Someone needs to tell social media that roast dinners are the least photogenic meals. Happy to just take your word that Christmas dinner tasted great, guys

ChatGPT could NEVER.

Morden College has a 330-year history and are advertising an #Archive & #RecordsManagement #Job based in #Blackheath Looking to transfer pre 1960s archive to @thelondonarchives.bsky.social establish a post 1960 archive - including Records mgt & #DigitalArchive bsky.app/search?q=mor...

Incredible work here. Can confirm that the Uncle Billy wording is still in currency in several south London playgrounds

I'll happily admit that I am both a pedant and a grinch, but I will continue to maintain that its an odd choice by my kids' school to make Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah a standard in the annual carol concert set

I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary. www.icrc.org/en/article/i...

I live in Wales and today received my Join Us letter from Reform UK, complete with SAE which I posted back to them, immediately, empty. If every other person in Wales did this, Reform would spend over £1.5 million on postage. Not sorry. Join me Cymru.

This piece is so good. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

The beeb may have its issues, but this Off Me Nut records mix on 6 music is why I pay my licence fee. Good lord.

Very excited to read today that the big daddy of archives, Sir Hilary himself, visited the Bart's hospital archives in 1938

A narrowing of human knowledge - LLMs risk "creating a feedback loop where dominant ideas are continuously amplified while long-tail or niche knowledge fades from view" www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

The grotesque spectacle of a Labour government — a Labour government! — promoting the idea of stealing from refugees to appease the far right

Although this article focuses on US libraries and universities specifically, the line that really sticks with me strikes me as the universal danger of genAI: "AI is a direct attack on the way we verify information: AI both creates fake sources and obscures its actual sources.”

Hanging out with the relaxation expert this evening

Job klaxon 📢: fancy managing a busy University archives service? Now's your chance: warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Listening to the folks chatting on their way to Selhurst Park and again wanting to remind people that British police are not 'feds', and are unlikely to become so unless we get a lot further down the path of devolution. Yes, I am a pedant

Just hearing a victory speech that draws on real, cross-cultural history and obvious knowledge of politics feels like a win these days

Going to have this printed on a tshirt

Was I foolish to imagine you could buy a pumpkin anywhere in south east London on Halloween?🤦‍♀️

Kid 1 made me a bookmark. I feel seen

When the kids return from their grandparents place with a tall green sibling

Fascinating looking archive volunteering project helping open up access to asylum records in Northumberland - intro event online soon: northpennines.org.uk/event/histor...

Kid 1 has learnt the words to Fresh Prince of Bel Air in KS2 music assembly. We did a dinner time duet. What a way to Friday night

If, as I assume, the use of 'blood' in family-related phrases like 'blood relative' or 'flesh and blood' predate knowledge of DNA and cellular structure, why did people think that blood was something that relatives had in common?

Fun fact: Dame Sarah Mullally is the second medical professional to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Thomas Secker (1758-1768) qualified as a medical doctor before being ordained #ArchbishopOfCanterbury

Brian Patten lived next door to my geography teacher. I'll never get over him coming to school to do a reading and blowing my tiny teenaged mind with the devastating and restorative powers of poetry. Still one of my absolute favourite poets. RIP Brian Patten

Never a truer word said

The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video

Chingford station c.1900. Built in 1878 to replace the station near Chingford Green, it was soon a popular destination for tourists visiting Epping Forest. In 1882 Queen Victoria travelled by train to Chingford station for the ceremony at High Beach dedicating the Forest to the people. #Railway200

We're organising a workshop funded by a grant, which has a buget for catering. Oh but the workshop is not taking place in my university. Guess how many emails I've exchanged and how many people are involved. Anyway, if anyones knows of a catering company in London that invoices lmk! thank you!

Any recs for guidance on managing book collections that's (a) modern (b) for poor wee archivists who don't know books <I don't know her dot gif> tysm! 📜 📚

"Perhaps prison would have persisted this way forever. Perhaps our granite hearts and iron wills would have never crumbled. Perhaps the prison mentality, that we be cold and heartless, would have endured. Perhaps. But then there were kittens."

From this remarkable interview: www.lbc.co.uk/article/brit...

Really enjoyed this interview on Wooden Lives with the owners of a book, music and ephemera shop (not an archive!) open.substack.com/pub/woodenci...

CfP: Excited to announce our first workshop, exploring histories of Commercial Determinants of Health. Workshop to be held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 15 April 2026. Please circulate widely/consider submitting an abstract by 13 October 2025.

Educational courses in prisons have been shown, repeatedly, over the years to reduce recidivism and increase individual's chances of finding employment and building lives after leaving prison. Cutting those courses is fundamentally counterproductive. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Too many books in our collections written using 'the English method'

The emails we love to see

First full week back after the holidays included an away day at my dream location, Crossness Pumping Station. Always full of admiration for my amazing team, and its great to be planning more great projects for the year ahead - but having their full support for my sewage obsession is an added bonus

Job alert 🚨 Doncaster Archives are recruiting for an Archives Manager f/t permanent. Deadline 5 October 2025. Great opportunity 👇 uk.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk...

Of all the D tier waste of space organs to choose to follow smh. The spleen! Come on bro I ain’t following an organ you can literally remove and continue to live a normal life. “Listening to your spleen” is how you end up on Love Is Blind making a fool of yourself. (Deep sea mammals are exempt)

for mixed feelings, I had a blast writing about medieval fan culture! feat. interviews with a couple of my fav colleagues Maggie Solberg and @phil-lol-ogist.bsky.social snag a print issue if you can the entire zine is glorious!! www.mixedfeelings.earth/p/the-mediev...

It's the fact that she has labelled us 'mother' and 'father' that really tips this delightful portrait piece over the creepy edge

Today in AI Is Not A Good Source For Learning About The World's Most Misunderstood Body Part, meet this ChatGPT gem. Funnily enough, we're actually going to talk about how most of this is kinda sorta right (for small values of right), as a cautionary tale about generative AI.

If you're a UK history teacher [or know UK history teachers] teaching Key Stage 4 migration and empires, crime and punishment and Whitechapel modules, please sign your students up to Archives Live on 13 October! Alec's story needs to be seen and heard: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/se...

This has been the most excellent holiday reading @cethompson.bsky.social and @drkyliesmith.bsky.social. Such a timely book, dealing with so many of the questions we talk about in student sessions. Can't wait to get back to work now!

The thread of 'amazing things made by my amazing mum' was over on Twitter, so I can't add to it, but I am compelled to post another incredible piece by the inimitable @deborahjarman.bsky.social How incredible to have a granny who embroiders you into your very own Mappa Mundi❤️

Bedtime with a childhood heroine in honour of Allan Ahlberg

Anyway, for a longer two pennyworth of my concerns around uncritical use of Gen AI for supposed accessibility, I wrote this blog post for work a few months back: blogs.york.ac.uk/digital-acce...