Bridgerton kicks off with a reimagining of Marie Antoinette, courtesy of Rosamund’s masquerade costume 💎💎💎💎💎 The telltale sign is the necklace that embroiled the French queen in (undeserved) scandal in 1785 (I’m writing about the Diamond Necklace Affair today so this is research adjacent. Sort of)

Are there any Vigée Le Brun experts on here? Do we know where her studio was during the 1770–80s? Presumably Paris, but ... where 👩‍🎨 I'm trying to paint a picture (lol) of her working life, but haven't been able to pin it down for certain #18c

😍

Me for months: Must look at this print more closely to understand how it conveys the sophisticated & complex nature of 18th-century Anglo-French affairs Me, finally looking just now: Oh, it's a Frenchman farting in the English women's faces. ... Of course it is

Congratulations, William! William Whyte appointed General Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography corp.oup.com/news/william... #skystorians 🗃️#ODNB

Me for months: Must look at this print more closely to understand how it conveys the sophisticated & complex nature of 18th-century Anglo-French affairs Me, finally looking just now: Oh, it's a Frenchman farting in the English women's faces. ... Of course it is

Delighted to announce the launch of a new seminar - Race and the Early Modern - in collaboration with @folger.edu. A monthly, transatlantic, online seminar for research on race, racialisation, and racemaking across #earlymodern Studies. Sign up to attend! kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...

A glimpse at the gorgeous portrait I am writing about today. 🌸

A glimpse at the gorgeous portrait I am writing about today. 🌸

Pincushion with the names of the #Jacobite prisoners executed at Tyburn in 1746 #c18th #c18 #18thc

Come & work with me! Senior Archivist (Military Records Project) at The National Archives (UK). £39.5k pa. Apply by Sunday 25 January. #ArchivesJobs www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...

And for the people fleeing wannabe space wanker and his racist hordes there is also this starter pack for women in history …

New year, first attempt at a slightly makeshift office in the new house. (Must buy a chair.) Watched over by two subjects of my next book, the princesse de Lamballe and Marie Antoinette (original prints of 1793) 🌹🌺

Oh no

Aaaand immediately all of my targeted ads are weight loss, anti-ageing serums and perimenopause. Meanwhile my only resolution is to finish the goshdarn book 🤓 Happy new year folks! 🥳

Pleased to report that this is how my three-year-old daughter apparently intends to greet the new year 🗡️

Me while everyone is posting their wonderful and frankly very impressive ‘achievements of 2025’ posts

Here’s looking at you: two women at a window, 1650s, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Today is his day.

Quite interesting on useful work (and an advert for Findmypast). www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Delighted to announce that 2025 is the year I finally bought the long-coveted “stressed out William Wordsworth” Christmas jumper No regrets 🎅🎄

Beautiful bookshelves at a very festive Doddington Hall 😍 I was not allowed to photograph Sleeping Beauty because my toddler shushed me & told me I would wake her up

Need a quick bookish present for a history lover? This history of the 18th-century Byrons includes shipwreck, a murder trial, adultery, approximately 100 elopements (slight exaggeration), incest, & a pig called Mad Pauline Signed pback copies here 🎁🎄> www.foxlanebooks.co.uk/product-page...

Hooray! The British Library has just released a beta version of its rebuilt Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue: searcharchives.bl.uk 2,619 hits for 'petition' in Western Manuscripts, texts in English, in case you're curious. 🗃️

Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):

Wow. Amid horrific news of a shooting at Bondi Beach, this looks like a truly astonishing act of courage.

One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential

After three years and five moves - one cross-country - we finally have a permanent family home of our own. Phew. Let’s have another go at English village life 📚

Wordsworth and Coleridge would’ve tried to launch their own app, but it would be an incredibly embarrassing failure as Wordsworth would never learn how to code and Coleridge would become convinced that a Chatbot was the voice of God.

Ah, two men 'conversing', is it? 😘 (Deux hommes vus en buste, conversant, by Saint-Aubin, 1775)

this is amazing news - the HPV vaccine promises to eliminate cervical cancer in countries where uptake is high.

‘When I want beautiful flowers I gather them on my own, barefoot.’ 🌺 Spending this morning with writer, lover, mother & figure of scandal George Sand – or, Aurore Dudevant – & my goodness what a life! (Portrait by Charles Louis Gratia, c. 1835)

‘When I want beautiful flowers I gather them on my own, barefoot.’ 🌺 Spending this morning with writer, lover, mother & figure of scandal George Sand – or, Aurore Dudevant – & my goodness what a life! (Portrait by Charles Louis Gratia, c. 1835)

We've all been there

Have uncovered the presence of what appears to be a chunky penguin shaking its fist (wing?) at a horse during the baptism celebrations for a new prince in Paris in 1782 Glad to report that research for this book continues to be groundbreaking

We've all been there

Have uncovered the presence of what appears to be a chunky penguin shaking its fist (wing?) at a horse during the baptism celebrations for a new prince in Paris in 1782 Glad to report that research for this book continues to be groundbreaking

At last our special issue, JECS 48.4, is out, all 200+ pages of it! We're very proud of it. Thanks are due to many colleagues, but especially Nuria Yáñez-Bouza for proof-correcting heroics, and the general editor, Emrys Jones, for brilliant support throughout. #18thC #langsky

Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.

Me: trying desperately to concentrate on writing this book chapter My 3-year-old, barging in with no trousers on: Mummy!! Snot is my FAVOURITE DINNER

Appearance of the Comet, 1618-1619 19 Nov 1618 (Rijksmuseum)

After multiple years of coveting & failing to get this in time, I have finally bought my dream Christmas jumper

After multiple years of coveting & failing to get this in time, I have finally bought my dream Christmas jumper

Gown in aqua green, gros adorned with lace and embroidery at the neckline 1780 c. Pitti Palace, Museum of Costume and Fashion (www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/...)

Really excited to be on the judging panel for the 2026 BARS First Book Prize - details of eligibility, nomination, and submission can be found on @bars.bsky.social’s blog: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6174 Do share widely!

Each year we will make a hornier Frankenstein adaptation until morale improves

Regency-era Lord Byron fangirls (& boys): 'That beautiful pale face is my fate' 'the sweetest countenance I ever beheld' 'Byron's countenance is a thing to dream of' 'Lord Byron's head is, without doubt, the finest in our time' Victorian memorabilia:

🚨NEW SERIES ALERT 🚨 What was the Paris Commune of 1871? Join @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social and @davidolusoga.bsky.social as they look at the days leading up to The Paris Commune, the working class revolution that shook the world! LINK IN THE REPLIES BELOW 👇

I am beyond thrilled that my @universitypress.cambridge.org book, Music & Musicians in Late Mughal India: Histories of the Ephemeral, has won the 2025 Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society for the best book written by "a scholar past the early stages of their career" 🙏♥️ #AMSMT25

BARS 2026 First Book Prize: Calls for Nominations Awarded biennially for the best first monograph in Romantic Studies, this prize is open to first monographs published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025. Deadline: 12th January 2026. More info: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6174

The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!