Comedy shows, art installations, performances, workshops, insightful talks and interactive experiences... the British Science Festival #BSF26 programme of more than 80 events is FREE and has something for everyone. Join us in Southampton | 16-20 September Book now! www.britishsciencefestival.org

A fun-filled night with some of my favorite historians: @oispooky.bsky.social, @msromany.bsky.social, @dirtysexyhistory.bsky.social, @pwcraddock.bsky.social Thanks to @lucyjanesantos.bsky.social for organising! Can’t believe we didn’t get a photo!

Oh hey, I saw this the first time and it was really interesting. If you're at all into London history, absolutely worth your time. Bill Richmond's story is marvellous and deserves sharing!

Didn't last long, ha ha. Have to do a quick promo! This Friday, FREE, UCL, London! S. I. Martin (Incomparible World), Luke G. Williams (Richmond Unchained), me, Roberto Nigro, Tony Warner (Black History Walks). Come learn about 1800s boxing and Bill Richmond! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/champion-b...

Going to delete BlueSky from my phone for the next month and just drop by occasionally on The Computer. A whole-ass book to finish, a chapter for another book, a massive British Science Festival to launch in the day job! Less scrolling, Sarah, more typing. More gym. Less wine, that will also do it 👋🏻

I should not have taken ages to get to season two of A Thousand Blows because a) Erin Doherty deserves 15 Emmys b) MESMERISM SUBPLOT c) A R T H E I S T

"We've had a Cheek, a Butt, and an absolute ****. Vote #CoxforClacton!" Does this work? 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Tried to get Jack to say all four parts of his name earlier and he ended up with Jack Awesome Cox Dinosaurs. Fantastic. 100% on my bits.

Quick second for how much I did, do, and always will fancy Johnny Briggs.

The Clacton Pride vibes. Baby Jack LOVED drag queen Baby Shark 😂🏳️‍🌈🙌🏻🦈

The SHAAAAAADE

We used to be a country 😂😍

Long shot, but if anyone in North #Oxford has lost a tortoise with a surprising turn of speed in the heat, do get in touch..

1895! Edward died aged 11. I'm so used to writing about the 1880s I get my OWN date of birth wrong, regularly 🤦🏻‍♀️

Despite our Reform MP (barely...) and the Reform overtake of Essex County Council, who immediately banned LGBTQ+ book displays for Pride month in local libraries... Clacton Town Hall currently has the Pride flag flying over it. #Clacton Pride takes place tomorrow. DRAG QUEEN BABY SHARK it is! 🏳️‍🌈🦈

Career goals.

WRITE FIGHT BOOKS RAISE DINOSAUR CHILD

Discover our fantastic line-up of speakers for the Women in Circus Symposium! Beyond excited for this free one-day event on Wednesday 05 August 🎪 Hear from practitioners, academics and researchers at the University of Sheffield. Book your place, in-person or online, by Friday 17 July 🎟️

A quick piece I wrote last year on my great uncle, my Lambeth grandad's first-born brother Edward Court (1885-1906) and the top man, London County Councillor John Bannochie, who tried to save him from drowning in the Thames. A printer and a printer's son: grapplingwithhistory.com/other-writing/

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

Good lord, this sounds INCREDIBLE. Imagine watching it without bawling. I don't know if My Darling Child is in it? I wouldn't cope, I'd have to leave. I'd be a soggy disgraceful mess. As is only fair and fitting: www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...

Despite our Reform MP (barely...) and the Reform overtake of Essex County Council, who immediately banned LGBTQ+ book displays for Pride month in local libraries... Clacton Town Hall currently has the Pride flag flying over it. #Clacton Pride takes place tomorrow. DRAG QUEEN BABY SHARK it is! 🏳️‍🌈🦈

Historian! About to give an opening keynote in a big room. Very sweaty and it's not the weather: eek!

Staying on Twitter at this point is like choosing to vacation at the commandant's house in ZONE OF INTEREST. "Well, I'm sure there are Nazis here, but *I* can't see them. I just tune it all out and focus on my own little interests. I'm still a good person, you see."

As an Associate Fellow of the @royalhistsoc.org but also an Independent Historian, Not An Academic... (skint, overworked in my day job, and unable to pursue my research as a result), I really really wish there were more things like this I could apply for 😔

Catch-up with my book editor today - a summer of hard work to come on the manuscript but it's all feeling VERY positive! Details to come from Duckworth much later in the year... THE DEVILS' DANCE FLOOR: Hezekiah Moscow and the Fight for Life in Late-Victorian London should be published Feb 2027 🥊

Most people think Sherlock Holmes began at 221B Baker Street. But Holmes began somewhere far stranger: in a Victorian hospital ward in Edinburgh, where surgeon Joe Bell taught students to read a body like a crime scene.🧵 Here's the US 🇺🇸 trailer for SLEUTH-HOUND. Preorder: linktr.ee/drlindseyfit...

How my son's clothes, body, head, inside his ears etc returned from nursery today with no explanation. As long as he had fun 🤷🏻‍♀️😂✨🪩

Living in the 1760s in London, you may have asked yourself: Why not buy a "Remarkable Tame Panther" that you "may play with it as they may with a Dog"? Or a "SEA-MONSTER"? Or both? What could possibly go wrong with a panther and a sea-monster in your house? I have so many questions.

🦁🦁🦁

Er...

Ten years since Brexit means ten years since I went to see a terrible Macbeth at the Globe on a date with an actor and then we just bumped into my MOTHER in the stalls? A very sweaty day, I recall. He broke up with me the following week because he was still obsessed with an ex. Truly cursed.

The heat has devastated my make-up. I look like Jimmy Nail crying in a salt mine.

Smoke over a pram and I'm allowed to kick you in the head (I am a trained pro-wrestler and can kick even very tall people in the head). Actually, anyone can kick you in the head. You're just gonna get kicked in the head repeatedly every time you do it.

In the end, there were just a lot more human rights abuses than I was expecting from the human rights lawyer.

Want to see the most beautiful thing you'll ever see in your life? Or, at least, the most beautiful thing you'll ever see next to a bin in an Essex seaside town in 2026?

Podcasting. Sweatily! In my attic! With Canadians! No olde boxing lads today (okay maybe a bit). Let's get back to late-Victorian and early Edwardian English Lady Wrestlers! Especially a 250lb 6ft 2 one! Details to come 🤼‍♀️👍🏻

My son Jack and his cousin Darcy were born two months apart and look like twins but are chalk and cheese - she's terrified of him and they never play. Today... they had a fart-off rubbing their bums on the side of a paddling pool to see who could make the loudest funny noise, and are finally pals 😭

A favourite photo of my dad, taken in 1994. He had another front page made up for him when he finally left in 2015, after 46 years 😂

Admiring the outfits and general photo-ready swagger of my grandfather Alf Court (1916-1992) this morning.

Have you signed up for our June Symposium about Valuing Seaside Heritage? We're thrilled to be partnering again with @hbap1924.bsky.social and also have support from @heritagenetwork.bsky.social this year. Full details here: hbap.org.uk/valuing-seas...

On Wednesday I'm giving my online talk for @citylit.bsky.social ‘The World of the London Bodysnatchers’, 7.30pm. We'll tour some of London’s lesser-known graveyards and meet the Resurrection Men, who made a profit from other people's tragedies To book: www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/the-...

Published today: a joyous exploration of what was once the UK's best desi pub davidjesudason.substack.com/p/glassy-jun...

In the same way Lady Gaga wore a meat suit to try and get more engagement

Clacton lunchbreak and post-work today ☀️🌊💙

F**k around with Carol Vorderman and find out, is an under-discussed takeaway here.

Meanwhile, local business owners (a new bar) are getting ready for peak tourism season on the seafront in sunny Clacton! ☀️ Since his election two years ago, Farage has missed every single meeting of the business board - on which he sits - that's planning the area's 'regeneration'.

There's a Netflix documentary about Vinnie Jones that I have just very much enjoyed! '80s-'90s nostalgia, lots of effing and blinding, peak John Fashanu's thighs, men with proper English teeth, Jones fighting Wolf off of Gladiators, and Sam Hammam's eyebrows, among the best bits. A feel-good one!

Took me ages to figure out what the Fathers Day card my son made was supposed to be 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ Nobody round here wears a tie unless they're an undertaker or an estate agent...