We’re welcoming applicants for a fully funded history PhD project researching the first 100 years of the UK's Public Record Office, ahead of its bicentenary in 2038. Find out more and apply here by Friday 8 May: phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2475... (1/2)

25 June 1593 “Robert Clarke & Jone his whore married” at All Saints, Leicester. 👀 Go Jone!

“Alice the late wife of Robert Bilbrooke was buryed” at St Martin’s Leicester in 1582. That’s either a uniquely spurious use of “late” or there were some really interesting burial practices in Elizabethan Leicester.

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...

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...

Looking forward to discussing The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary at the Boswell Book Festival in May. I’ll be talking with Gordon Turnbull, editor of Boswell’s journal. In person or tune in to the live stream! You can find out more about what's on offer at www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk

Once again reminding all academics in the UK that they really, really, really, really should sign up to @alcs.co.uk Lifetime membership is £36 and they take it out of the money they collect for you so it really is "free money". I'm getting a little over £100 *every year*. Do it!

It’s been out a while now, but Rosemary Sweet and I have written a book about #18thcentury British travel to Spain and Portugal that is free to download here! uclpress.co.uk/book/no-coun...

It is lovely that the Art Gallery of Ontario can now name the Black woman in the gorgeous #18thc portrait they acquired 6 yrs ago & also date the painting. It's from 1775. She is Eleonora Susette, enslaved by the Dutch governor of Guyana, accompanying his widow on her return to the Netherlands.

Very pleased to announce that TAKE YOUR RESEARCH PUBLIC is back for 2026. It's a practical course supporting PhD students and academics working on historical topics to translate their work into public-facing scholarship. Runs 2-23 June online. Apply by 20 April @dcahf-met.bsky.social

Thanks to everyone who came to our inaugural seminar! It was wonderful to hear from Dr. Akhimie and to discuss the upcoming exhibition @folger.edu. Our next session will be on 2nd March. We'll be joined by Dr. Elise Mitchell. Full details below. kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...

My new article, 'Selling Education in England, 1650-1715' is now out (open access) in the English Historical Review! academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

The London Topographical Society funds £1,000 prize in honour of the late Dr Ann Saunders (1930–2019) for an original research essay on the topography, development or buildings of London in any period. 8,000 word submissions should be made by 1 April 2026. #skystorians #18thC #londonhistory 🗃️

Astonished to learn that my book Contesting Earth's History is suddenly, perhaps for a brief window, almost affordable. Why? Who knows.

The Georgian Lords welcomes in the new year with a post by Robin Eagles on the likely identification of new Black voters in 18th-century London and Hertfordshire: historyofparliament.com/2026/01/05/s... #HistParl #skystorians

Cheese, wigs, and even some Shakespeare as I discuss Pepys’s diary on the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast for @folger.edu! www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

From the FT

'I wish it could be Christmas every... er... month?' We all know that Parliament abolished Christmas in 1647 (boo!), but they also created a new monthly holiday (yay!), enforceable by magistrates. The actual Christmas ban caused riots later that year, but after that was barely enforced.

‘Although he can’t pay the rent on “my poor little house” without going into debt, he can see the future: himself a great man, his wife no longer obliged to keep household accounts “even to a bunch of carrot”.’ @deborahfriedell.bsky.social on the deciphering of Pepys. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Absolutely nobody asked for this BUT English Anglican cathedrals that have burned down, fallen over, and sank into the swamp: a thread.

Thank you for this generous review! A lovely end to the year ☺️

It was a packed out event for our lecture on Samuel Pepys’s diary of the 1660s by @kateloveman.bsky.social FSA. You can watch the recording at the following link. Please note that this talk contains sexual content and references to assault. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrsh...

Weren’t these 2 married at some point?

On Thursday I’m talking at the Society of Antiquaries about how 19th-century editors dealt with the scandalous contents of Pepys’s diary (and who leaked the unpublishable bits) 👀 The talk is live-streamed and tickets are free www.sal.org.uk/event/samuel...

I enjoyed being interviewed by Suzannah Lipscomb for Not Just the Tudors, now on BBC Sounds! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Day 7 of our Books of the Year dives into British history, scandalous secrets and even buried wheels of cheese! 🖋️📖 Kate Loveman’s (@kateloveman.bsky.social) 'The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary', the winner of the 2025 Samuel Pepys Award, reveals private details never before published! 🤩

1620: seeking predictions from an angel, Richard Napier asks whether one of his clients will 'live long & prosp[er]' #earlymodern 🖖

Second row, top right ☺️

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

PhD position, project: LangPro Women in the Early Modern Language Sector careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/PhD-posi...

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

I am thrilled to share my new open-access article on John Evelyn, his wife Mary, eldest daughter Mall and their complex, multifaceted relationship with clothing has been published in @historicaljnl.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This is my talk from earlier in the year at Bletchley Park on reading early modern shorthand with a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model with a few extra bells and whistles. Combining my hobby with work! youtu.be/O79kcyAfBcM?... #pepys #earlymodern #ai #aibom #cybersecurity #machinelearning

Another review for Inside Story. On Kate Loveman, The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Dairy @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org @kateloveman.bsky.social katefullagar.com/2025/10/31/g...

Angels and Demons is just like when I went to CERN with dry ice and everything.

Spotted in Leicester 🦇🎃

How was Robert Knox, son of an EIC Captain and captive in Sri Lanka for nineteen years, immediately identified as an outsider aboard ship when it was inspected on his arrival in England in September 1680? His beard was long and old-fashioned. #earlymodern #skystorians

a tiny bit of good news is that we have secured funding to digitize john milton's copy of holinshed's CHRONICLES (1587). the images will form part of MILTON'S LIBRARY, an open-access site featuring the 10 books positively identified as milton's w/ transcriptions/translations of his marginal notes.

1066 And All That (1930): “Among the famous characters in the Restoration were Samuel Pepys, who is memorable for keeping a Dairy, and going to bed a great deal, and his wife Evelyn who kept another memorable Dairy but did not go to bed in it.”

Someday I will learn to competently use “quote post” but today is clearly not that day.

Congratulations to Kate Loveman on winning the 2025 Samuel Pepys Award for her book 'The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary'. 📘 🏆 Find out more about the book 🔗 https://cup.org/47hzdrI

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

200th anniversary of the first passenger railway this weekend. Also 200th anniversary of the publication of Pepys’s diary. Not actual footage

The John Lewis Christmas theme this year seems to be alcoholic mice.

Enjoyed writing “Prep for Romantics, Murderbot” on my teaching calendar for this term. Not in the same session, unfortunately.

Episode 732 starts with @jackewilson.bsky.social taking a look at the different ways that 10 writers have viewed the Bible. Then Jacke talks with Kate Loveman about her new book on Samuel Pepys. #books @universitypress.cambridge.org @kateloveman.bsky.social #booksky

Celebrating 200 years since the publication of Samuel Pepys’s Diary! 📜 Author @kateloveman.bsky.social shares what inspired her to write ‘Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary’. 📖 Read more 🔗 https://cup.org/4paZtex

Happy Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone Day to all who celebrate 🎶

Lovely to see this write up of our project in the Smithsonian Magazine. #EarlyModern 📜 🗃️ @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/r...

Fantastic post on the blog today by Joe Black, who discusses Lady Bindloss's booklist--evidence of what books she bought, how she ordered them from London, and even how she shelved them by color earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/2025/08/20/l... #EarlyModern #HerBook