Daily Telegraph today:

Paperback publication day!

Penning Poison is out in paperback soon! Exciting!

Danish morning walk:

🎉Welcome at AIAS today:3️⃣4️⃣ fellows start in either an individual fellowship, in a theme group or in a tandem fellowship. They arrive from diverse research areas with explorative projects to be hosted and transformed at AIAS in an #interdisciplinary, #international community aias.au.dk/events/show/...

One more in the series 'is this the same person many years apart?' What do we reckon?

Another is this the same person a few years apart. Is he even wearing the same suit? This one is from Swansea, taken in the same photography studio:

Does anyone think these photos could be of the same woman, a few years apart?

Objects of Poverty edited by @joeharleyhistory.bsky.social & Vicky Holmes, is out in just over a month. It includes a chapter by me about cobbled together whistles. The cover features one of my whistles plus a bonkers barometer. Pre-order your copy! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/objects-o...

I last had time to sew in November. I'm trying to get back into it. I'm bad at faces, so apologies to @arifa.bsky.social for my version of the cover of your amazing book (which I loved so much). Rules : I reuse materials I already own / I can't spend longer sewing than reading

And what about the word "HOMO" (in which all letters are crossed out except for the "M"), including a small "z" as part of the M, you may ask? That's easy and tricky, and here I need a bit of your help.

Bit later than some, but happy to have finally finished my marking and have had a little holiday up in Scotland. If anyone knows of any teaching opportunities next academic year. Or if anyone needs a freelancer to do some archival work, please get in touch.

Preorder your copy now!

As one of the UEA eight, I think this is a very important question.

Exactly this. What’s striking across the HE-bonfire-board is the meanness, the triviality, the TINY amounts saved in these cuts. Lives ruined through job loss at worst, fear/burnout/disengagement at best. And for truly trivial savings compared to the cost of one yachted-in management consultant

Eight compulsory redundancies. Just how much do you hate your staff that you go through the trouble of destroying the livelihoods of these colleagues, for just *eight* salaries. What's that, in relation to the entire operating budget of the university? www.uea.ac.uk/about/news/s...

Most of the news is horrifying and this story from Bourton-on-the-Water is no exception. Brace yourselves: a family of eight arrived for a picnic to find that… other people were also having picnics 😱 www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/whats-on/wha...

The desire to take a fixed address was assumed as a given in modern British society. But what how did ideas of sedentarism affect the lives of Gypsy/Traveller children and families in Scotland? Becky Taylor explores, in tandem with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month: www.historyworkshop....

Hello, random person who left their passport photos inside volume one of Somerset Maugham's Complete Short Stories in the UEA library. Anybody know who it is? I'd like to reunite them with their pictures.

Handwriting gang, help me! Annie what? Liverpool 1875:

Quote skeet with a picture of the airplane you'll accept as a bribe

Anyone in need of kitten / puppet action for three minutes ought to go here (obvs thinking of you here, @noreenmasud.bsky.social ) : www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T_K...

Can anyone help me with these three signatures from 1882, please!

Ok, so in big career news - this very exciting thing is happening. I'll be moving to Denmark after the summer. I can't wait to meet all the other new fellows!

Trying to read the excellent Victorian Female Detectives by @victoriandetective.bsky.social — but Kevin wants to draw my attention away. I want to get back to a great case study of Clara Layt in 1897!

This is a sewing pattern. It is also a page from a late 14th century manuscript that is one of two primary sources for an important Icelandic saga (Sturlunga saga), but that was probably not important to the 17th century person who really needed a sewing pattern. #upcycling

Love this. (cc @rummage.bsky.social )

On the day that history's biggest troll again takes power, listen to this podcast about trolling, by @lizfraser1.bsky.social and featuring me! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...

It is time again to get the palaeography packs ready for the new students:

The neighbours are doing a street advent calendar. I’ve smashed four windows and not found any chocolate. AITA?

Metalwork for Monday: 10th-century bronze handbell bell from Co. Armagh, now in @nmireland.bsky.social: OROIT AR CHU(M)MASCACH M(AC) AILELLO [a prayer for Cummascach son of Ailell], likely the steward of Armagh who died in 909; cracks & rivet holes show use & repair - history written in imperfection

Found poem: [Squiggle] There is no pen like this pen This pen is like that pen This pen is just a biro Testing out a pen Tes

@yalebooks.bsky.social have a half price ebook sale. You can get Hubbub half price (with code ebook)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an essay about the reality of working in a UK university 'system' that may be broken beyond repair. It evoked quite the reaction! If you haven't read it already, it's here: voicesofacademia.com/2024/04/05/i...

Ten years since I knitted R2 to go with the Yoda I knitted for my son:

A List of Things People Blamed on Short Skirts 🧵

The latest cover embroidery is The Undesirables by Sarah Wise. A heart-breaking book, written in Wise's wise and wry style. Usual rules: I need to have loved the book / need to reuse materials I already have (this is getting ever more difficult) / need to spend less time sewing than I did reading.

I was asked by @historytoday.com to pick out my favourite reads of 2024 - a tough job! I settled on Sarah Wise's The Undesirables, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social's Nostalgia and Maddy Pelling's Writing on the Wall. None are going to be easy to embroider! May switch to the PBk version for Nostalgia ..

1/ 🚨 Conspiracy theories about the 2024 election miss the bigger picture. The truth? It wasn’t one night, one hack, or one fraud. It was a system rigged in plain sight – right in front of us. The playbook was out in the open for years. But hardly anyone paid attention. Here’s how they did it... 🧵

We are unable to cope with #PlasticWaste and #PlasticPollution now. #PlasticsTreaty must limit (slash) production, for #PublicHealth and environmental conditions #PlanetaryBoundaries www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Other recent book cover embroideries include @naomiaklein.bsky.social Doppelganger and Tiya Miles’ All That She Carried. One day I will sew them into a quilt of reading:

I embroider the covers of books (ultimately to make a quilt) using reused materials. Latest cover is The Stirrings, a memoir by Catherine Taylor.

Collecting bookbindings made from reused medieval manuscript fragments offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of recycling and craftsmanship. Each cover tells a dual story: the book it protects and the manuscript it once was. #BookHistory #RareBooks #MedievalManuscripts

170 redundancies proposed here at UEA, reaching across all faculties and services. Utterly grim day.

Thank you Anne Kennedy Smith @thetls.bsky.social (Times Literary Supplement) for this very generous review. My new book, ‘A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season’, is available now from wherever you buy your books ☺️

How winter makes recycling harder with 40% jump in contamination

Fifty years ago, two-larder-Thatcher claimed ‘everyone’ hoarded; it was prudence, a ‘sensible piece of housekeeping’, as her (very wealthy) husband Denis was set to retire. She seemed unaware that many people lived on what they could week-to-week, with no surplus. www.rummage.work/blog/hoardin...

Got a non-supporting stud wall and need more book space? Swap it for bookshelves.

One of my favourite things from this year … @rummage.bsky.social ‘s embroidered version of my book cover 💚🍃💚