Farewell then Tim Davie. Under his watch the BBC whitewashed genocide, had the BBC News website resembling a “migrant crime” X account, boosted trans hate and the right wing STILL hate him. Quite an achievement

Little bit helps us stay alive thank you from my heart @spaciousseasidesai.bsky.social @knifesquid.bsky.social @irishninja.bsky.social @cthonides.bsky.social @davidveevers.bsky.social @niasolstice.bsky.social @goobsimar.bsky.social @freshmintytaste.bsky.socialEvery .

Just read a passage in a book that describes elderly people as time machines: able to recall the past whilst being reminders to younger people of the future that awaits them. I think that’s a pretty magical understanding of age.

National Trust council elections saw a defeat for the Restore Trust campaign. 35k members voted to re-elect a slate of council candidates endorsed by the nominations committee 12k - 13.5k voted for candidates on Restore Trust slate Non-slate candidated www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide. And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft. What does OpenAI offer the world?

I'm at 5 right now after a year of 1 and 3.

Quite the view out of our bedroom window this morning. Glorious sun yesterday, overcast rainbow today. Nice contrast to constant rain.

Basically a perfect late autumn afternoon here on the Sussex coast.

Gotta say, I’m not so confident that you do

Fireworks terrified my nan. Reminded her of the blitz. She spent many a night with her daughter sleeping on the underground. I’m not sure why but as I’ve gotten older, I appreciate that a lot more than I did at the time as a kid.

Can't remember a more productive writing week. I ignored emails and wrote my little heart out - the result of pent up frustration at not being able to properly write since teaching started in September. My piecemeal reading, thinking, and research flowed into prose. So satisfying. Now brain mushy.

Maritime colleagues: was it common to omit names of women travelers - specifically wives - when mentioning passengers onboard? Asking in context of ships coming from England to colonies in early c17th. Can't prove this man's wife went with him, but his young son did (who are both mentioned by name).

Two can play at that game. Paramount subscription cancelled for being pro-genocide.

Even I thought this was one of mine!

PUBLICATION DAY! My new book, ‘Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, rebel, kingmaker’ is out today. “An epic journey”, “a powerful new biography”, “highly readable”, “vivid portrait”. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/margaret-... @headofzeus.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social #History #WomensHistory

Is there a German word for when you make a cup of tea, drink it, and then immediately make another one?

Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday. It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...

During colonisation of Grenada, Indigenous Kalinago were trapped by French at Morne des Sauteurs. With no hope, 40 jumped to their deaths. Survivors included 'quite beautiful' 12 year old girl fought over by 2 French officers, until a third came up and shot her dead, ending the dispute.

Every Welsh schoolchild of a certain vintage and disposition has this imprinted on their soul if it was on their classroom wall

Have you ever had goat curry? It’s amazing.

I just performed a citizen's arrest on a pensioner with a guide dog because she wasn't wearing a poppy in the Asda frozen aisle. We shall remember them.

You couldn’t park within a mile of the main staff carpark at university when I first joined in 2022 unless you arrived at 8am. Now it sits half empty all day long. It’s the small things that have been so irksome about the collapse of HE.

Me: I’m really pleased with the progress of my new book and I’ll definitely hit the 2027 deadline. Me after discovering that a new Europa Universalis game released yesterday: well shit. I’m in trouble.

Since 2000, the richest 1% of the world's population has taken 41% of all new wealth. The poorest half of the world has received only 1%.

on the topic of dick cheney, one thing i’ve always said is that you shouldn’t kill a million people

And so here we are: 4.45pm and it’s basically night out. The long hours of summer disintegrated without me even really realising it. Sigh. This gets harder ever year I get older.

Enjoy judgement day biatch!

In Virginia in 1629, the authorities questioned whether a soldier named Thomas Hall was male or female. Despite being christened as Thomasine in England and dressing as a girl until puberty, the court ruled that they were both genders, and 'Thomas' continued to dress with a bonnet and apron.

It sounds like old man shouting at clouds, but this is becoming a major bugbear of mine. Tried parking at a Tesco or Sainsbury’s in those tiny spaces with stupidly large range rovers spilling over the lines? Bloody nightmare.

Best text for English dress circa 1600? Writing a section with the English living in an Indigenous Caribbean village and the people are all naked, the Puritan English ask them to cover up but they refuse. Chance for a funny scene here sitting around the fire with Jacobean English frocks.

Taxes are a very good thing, actually.

Based on this @russellgroup.bsky.social analysis which shows industry needs a wide range of skills - eg 40% of high-tariff graduates working in defence studied humanities and social sciences www.russellgroup.ac.uk/policy/polic...

The saddest part of this article is the realisation that people are ‘talking’ to ChatGP about a book they’re reading. That is the most depressing thing I’ve ever read. If you don’t have someone to talk to, at the very least joint a Reddit sub. Fucking hell don’t turn to a predictive text machine!

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

People tragically attacked in stabbing-spree. What if the answer was to legalise knives and guns?

This from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social is a clear and horrifying explanation of the atrocities underway in El Fasher. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Three words: mass uncontrolled immigration.

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China

This person regularly given platform by BBC as 'academic and author', if you please.

Big roast this afternoon and then we all poured on the sofa to watch The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Reading the book to our youngest right now and struck by how faithful an adaptation it is. Actually very enjoyable.

This coming week (Tuesday 4 November), we look forward to meeting all those attending #HistDay25 @ihr.bsky.social and @senatehouselib.bsky.social: bit.ly/4nvfl9v We'll be bringing badges and our new set of postcards #Skystorians

I have spent most of my weeken running my daughter around between various different rehearsals and productions. When did I just become a side character in my daughter’s life?! #StageDoorDad

Remember guys, @pcsunion.bsky.social staff at the BL are on strike for the next two weeks. Please don't cross the picket line to go to reading rooms, attend exhibitions or anything else. They've endured so much on low pay since the cyberattack in 2023 and the least we can do is have their backs now.

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Tucking into some of Ray Bradbury’s more earth-bound stories. This semi-autobiographical one is up next: his prose and descriptions are really exquisite. I’m hoping it rubs off as I write my new book.

We in the UK will work out far too late that this is a bad thing.