new romantasy dedicated bookshop is opening in Oxford today and 10/10, no notes

I like this.

I’m low-key fascinated by this. Which colleagues and friends? Why?

Sylvia Townsend Warner's OPUS 7 is dedicated to her uncle, Arthur Machen. #booksky

MSA folks - in Loughborough or not, you can check me out on the virtual session beginning in 20 minutes! I'll be talking about Naomi Mitchison and Wyndham Lewis's collaboration Beyond This Limit. Imagine getting to see more art like this? 12:15 Virtual session, RM 2!

Cool to see Decades volumes on the @bloomsburylit.bsky.social stall at BAMS/MSA #WeirdModernisms.

And please do consider us when deciding on homes for your "Weird Modernisms" papers! We don't mind *controlled* chaos 📚💥

I don’t know why “we prefer calm, not chaos” is the @spacebetween.bsky.social new slogan now I’m officially no longer co-president. Just kidding. I know why! I’m just a chaos agent these days!

Glad to see @spacebjournal.bsky.social @spacebetween.bsky.social represented at @modernistudies.bsky.social @moderniststudies.bsky.social Weird Modernisms…

Reading F.E. Smith on the Marconi scandal is *interesting*… (This may be niche even by my standards)

I love finding gems* amongst the books bought by the yard to decorate pubs and hotels. (Your definition of ‘gems’ may well vary…)

I have questions… Suitably weird room in the @modernistudies.bsky.social @moderniststudies.bsky.social conference hotel.

Such absolute SHITE from Labour. STILL less than half of 18-yr-olds go to university. STILL a majority don't. STILL the politicians want to blame universities for... something...

Revised my paper on Sylvia Townsend Warner’s wonderful Opus 7 (gin - villages - female eccentrics - freedom - more gin!). I also did lots of full e-mail stuff. But gin! (I’m not saying Warner is in this video, but I’m not saying she isn’t, either) youtu.be/P21PY2xPAUM?...

Agatha Christie once noted that she always assumed she'd be able to afford a servant but never thought she'd be able to afford a car (and this was post industrial revolution obviously)

In other news, over 500 staff - 14% of all academic staff - are currently at risk of compulsory redundancy. 85 per cent - 445 out of 523 - of the full-time equivalent staff at risk of redundancy are based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Struggling to parse this. Exeter is celebrating its overall global ranking to 136th, comprised (it reports) of 151st (Natural Sciences), 131st (Life Sciences & Medicine) and 76th (Arts & Humanities) while announcing plans to make 25% of Arts & Humanities staff redundant. Does this compute?

Seen lots of “don’t swim without lifeguards” messages - this is *exactly* why Lidos were built in ‘30s - til then kids & w/class folk swam in canals. The decline of Lidos is a public health scandal & we need public support to restore @simonforstroud.bsky.social savestroudlido.org/when-we-get-...

what i would like a government to do is to stand up and outright say: we will not take any stance on how many people should live in this country, because such 'number go up bad' nonsense is the root cause of vast and unjustifiable misery for both migrants and "natives".

"The government will repeal the Vagrancy Act on Monday 29 June 2026, ending nearly two centuries of legislation that has criminalised rough sleeping and begging" www.gov.uk/government/n...

This is very good, and needs reading. (I knew Zayd Dohrn long ago as a student; I did occasionally wonder what he was doing now, as one does)

How UK higher education -- and education policy/the country in general -- is viewed in Germany. Wie peinlich. What a mess.

Always my favourite Nabokov-themed beer.

a thing about being queer that I can’t really articulate right now is the gutwrenching feeling of progress pride flags everywhere and going to a centuries old formal event that now has loads of visible queerness going on. and at the same time billionaires are trying and succeeding to roll it back

“Of course I was exaggerating. But it is agreeable sometimes to talk in primary colours even if you have to think in greys.”

“I tell you this, my friend; all men are cowards. They dislike a fact except when it is so wrapped up in lies and sentiments that the sharp edge of it cannot hurt them. When a man tells the truth he his, depend upon it, a dangerous man.”

@sophiasgaler.bsky.social I loved loved loved How to Kill a Language, Sophia, fantastic book. But Cornish was not felled. We are here. Omma yth eson ni. Bew on ni hwath, we live still. And we are growing. It hurts to see our name listed among the dead.

Eric Ambler, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Screenwriter, #BornOnThisDay in 1909, in London 📸 Elliott Erwitt (1952)

Pyth an Jowl yw Rann III? What the Heck is Part III? sordya.net/2026/06/28/p... Ni a styr agas gwiryow #Kernewek nowydh. Hogen mars yw res dhis batalyas dhe gavos prow anedha yn hwir... We explain your new #Cornish language rights. Even if you might have to fight to actually benefit from them...

In this hunger-inducing essay, inspired by nearly 20 years of trying to spice up university catering, I discuss the lows & lows of this 20-year battle and why winning it is a question of justice, being & belonging. Decolonising catering is not just about good jollof. folukeafrica.com/decolonising...

The strange ghosts of conferences past… (No, I’m not going to explain)

This is wonderful.

May I remind #UKHE of the Cost Allocation Death Spiral.

Bring back the ‘research note’!

The Great Arse’Tuin

Children embrace Cornish language as it enjoys ‘remarkable resurgence’

Discworld QOTD, from The Last Continent

On March 26, 2026, during a debate on violence against women in Germany’s Bundestag, left-wing MP Kathrin Gebel was repeatedly interrupted by AfD MP Martin Reichardt. She responded: “Mr. Reichardt, the clitoris has 3,000 nerve endings, and you’re still more sensitive. That’s quite an achievement.”

As someone with Dutch family, can confirm.

The problem with Dutch is that it sometimes sounds exactly like your racist uncle pretending to speak Dutch

Cute little library, but doesn’t quite live up to the billing.

This, but for pretty much all ‘management red tape’ in universities. Yes: I do believe fully and gratefully *you* have your student’s best interests at heart. No, we can’t ignore all the regs that seem to suggest otherwise. And I really *can’t* tell you who made me strict about the regs.

I hadn’t thought of this - I should have, as I was a translator and editor for academics a long time before I ever bacane one - but it’s a vital point.

This. 👇 I'm freelance and self-employed, but the closure of university departments and academic redundancies affects me because I do para-academic editorial work for academics and universities - and if they don't have jobs, I won't have work!

I remember various well-meaning Americans during the Winter Olympics insisting on ‘Torino’. And my Torinese friends pointing out it’s ‘Turin’ in Piedmontese…

Pass this on. You never know who might need it and it could make a huge difference if someone is struggling for whatever reason

The team in my union won development leaves for non-tenured faculty for the first time in our chapter’s history. Everyone deserves to develop professionally, not just research faculty. We’ve done this without a negative impact on previously negotiated leaves for tenure-track folks.

fuck this shit to hell and back

What I really hate about the AC discourse is that it's yet another instance of seemingly intelligent and knowledgeable people reaching for a "cultural" explanation for what is ALWAYS a historical, (infra-)structural, MATERIAL reason.