Thank you @tattydevine for this shiny new necklace celebrating the release of The Testaments ❤️ Excellent timing as I'm so baby-tired I generally don't remember my own name these days Gutted not to make the Disney+ London celebrations today, but I have some brave historical women's lives to reclaim!

They truly do not make royal commemorative wares like they used to Bring back the hand-painted tankards with nips out, you cowards www.bonhams.com/auction/3224...

Some twelve year olds are chasing boys & indulging in a bit of light shoplifting, apparently I was at home drawing bad pictures of Henry VIII’s wives (I guess Anne B was my favourite) Sometimes I look back and the career path seems a bit inevitable really

I think it is really interesting and important to talk about "male art and literature". Usually men's art and literature is just framed as "human art and literature" while the stuff women make is "women's art". Men's art has answers/clues about men's lives - not about human lives. About men's lives.

Do I know anyone on here familiar with 18th-century French legal documents? Currently attempting to transcribe a legal record of 1790 & struggling for all the abbreviations Please DM me if this is easy for you!

Well who *wouldn't* want to be a member of the ... *squints* ... 'Free and Independent Codgers' 📜 18thC invitation to a Club dinner www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

I’m IN LOVE with whoever cast Lucy Briers (i.e the OG Mary Bennet) as Mrs Hill in The Other Bennet Sister Adding a whole new layer of emotion for those of us raised on 1995 P&P. Listen to Hill, WE LOVE YOU MARY

This was one of my favourite reads of 2025, so hugely looking forward to catching up on the first episode of #theotherbennetsister later 🌺 📕

This was one of my favourite reads of 2025, so hugely looking forward to catching up on the first episode of #theotherbennetsister later 🌺 📕

Tackling this massive bastard today … going to be a cheery one 📖 Any Marat fans out there? Personally I’m looking forward to the bit where he has to go and live in the sewers & gets a skin disease

This is very important and a major pet peeve of mine. If you don’t know what you’re doing- and if you learned on the internet, then sorry, you don’t know what you’re doing- please leave old gravestones well enough alone.

We are thrilled to share that our Human Authored scheme is now live. This scheme has been designed for the benefit of SoA members, to help identify works written by humans in a market increasingly flooded by AI-generated books.

In a talk to young writers last night I showed this viral tweet as an e.g. of public engagement I was gobsmacked when a number of people came up & said they had already seen it loose on the internet (w/o my name, obviously) Clearly drunk cat is my true & most enduring legacy, & I wish him well 😽

Just a lovely evening speaking at Wollaton Hall about writing & the world of non-fiction publishing, & meeting so many aspiring young writers 🤓 Sadly no sign of Bruce Wayne, but you can’t have everything

To be in with a chance of winning a copy of the @womensprize.bsky.social longlisted Kingfisher, share this post and tag a friend you think would like to read it 💛 *UK only. Closes midnight Sunday 29 March 2026. The winner will be notified on Monday 30 March. #Booksky 📚💙

Never mind the endless Jane Austen adaptations, here's a period drama I'd watch: Prison Break, except it's 1740s London & the hero is a 5 ft 4 Herefordshire woman called Elizabeth, with massive hands & massive feet Come on @netflix.com it's what we all want

The ‘Sappho’ fresco from Pompeii. A beautiful Roman portrait of a young woman for #InternationalWomensDay She holds a writing tablet, and raises a writing stylus to her lips in thoughtful contemplation. 55-70 AD. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples 📷 by me #Archaeology

Never mind the endless Jane Austen adaptations, here's a period drama I'd watch: Prison Break, except it's 1740s London & the hero is a 5 ft 4 Herefordshire woman called Elizabeth, with massive hands & massive feet Come on @netflix.com it's what we all want

Aspiring writers! The folk at Wollaton Hall (aka Batman’s house) are running an event for young people hoping for a career in writing I’ll be there to talk history & non-fiction, alongside brilliant children's authors, poets, & novelists 🗓️ 10 March, 4–7pm wollatonhall.org.uk/writing-for-...

Aspiring writers! The folk at Wollaton Hall (aka Batman’s house) are running an event for young people hoping for a career in writing I’ll be there to talk history & non-fiction, alongside brilliant children's authors, poets, & novelists 🗓️ 10 March, 4–7pm wollatonhall.org.uk/writing-for-...

I love Fiona Sampson’s work on Mary Shelley so I’m VERY excited to have my hands on her new biography of the incredible Aurore Dupin / George Sand Swipe for the jazzy real cover, it’s out now ⭐ Congrats @fionasampson.bsky.social & thank you for the sneak peek @doubledayuk.bsky.social 📚

I love Fiona Sampson’s work on Mary Shelley so I’m VERY excited to have my hands on her new biography of the incredible Aurore Dupin / George Sand Swipe for the jazzy real cover, it’s out now ⭐ Congrats @fionasampson.bsky.social & thank you for the sneak peek @doubledayuk.bsky.social 📚

Me when trying my best to write a fairly grisly & emotional French Revolution death, but my toddler is insisting on listening to Westlife over and over and over and over

Avoiding that other Brontë thing for reasons, I recently watched 'Emily' with Emma Mackey instead. I thought much of it was beautiful & – though obviously very fictionalised – quite moving. Wonder what the rest of the history world thinks? #wutheringheights

A brief escape to the 17th century, where one writer is giving his suggestions for heartfelt inscriptions on poesy rings to a lover Truly a lost golden age of roman-... oh wait no never mind #17c

Happy Valentine’s Day to this magnificent royal wedding gown of 1774, now in the Marie Antoinette Style exhibition 😍 This dress of silver brocaded silk – similar to that worn by the 14-year-old Marie Antoinette at her own wedding – belonged to Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta, future queen of Sweden

Happy Valentine’s Day to this magnificent royal wedding gown of 1774, now in the Marie Antoinette Style exhibition 😍 This dress of silver brocaded silk – similar to that worn by the 14-year-old Marie Antoinette at her own wedding – belonged to Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta, future queen of Sweden

As we are all talking about Wuthering Heights these days here is my own pilgrimage (many moons ago) to Brontë country, including Top Withens, the ruined farmhouse that supposedly inspired Emily 🌸

Have had a WONDERFUL day at the Marie Antoinette exhibition in London & have treated myself to a decadent can of red wine for the train home Has this EVER been a good idea?

Lady Amelia Darcy, c.1764, aged 10 In 1778 – as a married mother of three – she would elope with the handsome but DREADFUL Jack Byron (future father of the poet). She regretted it quickly, as her letters with her first husband reveal. Coming up for auction... will accept as a birthday present 🎁

Lady Amelia Darcy, c.1764, aged 10 In 1778 – as a married mother of three – she would elope with the handsome but DREADFUL Jack Byron (future father of the poet). She regretted it quickly, as her letters with her first husband reveal. Coming up for auction... will accept as a birthday present 🎁

Today's writing: the ruin of Marie Antoinette 💎

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