So, three answers to this: Joy (2015) is the only film I wanted to walk out of (couldn’t because of husband). Rise of Skywalker (2019) was such a missed/wasted opportunity. The Marvels (2023) is the only film I regret seeing in the cinema, which breaks my heart given my love of Captain Marvel.

Entering my 2nd month of unemployment (10/10 do not recommend losing your job the week before Christmas) & my gay audacity wants to pursue my dream of starting a bespoke, humanities academic publisher. I love editing, & I want to bring the human back to publishing. Anyone interested in joining me?

I’ve just finished (re)watching Wes Anderson’s 12 feature films in preparation for my book on TGBH, so I present to you my official™ ranking: 1. The Grand Budapest Hotel 2. The Phoenician Scheme 3. Asteroid City 4. The Darjeeling Limited 5. The French Dispatch 6. Moonrise Kingdom 7. Isle of Dogs

We are looking for a new Joint Book Reviews Editor to join our editorial board. They would cover the period from 1800, working alongside Kirstin Barnard, who covers the medieval/early modern period. You can check out the full Call for Expressions of Interest here; and please do also share widely.

New research article: 'Strangers in the Marketplace: False Work and Foreigners in Late Medieval London', by @bethanyldonovan.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

“It’s time to buck up, it’s time to get serious and stop being complicit,” he told reporters. “I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought kneepads for all the world leaders … this is pathetic.” It amazes me how Starmer et al. can't comprehend what we all can see...

In the 1650s, Hester Pulter wrote that “all confusion from ambition springs”. It’s like we haven’t learned in the 370+ years since…

A little over a week left to get those EOIs in. We have already received some great proposals, so it's shaping up to be an excellent day.

A little over a week left to get those EOIs in. We have already received some great proposals, so it's shaping up to be an excellent day.

LeMonde said, not on our watch

How I’m walking out of 2025:

New research article: 'The Monarchs’ Bills of Mortality: A Geographical Analysis of Death in Seventeenth-Century London', by @jmotis.bsky.social and Katherine Kania: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Can be early modern, Dekker and Webster fans!

my favorite thing about the benoit blanc movies is that they aren't really about benoit blanc. he is not grappling with demons from his past. we are not getting flashbacks to the husband whose murder he never solved. he just shows up and does his job like mary poppins for homicides

Christmas shopping season is an apt time for our latest 🧵 on our editorial board's favourite past London Journal articles, as this one is on @jackhanlon.bsky.social's pick: Victoria Kelley's 2020 article, 'London's Street Markets: The Shifting interiors of Informal Architecture'.

I am very excited for this workshop: please do submit an EOI or get in touch if you have any queries. Publishing a journal article doesn’t have to be a daunting experience, and we are very proud of our support for ECRs.

If you can, go see this on the big screen. It deserves it!! 😍

I am very excited for this workshop: please do submit an EOI or get in touch if you have any queries. Publishing a journal article doesn’t have to be a daunting experience, and we are very proud of our support for ECRs.

So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game. On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad? WRONG!

An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.

We are running a free workshop at @tandfresearch.bsky.social's office in South London on 30 January 2026 to support early career scholars in developing their work into a publishable journal article. Expressions of interest due by 16 January. See here for more details (and please share widely!)

Here's a seven-point peace plan:

💀💀💀

Compiling an ongoing thread of threads that we have produced about the Viewpoint articles the journal has published this calendar year in conjunction with its 50th anniversary celebrations, for which we also published this special issue on 'London's Past Today'. 🧵

Applications are now open for the Curriers Prize, awarded by the Worshipful Company of Curriers in association with ourselves and the @ihr.bsky.social for the best entered essay on any aspect of London's history from Roman times to the present.

As a previous prize winner, I can hardly recommend this enough: it’s a force for good in the study of #London history, and publishing with @thelondonjournal.bsky.social (with the gentle support/encouragement of @aidannorrie.bsky.social!) was a delight. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Our latest Viewpoint article is out: 'Guilds and Companies in London, 1200–1700: Contexts and Comparisons' by @mpdavies.bsky.social. A 🧵 on the insights provided by this article into the history and historiography of these key metropolitan institutions in the medieval and early modern periods.

May you all find someone who believes in you like Yodel insisting that my parcel is still “out for delivery” with only 6 stops before me… at 11.11pm on a Saturday night 🤣🙈💅

My favourite genre of scholarly work is stuff inspired by an academic's childhood. This is GOLD!

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars. OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Hivemind, I need your wisdom. My third years have an assignment where they create an edition of an early modern source. Previously, I showed them the Pulter project website, but its fanciness intimidates them (it’s well beyond what they need to do). So, I need something else to show them. Any ideas?

What many people on the right fail to grasp is that not everyone is obsessed with money. I’m a lecturer and literary historian because *I* want to be: I’m under no illusions that it’ll make me rich. And… that’s fine? My job supports the book and gin fund, which is really all I need 😉

Considering getting this passage from the NYT article printed on totes for our art history majors. Too much?

A gentle reminder: if you claim you're "too busy" to do peer review, but are still publishing peer-reviewed material, then you are--quite literally--part of the problem. If everyone else took your attitude, then you couldn't publish, either. This is especially important for senior/employed people!

I use Britney’s Work Bitch and/or TayTay’s Look What You Made Me Do. 10/10, would recommend.

"i just use AI for-" say no more, i already think less of you

Just over 2 weeks until this book is finally out in the world! My chapter is on the Platonic resonances in the show's conception of reincarnation. I watched Avatar when it was released, & I love that 20 years later, my thoughts on the show will appear in print. mcfarlandbooks.com/product/theo...

The latest issue of the London Journal - Volume 50, No. 2 - is out! A 🧵 of its contents...

Imagine a photo was taken of a gay, Jewish, Black man. Only *one* of these three characteristics is 100% ascertainable from this photo. How do I mask the homo? I don’t speak. How does a Black person hide their skin colour? Hint: they can’t. I am disgusted that Starmer’s Labour has sunk this low.

NEW VIEWPOINT ARTICLE: Gary G. Gibbs, 'Parish Studies and Medieval and Early Modern London History', available open access. 🧵

I’m so smad. I opened this and thought for a moment it was a Funko of the Luggage, and I was ready to spend all of the money 🥲🥲🥲

Can’t believe we’re at the final panel of #RenSoc25 😮 Very excited though for panel 9.1, on Friendship and Flirting in the Renaissance. First up is Lanyu Chen on ‘Flatters or Friends: Uncovering the Hidden Friendship in Thomas May’s Cleopatra’ Love me some Plutarch in the afternoon 😉

It’s the final day of #RenSoc25, and we come to panel 8.6, ‘Writing Women in the Seventeenth Century’… featuring moi! Excited/terrified about debuting work on the next book, but am looking forward to my co-panelists’ papers. ☺️☺️☺️

Very excited to be attendng panel 7.10, Masque and Antimasque, at #RenSoc25. First up is Rebecca Bailey on Thomas Salusbury’s “An Antimasque of Gypsies”, which was performed at Chirk Castle on 30 December 1641

First paper in panel 6.7: Foundation Myths across Borders in Early Modern Europe Collapse at #RenSoc25 is Jonathan Sawday’s on the Renaissance Search for Homeric Troy, with reference to Thomas Browne’s Of Troas. Loving that I get to stretch my (very dormant) classicist muscles.

Chairing a panel on Monarchic Relations at #RenSoc25. The brand really is branding 🤣🤣 First up is David Zirak-Schmidt on two Latin poems written for the wedding of James VI and Anna of Denmark in 1589. James’s hat game was always legendary. 💅

En-route to the @srsrensoc.bsky.social conference in Bristol to be a real academic™ for once! Very excited for 4 days of early modern goodness with a bunch of cool peeps 🥰🥰

This issue includes my review of @krheyam.bsky.social's truly excellent book, _The Reputation of Edward II, 1305–1697: A Literary Transformation of History_ (@amsterdamupress.bsky.social) journals.shu.ac.uk/index.php/Ma...

Obviously, as the managing editor of @thelondonjournal.bsky.social, I don’t play favourites… HOWEVER, I am beyond excited to have published this excellent piece from the excellent @tracelarkhall.bsky.social! Free access for the next 3 months, too 🙌

I've kept thinking this week about how a PhD is a 'terminal' degree... the longer I'm in this game, the more convinced the medical definition was actually what was intended...