Every academic checking a footnote in the British Library

In honor of e-publication week, Chris and I have launched a Substack. Follow for more than you ever wanted to know about the ivory sporks, wildly inaccurate maps, and emetic recipes that didn't make it into the book. #earlymodern #frenchhistory #skystorians open.substack.com/pub/frenchat...

“Even if you stopped climate change today, New Orleans’s days are still numbered,” he added. “It will be surrounded by open water, and you can’t keep an island situated below sea level afloat. There’s no amount of money that can do that.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Did a taste test: in my flask the eau de Marne et seine (weekend in Belleville which is that I think), back home Thames water: Paris wins, ours is unpleasantly chemical next to it

Wrote about the elections for the paper (which went to press last night): www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Mary Leopold Griffith in 1838, contemplating what she might destroy next with her exciting scissors. Painted by Sarah Miriam Peale, cousin of Rubens Peale whose day is today.

For some in Oxford, spring is signalled not by May Morning, or the swifts returning, but a very different phenomenon - the arrival of mangoes to the Cowley Road. This is the primer you never knew you needed, on Oxford's (not so) hidden seasonal fruit.

this does look like they're being warned before going deeper into the forest

In Oxford for one day between two trips - which is a little stressful. But glad I picked the moment when the wisteria and the lilac are doing their thing along Queen’s Lane. Sorry I can’t share the scent…

Leaving the Bay Area with a heavy heart. Hard to say goodbye to dear friends, and especially to Eliza the cat, who is getting on a bit.

Among those buried in the Parramatta cemetery is Josephine Mercelin, a French-speaking Creole woman transported as a convict from Mauritius to the penal colony of New South Wales in 1833. She died 6 months later and was buried in an unmarked grave. I pieced together her story – you can read it here🗃️

Portrait of me chowing down on Bay Area delights

I’m in Berkeley for my advisor’s retirement conference. (Timothy Hampton.) Today’s the day. It is wonderful to be here; yet weirdly I don’t think I’ve ever felt this nervous about a talk. It’s 30 years since I started grad school.

Stopped off to do a little work in Berkeley Expresso, now shabby amongst the newbie cafes. I told the guy I worked here 25 years ago. He said it was new and shiny then. I said me too.

Back in Berkeley. The delightfully dilapidated diner on the corner of Shattuck and Hearst that belched burger smoke is now a Sweetgreen. ☹️

Leaving Chicago: 2 Newberry days, 1 day of river talking, 1 very necessary Dancing the Revolution exhibition at MCA, 3 wonderful Mexican meals from fancy to less so, and avery r young’s gorgeous“Afro surrealist” opera safronia at the Lyric. And beloved friends. Now: coffee, and on to the Bay Area.

🗃️

Chicago elevator sign feeling a bit pointed

Omg. Please.

Ran into one of the smartest and loveliest people I knew in grad school on the Newberry stairs: lost an hour of manuscript, but gained a whole world of memories and nerdtime

Very happy to be tucked up in the Newberry with a fabulous view

Oxford cat fans will be sad to hear that Trinity's former college cat, Artemis (retired since 2020, and formally thanked by Governing Body for her service) has just died - peacefully in her sleep, at home, aged 18. She welcomed me very kindly when I was a starter fellow. RIP Artemis.

Thread on something that drives me mad.

I’m reading (le chic) Gardeners World magazine in which Monty Don goes off on a weird celebration of the sexiness of tulips: Cleopatra and Monroe were tulips, apparently. 👀

Jefferson on Race, edited by @agordonreed.bsky.social, is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Thomas Jefferson’s conflicted attitudes—& the impact of race & slavery on American history. Out March 31 (26 May UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

A joyous Budapest image from a trip two years ago. Congratulations Hungary!

Hall of fame FT correction

Good morning!

At QMUL: - 99 language modules cut - 50 language modules marked as 'to be confirmed' - single honours language degrees in questions - 'possible futures' includes the closure of languages at QMUL altogether The harm done to language studies is immense, and ramifications are not going to be pretty.

Omg a tiny self portrait of the owner worshipping the Christ Child. So categorically #HerBook

Merci @olivier-ritz.bsky.social pour cette belle histoire littéraire de la Révolution française, qui contient aussi une histoire révolutionnaire de la littérature, une histoire politique des médias, et une histoire populaire critique de la patrimonialisation littéraire !⤵️

Tove Jansson (Finnish, 1914–2001), Moomin and sisters Mymble and Little My paint an #Easter egg #womensart #Moomins

Spending Easter Sunday cursing new life in the form of ground elder. But happy to be grubbing in my soil. Happy eastering, even in these times of invasive horrors.

Passion flower from Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora (1798-1810), in the Ashmolean’s In Bloom exhibition: a text details how the flower displays a crown of thorns, leaves as spears, petals as apostles.

This an excellent, practical guide on how to decide if you should do something like speak at that conference or write that journal piece. I love public speaking but then again I think aloud and so I’m probably just being selfish :)

Le dessinateur britannique Glen Baxter, prince de l’absurde, est mort

At my mum’s, where the watching of the 6pm BBC news is a religion. Quite a lot going on in the world, but they lead with the scandalous behaviour of a radio 2 DJ, some problems with ferries, etc. It’s worryingly dumbed down.

Niche breakfast conversation: what character from the early 17thc pastoral romance L’Astrée would the cat be? (Hylas the libertin shepherd, we think)

MA Scholarship Award for scholars of colour. In 2026, we plan to offer two scholarships of £4,000 each, to contribute to the costs of postgraduate study. This scholarship is open to candidates studying on either a full time or a part time basis. Apply by 15 July 2026 rensoc.org.uk/apply/schola...

The SRS invites applications for its Postdoctoral Fellowships, ŵ a stipend worth £15,000. SRS Fellows can hold jobs alongside their fellowship provided they do not take up more than the equivalent of 3 days a week over the course of the academic year. Apply by 30 April rensoc.org.uk/apply/postdo...

Fully-funded three-year PhD Scholarship: Living with Print in the Eighteenth Century Based at @sydney.edu.au (with Nicola Parsons) and @glasgow.ac.uk (with me), working with collections in Australia and Scotland. Deadline April 21st - please circulate! www.gla.ac.uk/scholarships...

The number of displaced persons in Lebanon is now over a million. 20% of the population, roughly, is unable to sleep their home tonight.

Bertie knows he's not allowed on the worktop. He says it doesn't count as the worktop up here.

I had a day out and met a lovely chicken who wears (one cup of) a bra to hold her up when she has eaten too much. Absolutely no comment.

It would be *cruel* to include the phrase “cosplay Gutenberg” in relation to Kelmscott Press, but would it be *untrue*?

AHRC Studentship – Invisible Hands: Migrant Labour & British Craft in 18thC (UCL & V&A) Closes 15 April Using historical, curatorial & digital humanities methods, you will uncover visible & invisible ‘migrant hands’ that contributed to textiles, metalwork, ceramics etc www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

If you want to read the full text of St Patrick’s letter where he cites ‘weep with those who weep’ - it is right here - www.confessio.ie/etexts/epist...

My Ides of March fun fact is that the place where Caesar was stabbed is now a cat sanctuary, and I think it’s beautiful that creatures with tiny knives on their feet live there

When you have done all the engraving work to contribute to a famous collection in 1674, and then, after the print run, you realize that you forgot to finish the tail of the damn chameleon ... #skystorians #bookhistory #proofreading