'Warner's originality and her detachment from any literary school have tended to an undervaluing of her achievement in general, but posterity may well regard her as one of the great belletrists of the century.' (Claire Harman, DNB) Isn't 'Belletrists' marvellous!

The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂 Booking available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...

‘We’ve got a library with no books, no readers, no digital content, no front-facing staff & absolutely no clue!’ ‘I can’t pay my rent with prestige,’ ‘They started running the library as a shopping centre,’ ... posters... appeared ... a few years ago: ‘If it happens in the library, it’s research’

A party @ox.ac.uk on Thursday to celebrate the work of Ros Faith with a magnificent book edited by @hannah-boston.bsky.social & @richardpurkiss.bsky.social. Speakers emphasized her commitment to 'treating the peasantry as people with minds of their own'.

Can you help @nationaltrust.org.uk buy- and care for - the land surrounding the Cerne Giant to help protect this numinous landscape? www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/cerne-abba...

Just out! As @sarahsemple.bsky.social says, '544 pages and 190 images of pure sculptural joy!' A fantastic cast list and a tremendous achievement @ascorpus.bsky.social. boydellandbrewer.com/book/early-m...

Many congratulations to my colleague and very old friend Marios Costambeys and his entire team for winning one of these! Early medieval monasticism rulez 💪https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2025/ifw-25-96

The serpent head of the Oseberg Viking ship, carved in 820, and shown for the first time to the public in the Oslo Historical Museum

A marvellous book on one of our guys, and a surprisingly rich source of #OTDs.

The latest @timeteam.bsky.social feature length episode focusing on our excavations at Cerne Abbey has gone live. It's fantastic to see the work we've been doing over the last couple of years shared with everyone! 🏺 🐈‍⬛ youtu.be/DY68mzYXWK8?...

The Government have published the Curriculum and Assessment Review report and their own response. We have a short statement expressing our views. www.history.org.uk/secondary/ne...

Today in my Viking Age module we read Ibn Fadlan’s account of a Rus’ funeral, with this article in particular prompting some great discussion. Always find something new to talk about in this text! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

BBC News - Solid silver Saxon cross found in Leeds field goes on show - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Here's something you don't see every day. Our President Professor Jane Geddes's new theory of Sueno's Stone now on a t-shirt, courtesy of @northernpicts.bsky.social! Is this the first time a conference paper has made it to a t-shirt?!

To mark the launch of Colmán Etchingham's Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland, Boydell & Brewer are offering a **65%** discount on the book until the end of November. Enter the code BB158 when ordering it from their website (individual not institutional orders): boydellandbrewer.com/book/vikings...

Very exciting news for those interested in early medieval England: a hugely important new volume on crops and food supply (by Helena Hamerow, Mark McKerracher & the FeedSax team) is now available Open Access academic.oup.com/book/61548?l...

Of interest for anyone who enjoyed the Words on the Wave exhibition in Dublin this summer.

If you'd like to know more about Cedd and his chapel at Bradwell, check out the Open Access book published by @uclpress.bsky.social that I edited a few years ago: uclpress.co.uk/book/st-pete...

Essays in honour of Ros Faith, brilliant topics and a terrific volume recognising one of the most friendly and engaging of medievalists www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/book...

The Book of Kells by Victoria Whitworth - Out Today! The Book of Kells is probably the most famous manuscript in the world – and Victoria Whitworth's masterly treatment offers something new. Get your copy here! - https://bit.ly/48HEVnQ

Happy Wednesday! Here are some recent medieval news stories you might have missed. First, a forgotten medieval abbey in Cerne Abbas, Dorset: tinyurl.com/socmedarch25 And a medieval knight beneath an ice cream parlour: tinyurl.com/socmedarch26 (Image of excavation: Piotr Wittman/gdansk.pl)

Wirksworth still v significant royal holding in the Peak in Domesday with lead mines. Lead from Wirksworth sent by Abbess Cynewaru to Canterbury in 835, so some connection. In Mercia as in Northumbria, stone sculpture v important source for early ecclesiastical history. Here a lost female house? 3/

A warmly evocative tribute to Jinty Nelson by Alice Rio: 'Her openness about her family & how much it meant to her turned her into an inspiring role model to generations of younger women...she somehow made you feel that you could be yourself, & that this would not be counted against you.'

Free book download of collected papers on Knowledge Commons ‘No Horns on their Helmets? essays on the Insular Viking Age’ #medievalsky #history #vikingsky #archaeology works.hcommons.org/records/xc6k...

Is the Book of Kells from Pictland rather than Ireland? Great to see this @theguardian.com piece about @victoriawhitworth.bsky.social's new book on Kells, published by @headofzeus.bsky.social next month: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-k... www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

A chill in the air and some blushing crabapples are telling me autumn has surely arrived now. Have a great week everyone.

Get to see this before it goes in October!!!!

THE PICTISH ARTS SOCIETY CONFERENCE!! Day 1, Metal and Metalwork Day 2, New research on Pictish Art and it’s Context Book below! facebook.com/events/s/pas...

Today is the feast of Edith of Wilton, d. ca. 984. 🕯️ My hero for fighting Æthelwold over her wardrobe and winning. Read more here: blogs.bl.uk/digitisedman... Gotha Forschungsbibliothek Membr. I 81, a 14th-c. MS, contains copy of her Vita by Goscelin. #medievalsky

Coming next spring ... yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Agenda is up for the Pictish Arts Society conference 2025, happening online on Sat 4 and Sun 5 October. Papers on metal and metalworking in Pictland, plus latest updates from @northernpicts.bsky.social and new research on Pictish cross-slabs and bull carvings. Tickets from £12.94. Not to be missed!

Check out the great line up for our 2025 - 2026 lecture programme. Full details at www.royalarchinst.org/events/lectu... Lectures are held in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, at 5 p.m and on our YouTube channel.

Another major aDNA paper on early medieval Europe. Hard to keep up.

This is the medieval church of Westerwijtwerd with its unique mural of two Frisian fighters.

Aug 31: Feast of Cuthburh (Cuthburga) (†c.725). She wed Aldfrith, king of the Northumbrians, but later became nun at Barking then co-founded double monastery at Winburnan (Wimborne) with her sister Cwenburh. Austere to herself but kindly to others. Wimborne Minster 📸Memorino #medievalsky

Sad news. A pioneering woman historian.

RAI Vacancies: Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer Full details are available at www.royalarchinst.org/news/2025/va... Applications to be submitted to the Manager at [email protected] by 31st August.

Zoomorphic Handle from Donore, Co. Meath 8th century. My favourite little face in ‘The Word on the Wave’ exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St #medievalsky #ireland

It is great, but buy it while you are there. I made the mistake of not buying it when I was visiting the exhibition (too much luggage already) and I had some difficulty getting hold of it afterwards as there were problems with the online shop (many thanks to Shane of NMI for helping me out).

Heads up! The brilliant @victoriawhitworth.bsky.social’s Kells book is in Waterstones’ upcoming summer sale. I had the pleasure of engaging with the book when it was being written and it’s splendid - evocative, rigorous, step-changing. Get your copy on preorder at an excellent price! Code: SUMMER25

What a lovely homage.

We're back with some recent medieval news stories you might have missed! First up, an excavation shedding light on the tough lives of Early Medieval women: tinyurl.com/socmedarch9 And then we have new insights into medieval Dongola: tinyurl.com/socmedarch12

In case you missed it on the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Delighted to see that Sarah Semple ‪@arcdurham.bsky.social‬ is now a Fellow of the British Academy! Among her many achievements, she's done so much to ensure the completion of @ascorpus.bsky.social. Congratulations Sarah.

we would be in a much better state in this country if we stopped focusing on anointing a chosen few working class students into Oxbridge, and instead properly funded all the different sorts of universities that attract students from a wide range of backgrounds already

Happy St Swithun's Day!

Should rattle a few cages!

It was a great privilege to attend Jinty Nelson's memorial event this afternoon, organised by @kingshistory.bsky.social. Speakers reflected on Jinty as a teacher, researcher, mentor, collaborator, friend, colleague, and defender and promoter of the historical discipline and profession 1/2

For those interested in Æthelstan, charters, or early medieval succession, look out for my new article in the Journal of Medieval History - available on early view online now - doi.org/10.1080/0304... #medievalsky