit. Just a reminder, this is how it starts. A fucking monkey could read it:

Alright guys! See the match?

Just come across the most insane opening of an academic article published in 2002: 'Since the horrific bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the declaration of war against terrorism...' The article is about C17th sugar consumption in England!!!

Enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Very different from the film, as always. Bit Sci-Fi’d out so something more existential now: ‘The Power and the Glory’. My first Greene (also have A Quiet American on the to read pile).

“Just flatten [Gaza]. We flattened Berlin. We flattened Tokyo.” -Lindsey Graham He should be remembered for the way he lived his life.

Support has dropped off massively, but I'm confident folks will step up. A chance to help six families, plus fifteen more families in a displacement camp, at one link? Amazing. The ask? Click "weekly" on just a coffee so they can eat. Then act for their tomorrow. chuffed.org/project/hope...

Me being left behind

'Down with the elites!' I cry in my Armani suit from the porch of one of my five mansions. 'Down with the establishment!' I volley from my brand new Mercedes on the way to a board meeting in the City.

I saw this and had to share.

The first sentence of every history undergraduate essay.

Just clicked on The Warriors. Watched this when I was a wee lad but cannot remember anything about it except that I loved it. Here goes.

There’s nothing better for your soul than spending all day with 30 children for whom everything feels magical and they find joy and happiness in the most mundane of things. It’s also very bittersweet and you wonder exactly when in life you stopped being captivated by the silliest shit.

Today I’m helping on my son’s school trip: taking 90 seven year olds to a local adventure park for 8 hours in 30 degree heat. I honest to god think this is how I die. Keep me in your prayers.

I Am Legend ended up being a phenomenal little read. Matheson’s writing is engrossing and the story was very claustrophobic. Sticking with Sci Fi for the next one: Philip K Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ Yeah, I’m doing Bladerunner!

I think we should put the onus back on the reader in the conclusion. ‘OK now here’s a test to check that you were paying attention…’

How your email finds me

No one has ever potato digged in the history of potato digging like this woman potato digger.

We were in nose to tail school run traffic this afternoon and my kids happen to notice a sticker on the back window of the car in front. My 7 year old began to read it out loud: ‘I love…hairy…bum…HOLES!!!’ Well that was 2 hours ago & he’s entered a trance repeating the phrase over & over ever since.

You think you started the day off well and then you have to write a footnote on the differing interpretations of the outbreak of the British and Irish Civil Wars...!

Me, writing a new trade book for a public audience of non specialists: 'And so his archipelagic imperium became subject to the proprietary impulses of the aristocratic houses of the composite Stuart monarchy...'

Jesus fucking Christ

A handful of universities are determined to destroy all the others. It's that simple. That would end the Burnham regionalism agenda before it'd even got going. Unfortunately, no-one even seems to know this and our governance structures are so pitifully weak there's not even anyone to tell.

This government can fuck right off. Tax breaks for nazis but these are the "difficult decisions". www.opendemocracy.net/exclusive-ho...

Oh cool, here comes the third heatwave of the year and it’s only early July. Totally OK let’s not freak out about it or anything or even do anything about it let’s just keep throwing out red alerts and talking about Nigel Farage.

From Faulkner to Matheson. Yes, I am an eclectic reader. Anyway, believe it or not this is my first Matheson *ever* and I’m excited to get stuck in.

Israel has devastated 95 percent of Gaza's farms, engineering starvation and aid dependency, experts warn.

History books by women are also available

It just gets better and better.

This was a real rollercoaster of a book: I loved it, then hated it, loved it, hated it again, and in the last 20 pages was pulled along quite magically. I have no idea how to regard it. I think that’s probably enough Faulkner for a while. He’s definitely a writer you experience rather than enjoy.

Le Guin on the idea that there is a secret to getting good at writing.

Game on, Nige.

It’s gonna be a Binface summer

If the people of Clacton are stupid enough to fall for this shit (and they have in the past), we really should concede sovereignty over the constituency and declare it an independent state.

Oh fucking PLEASE just give us this one good thing universe fucking PLEEASSSEEE