Happening online this month: A talk on the very topic of my recent book, and a class on extracting and using safflower red. Details on plantsandcolour.co.uk/abbasid-inks and plantsandcolour.co.uk/secret-red

It was a joy to chat to @saracharles.bsky.social about her eye-opening and insightful book, ‘The Medieval Scriptorium’. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts or watch our interview on the Talking Tudors YouTube channel. youtu.be/ENs_2uGAYyM?...

When zero cats are required for the task but they show up anyway 🙄

Next Sunday I'll be giving an online lecture for The Last Tuesday Society on my @bodleian.ox.ac.uk book ✨Book Curses✨. I'll be talking about curses like that of John Wryghtson, which sits opposite some rather threatening illustrations of surgical instruments (Ox, St John's, MS 76, f. 5v).

Seminar room with a view… and a helmet! Thanks so much @londonmedievalsoc.bsky.social for inviting me to speak at the Medievalism colloquium today! Brilliant to see Eliot Benbow’s reenactment gear too!

Absolutely fantastic talk from @saracharles.bsky.social today about making medieval ink and parchment. Loved seeing all the materials! You find out more about Sara’s work in her book The Medieval Scriptorium and her @guildmedmak.bsky.social blogpost www.guildmedmak.com/blog/meet-a-...

Wonderful to hear @drlauravarnam.bsky.social sharing her poems on Beowulf and Margery Kempe (including Margery Kempe in Tescos) at the Medievalism colloquium today @londonmedievalsoc.bsky.social

The Hereford Gospels online symposium programme is now online: www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/herefo... It will be on 26 June, 10-4. Please do share. It'd be lovely to have a nice audience.

Last week to register for the LMS Colloquium on Saturday, 2nd May! Co-organised with CREMS and taking place in person at Queen Mary University of London. We can't wait! 😁🎉

Looking forward to speaking about practice-based research at this event!

Ever wanted to learn how those manuscripts you research were actually made? Give it a go yourself! Bookings close 22nd May, bursary deadline 7th April. buff.ly/GEkudq3 #palaeography #paleography #LIPS26

The bursary application deadline for this is 7 April 👇 #MedievalSky palaeography.uk/study/short-...

The British Library’s Medieval MSS team now have a presence on Bluesky @blmedieval.bsky.social Follow for updates as we restore more of our digitised content online!

Thrilled to find out I've been awarded a Bodleian Library Fellowship! I'll be taking up a Humfrey Wanley Visiting Fellowship in the autumn term, researching the residents of medieval Catte Street 📚 #medievalmanuscripts @ihr.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

A really great - and urgent - discussion of the conditions of possibility for doing printing history today - and why we should keep going - given by Elizabeth Savage for @printinghistory.bsky.social. printinghistory.org/awards/eliza...

The “messy” course returns to London’s palaeography summer school, 8-12 June. A chance to make your own medieval manuscript. Places are limited so book now (tell your friends)! #medievalsky taught by the amazing @saracharles.bsky.social @stevelawesarts.bsky.social 👇🎨🫟 palaeography.uk/study/short-...

Everyone is London is absolutely giddy with the sunshine and I am totally here for it

I’ll be talking about my recent research on the Bayeux Tapestry in a public lecture here in Bristol on Thursday 30 April. Attendance is FREE and includes a drinks reception 🍷 Everybody welcome! Please join us if you can and help spread the word! #medievalsky #skystorians

I'll be talking about the messy and difficult (but fun!) processes for making medieval manuscripts on Wednesday. There will also be guest appearances from cats in my presentation 😺 #bookhistory #medievalsky @ihr.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social

Here's a cute little dragon I painted on calfskin (copied from a 13th century bestiary) using traditional medieval techniques and pigments (labelled in second image) #medievalmanuscripts #medievalscriptorium #bookhistory

The amazing Michelle Brown is running her summer school course on Medieval Women at #LRBS this year. In person, in London, book now 👇 #MedievalSky #BookSky #BookHistory ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

Looking forward to March 10th @ies-sas.bsky.social I’ll be talking further about 19th-century book collector, John Bellingham Inglis: his books, his activities, his personal life, his networks, his interests and why we should be interested in his place in #bookhistory ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...

Can historians benefit from creative works for historical research? In this @hsnatsci.bsky.social short piece, I share how I worked w/ different types of making to research and write my recent book on 17th-c. florilegia. Thank you @dominikhhh.bsky.social & @mbaldwin.bsky.social for the invitation!

My amazing colleague @saracharles.bsky.social is giving this seminar on her fantastic experiments in medieval manuscript production on Wednesday 25 February at the IHR. Will be an absolute treat for anyone interested in the history of the book or in getting their hands dirty making things!

A lovely visit to the 13th century St Peter’s at Preston Park, with surviving wall paintings #medievalsky

I went down lots of rabbit holes on this one, but none so fun as chatting with @saracharles.bsky.social about hawthorn ink - which she then went and made/tested!

‘No wonder I got drunk that night. I’d been Chaucer for a week!’ - my article on Kipling’s Dayspring Mishandled, his entertaining and peculiar account of a Chaucerian forgery, is out now with the Review of English Studies! I absolutely *loved* working on this. academic.oup.com/res/advance-...

And bursaries are available thanks to @bibsoc.bsky.social ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

We made ink, quills, paintbrushes, and pigments. We did scribing and illuminating while Hildegard von Bingen played in the background. We did early medieval interlacing and bookbinding. It was such FUN!!! And we’re doing it all again this summer ⬇️

Returning to the London International Palaeography Summer School due to popular demand is our hands-on course that explores the materials and processes of manuscript production through experimentation 👇 #MedievalSky ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

I’ll be reviving my irrepressible double act with Katherine Hindley for London International Palaeography Summer School 2026. We provide an introduction to manuscript studies ideal for anyone starting graduate study. It’s a lot of fun. #MedievalSky 👇 ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

I'm really looking forward to the wonderful exhibition on the Hereford Gospels later this year. I'll also be giving a talk and hosting an ink making workshop if you are in the area in May! www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/from-p... www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/making... @bibliojenni.bsky.social

I’m looking forward to this at the end of the month. There are still a couple of places if anyone has students who would benefit. #MedievalSky @ihr.bsky.social palaeography.uk/study/short-...

I’ll be talking about my experiences of recreating medieval manuscript techniques at the IHR Medievalism seminar on 25 February (hybrid) @ihr.bsky.social #bookhistory #medievalsky www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Could you be our next Creative Practioner in Residence? For 2026 we are keen to support a practitioner with interests in creative writing, particulary poetry. Monthly stipend of £1000 (up to 3 months). Apply by 6 Feb 2026. universityoflondon.smapply.io/prog/ihr_cre...

As we come towards the close of the year we at the Guild of Medievalist Makers wanted to share our 'Year in Review: 2025', written by Guild co-founder @hellomizk.bsky.social. Thank you to all of the Guild members who have made 2025 an excellent inaugural year🎉

An interim version of the Explore Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue is now available through the BL website: searcharchives.bl.uk It contains all the catalogue data from the eve of the 2023 cyberattack, and features embedded links to all currently available digitised content within the records.

A press release from the University of Bristol about an exciting new article by @benpohl.bsky.social and published by Historical Research: www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/de...

My tasty take (pun intended) on the Bayeux Tapestry—a subject on which I had vowed never to publish. Available Open Access with @ihr.bsky.social. See what you make of it, and bon appetit! academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

A 🧵on all the courses on offer for our London International Palaeography Summer School. All information about the summer school, bursaries and booking information can be found here: buff.ly/WP2GKLD

This is going to be such a great addition to #bookhistory!

Christmas choir at Senate House 🥰

Reading Rooms at the British Library are closed *all week* because so many of its workers refuse to work for pitiful wages in a contemptuously authoritarian and obliviously managed environment. We need leaders who get it and are big enough to sort it out! It’s a mess and a disgrace. Lift it up!!

Booking is now open for Making Medieval Manuscripts! A practice-based course where we make ink, cut quills, illuminate, make pigments and bookbind, using #medieval techniques and materials. We also explore early medieval art. No experience necessary! #bookhistory ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

📣Booking is now open for the London International Palaeography School 2026 📣 We are running five 5-day courses, from practical hands-on 'making medieval manuscripts' to an introduction to Arabic manuscripts - don't miss out! 10% discount if you book before 23 Jan! ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

#DigiBodAdvent day 2, the so-called Amesbury Psalter (All Souls College MS 6). Come for the prefatory miniatures, stay for notated antiphons and extensive evidence of the book's use by John Grandisson bishop of Exeter (d. 1369) digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/4c70...

Are you bored of advent calendars yet? I hope not, because I'll be highlighting 25 of the amazing medieval manuscripts added to Digital Bodleian @bodleian.ox.ac.uk this year. #DigiBodAdvent

So excited to be among such eloquent writers for this panel on writing books for a general audience #IMC2026

#IMC2026, Weds, 8 July, 7pm! Four medievalists who've published 'trade' books will discuss the process - from finding an agent to working with publishers & beyond. Sponsored by @ihr.bsky.social. @realmandeville.bsky.social @saracharles.bsky.social @eleanormaybaker.bsky.social @imc-leeds.bsky.social