Took Floss to the theatre for the first time. She was VERY serious and then VERY pleased. On the way home she took a micro-nap, woke up to find me eating a pastry and was VERY betrayed. So today Floss ate pain au chocolat for the first time too.

A reminder of what Nigel Farage said following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

Imagine being so unable to love your child that you set fire to the whole damn world instead.

A huge huge joy of being an NT Artistic Associate is, obviously, seeing the shows. But I am about to see a preview of the War Horse revival and I know I am going to dehydrate myself weeping because I can’t think about the damned horse without tears.

As a Londoner who has spent a number of summers in Australia I am fully signed up to the theory that London heat is uniquely unbearable. In Aus I sleep in a room with no aircon and a full on duvet, but the house is designed for cooling so it's fine. Right now my bedroom is 30C. Torture

The fan is broken.

I'm a huge proponent of the idea that we need boredom and we need to learn to enjoy it. Just existing with nothing so stimulating it stops a wandering mind or captures you're attention. Genuine think it's one of the most important things we've lost to tech, yet it's a huge help to mental wellbeing

Messy play. What on earth. Florence absolutely adored it. I am a husk. BUT it was joyous watching a bunch of former NICU babies go absolutely insane for edible sand, water, cornstarch, bubbles.

Cardiff Uni wants to scrap the 2nd floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library. 7km of books and vital study space gone to make way for classrooms. Please help us save this crucial campus resource before it's taken in June! Add your name here: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Can someone please remind me why Dan Miller resigns in The Thick of It, and if Josh Simons is the new Dan Miller?

Hooting in the dentist’s waiting room

I'm sorry I don't care what happens next but I refuse to have a prime minister who looks like the lego version of himself

Agreed at work today that one actually good use of AI would be if you could explain aloud to the copy/print/scan how you wanted your complex document to look and then the damned thing did it and nobody swore/conferred at all

Have spent >5 hours sorting, scanning, and packing books as I clear my office.

Why does it look like Rachel Reeves is officiating a wedding between Keir Starmer and Gordon Brown

Requesting everyone’s thoughts and prayers at this time because the baby decided to have two really short naps and finish the second before 4 pm and my wife has a parents’ evening and the baby is a crawling dervish of mischief. I think she just tried to put me in an armlock

Is any other British English speaker deeply annoyed by the use of “folk” for “people” or should I just drink the second half of this coffee?

Every day I think about how depressed Jane Bennet had to babysit her multiple nieces and nephews while their parents took Jane’s younger sister on holiday That’s when I’m not thinking about how “impoverished” Meg Brooke née March started her married life with a servant

Emily has confessed that there were TWO dead mice, that another visiting cat (Simpleshanks) was seen with a third in his mouth this morning and that a red kite just flew over with Life in its claws why am I living in a David Attenborough o God

today the visiting cat seemed jaunty and then I found a dead mouse on the patio. I screamed DEAD MOUSE DEAD MOUSE and fled with my necrophobic self to the front room. Emily dealt. I told the cat he was a villain and disgraced but he just ran up and down the garden and rollicked.

I’ve given this a great deal of thought, trying to come up with the perfect joke for this moment, and this is what I have so far - POPE LEO: our religion teaches that this war is bad VANCE: wow, who died and made YOU head of the Catholic Church?? POPE LEO: well, you should know, you were there

I have painted nails and my baby is very censorious. Keeps examining them and sighing like a Calvinist aunt.

The Humorous Historian #skystorian #academia #academicchatter

Going to the Oliviers with team NT tomorrow. Agog.

Spring once again signalled by the reappearance of elderly ginger cat on south-facing bin shed roof on our street. He is immortalised on nearby mural but I love his mortal form and its predilection for scritches.

Today is, I think, my last day with the Hamlet company at the NT. First met the core of this lovely company when I was pregnant. Now F is 1. The company in all its forms has been so delightful. The NT’s 2026-7 programming is irresistible with LOTS to look forward to, but I shall miss this show!

US about to destroy Iran but honestly in any circs I would be so uninterested in stupid Artemis and stupid moon/space business in general that my boredom makes me angry. What is point.

The linked posts are a joke, right? They have to be a joke. Somebody is rage-baiting me into feeling what I’m feeling now. This is late leftover April 1st content, SURELY

Les Liaisons Dangereuses press night tonight! I saw the preview on Monday and it is looking sensational. Very excited for another viewing and for the marvellous company.

My life would be unworkable if I hadn’t got over train sickness (as long as I can always face forwards!).

Today I’m grateful for: friends who come to walk round the park with me and F; seeing neighbours in gorgeous Eid outfits; Dr Beckmann’s carpet stain remover for when F, teething and windy, necessitates its use.

This afternoon, whenever we attempted Second Nap, the baby wailed until I returned to her bedroom, then laughed uproariously.

Thrilled to announce that the baby now has a library card!! I have promised that she will obey the laws of the library. Rash.

I’m not Muslim and I’m pretty sure it’s in britains national interest to stay tf out of another American war

Dramaturging this (King Lear, Ian McDiarmid, dir. Titas Halder!) later this year. Thrilled to announce, etc!

Today, our Director Indhu Rubasingham delivered the 2026 Jennie Lee Lecture, making an impassioned plea for risk-taking as the lifeblood that fuels British creativity. Read more here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/news/indhu-rubasingham-delivers-2026-jennie-lee-lecture/ 📸 Katya Ilina

The baby can be conned into finishing her bottle if you show her the snowboarding or the ice dancing or some sufficiently whooshy skis. She has woken up with the roundest face and a pleased smile.

Easy to laugh at Helena and the rest in Midsummer Night's Dream #MoonMad. But - on this day - here's Sinéad Morrissey's & Forgive us our trespasses (from Parallax, Carcanet, 2013), which I've long loved. (Partly prompted by finishing Sarah Perry's beautiful Enlightenment, SO good on the unrequited.)

I never manage to take photos @nationaltheatre.org.uk press nights but MAN AND BOY is fabulous; clever and cool; the cast esp Ben Daniels having a lovely time and while we all thought it spoke to our time, my GOD that’s only intensified since it was programmed. Great gang great play.

Sir Guenter Treitel came to the UK on the Kindertransport. He became the foremost authority on English contract law. Famously, he held the Rolling Stones to their contract to play the Magdalen Ball in 1964 for £100 - they had suddenly become superstars after being booked as unknowns in 1963.

🚨History Job: Assistant Professor in Early Modern British History (Permanent) 🗃️ Come work with us at Warwick! You will join a group of excellent early-modernists and one of the nicest bunches of historians around! 👇👇👇 @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

I have started seeing online prose (threads, substacks, articles) which due to their authorship I would SWEAR was not AI-written. In their tricolons & pacing they sound AI. I worry that the near-ubiquity of AI commentary is making non-sloppers echo the rhythms of emotionally manipulative slop.

I do regret that I have never climbed the Great Tower, but anyone who tried to climb it with me would regret that more.

Chatting with a collaborator this afternoon and had to reschedule due to my baby brutally rejecting sleep for 3 hours. We rescheduled for after his toddler’s bedtime. Now his toddler is still awake. This makes me feel better (and also that our 2006 selves would be highly astonished).

Should they have cared about all this before now? Yes. Did you reach the right position before them? Sure, here's a gold star. Do we need their numbers to make this work? Yes. Please stop acting like the hipster who knew about this band before anyone else. We actually do need the normies.

I just thought I’d invented a business plan of “meals on wheels for people on maternity leave” but then realised that’s deliveroo

Reminder that Reform UK featured a notorious antivaxxer as a keynote speaker at their recent conference. The UK is not immune from this weaponized idiocy.

Feeling alone at Christmas? Why not join an annual virtual party started by Sarah Millican on X but now here?! I’m doing my best to keep this tradition going. Use #JoinIn on Dec 25 if you need company or just want a chat. Like/Save this feed to see all the #JoinIn posts bsky.app/profile/did:...

Some much-needed good news, including • renewables overtake coal as source of electricity globally • new oceans protections pledged in the High Seas Treaty • landmark litigation to facilitate accountability for climate breakdown • indigenous wins at COP 🌱❣️🌊 www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

The UK's return to Erasmus+ in 2027 is fantastic news for young Britons & young Europeans. Erasmus+ opens up exciting opportunities to study or train abroad, boosting openness & cooperation. We're looking forward to welcoming young Britons to Germany!