This is wonderful:

'The Epstein files reveal a patriarchy in action. This is a world where the men are rich and powerful, and the women are not. The emails showcase the private behaviour of a male ruling class, as they network, joke and trade information.'

It looks like Wandlebury Hill near Cambridge might have been used as an execution site in the ninth century #medievalsky www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

Wow, super exciting!! 🤩

Looking forward to reading this new book by Conor O'Brien. academic.oup.com/book/61836?l...

"The problem of the lack of papyrus [after c.1000] forced a receptiveness to new forms of papal government which the high medieval 'reformers' were able to move into and exploit from about 1050"... Absolutely enthralling new article by @cjg70.bsky.social and Ben Savill (Open Access). #medievalsky

my dad didn’t go to university and he was extremely happy to pay taxes for his four children to do so; and, indeed, for the doctors who treated him at Addenbrookes to have gone to university as well.

Final call for the @bsrome.bsky.social and Early Medieval Europe early career fellowship, for a month's stay in Rome plus some travel costs to get there. Deadline tomorrow. bsr.ac.uk/awards-resid...

@webstermedieval.bsky.social @kbneal.bsky.social I know you would appreciate this effort by my OH this evening. Absolutely gorgeously yummy 😋

Finalising my article on King John's spies is going "really well". Today i have been researching King John's son, Oliver fitzRoy, as well as instructions for horrible things John's officials might do to hostages, neither of which have anything to do with espionage 🤔😬

I have a treaty which sets out that the count of Toulouse will bring an army of at least 500 knights and 10,000 foot soldiers. Is it just me or does this seem very large? 🤔

An opportunity to listen to my great colleague Martin Wright talk about what is a fascinating book. If you have not read it, I fully recommend. 👍

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

AotW: Theresa Jäckh, 827: al-Nuwayrī on the Beginning of the Muslim Conquest of Sicily, in: TMH 3.1 (2021), DOI: doi.org/10.18148/tmh.... *We are looking for authors: ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/transmed/ind... !* #medievalists #medievalsky

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

Beautiful afternoon on The Broads

That moment when you put all the parts of a book MS together and realise that the word count is waaaayyyy out, because apparently you have forgotten to include every chapter that should be there 🙄 On bright note, peacemaking sourcebook is now finally finished. 😀 🎉🎊

This is a really interesting post, which complicates what I thought we knew in the best possible ways!

It me! Online attendance also available; book on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/professor-...

Holy fucking shit this is awesome use this now cybernews.com/security/dev...

Inspired by a colleague saying she’d like a lesson on how to read a runic inscription, here’s a lesson! open.substack.com/pub/jasminhi...

Apparently it's #RedSquirrelAppreciationDay, so here's a red squirrel shot taken yesterday. Not sure who needs a special day to appreciate red squirrels 🤔🤣 📍Cumbria, UK #UKwildlife #mammals

Das Programm für unser diesjähriges Forum zum britisch-irischen Mittelalter (19.–20.3.2026, Innsbruck) ist da: fobim.hypotheses.org/forum-2026. Eine Online-Teilnahme ist möglich, alle Infos auf der verlinkten Seite. #medievalsky #skystorians

Have an hour before the Manchester derby so catching up on my research on materiality and spies before 1200. How about this altar cross, produced in France c. 1160-1170, showing the spies of Canaan bringing back grapes. Now in British Museum: www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

I've spent part of this afternoon recording an interview with Dr Andy Mycock about the many interesting effects of life with a phallic surname. You'll hear us on BBC Radio 4 in April, but in the meantime those near Manchester can catch him in person at (and fundraising for) the Portico Library. 🐓

'The grave included a fully harnessed horse' ... 😍

An interesting PhD opportunity (i.e. job!) at Oslo on the project POLYCHROME: "Candidates should propose a research project that examines, in one form or another, historical sources that shed light on changing attitudes to medieval objects after the Reformations in the Scandinavian countries."

If anyone is wondering how my writing is coming along (e.g. @kbneal.bsky.social for John's spies), I have spent the last hour writing an ode to my bottle of bubble bath...

🎺🎺 Tari, tara, die Francia ist da 😎 Ab sofort sind die Beiträge der Francia 51 (2024) frei online verfügbar! U.a. mit J. Haemers und F. Buylaert zu "Murder as »Good Lordship«" und F. Rexroth zu Hermann Heimpel in Strassburg... Hier geht's zum Heft: journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/fr...

London bound for research, yay! No large research notebook with me, but that's OK because I have also forgotten my purse with all cards so will definitely not be visiting the BL reading room... (whispers: "I remembered a pencil...")

OH "knocked this up". It's such a beautiful trinket box 😍😍😍 but it is not for me 😭😭😭

French universities continuing a time-honoured tradition of educating the finest spies. Now only available to those with French citizenship, but in the 12c open to Englishmen such as Walter de Coutances, Thomas Becket and John of Salisbury 😀: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Since this has been reposted by an old friend…

Provision against fake news, Statute of Westminster I, 1275 (3 Edw. I, c. 34)

In response to my snowy picture, my sister sent me this, from the slopes near Östersund in mid Sweden this morning. They're trying to encourage me to break out the skis in Norfolk aren't they? 😂

Yay snow ❄️ 😍 Another 100 days or so of this and there'll be enough for me to go skiing 🤣🤣🤣

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

B****y Google AI is crap! Every time you type in a Latin place name (or other phrase) in Google, you now get a random AI summary of something completely unrelated. If you are really lucky, it provides this in modern Italian...Previously, you could get up examples of documents: more useful 😡😡😡

Translating a letter of Walter of Coutances (dated to 1196) and have found the excellent expression 'corisco cooperto', meaning 'a pig in a poke'. That is, to buy or accept something without first viewing or assessing it.

Interesting interpretation of early rune stick. In Swedish but with good English summary at end of pdf version.

I'm re-naming 23 December as 'taste testing day' and establishing it formally as a part of Christmas, because it's the day OH cooks everything that can be pre-cooked: ham, bacon-wrapped stuffing, beetroot salad, meatballs... 😋 😋 😋

Review book ms, get paid in books. What's not to like 😍😍😍😍

Super interesting study (have now looked at it fully), raising questions, e.g. about the extent to which education in UK is geared wrongly on very narrow, subject-specific instruction as opposed to a broad inter-disciplinary one.

Can’t get access to the full study, but abstract and extended intro look very interesting. Would be interested to see whether gender was factored in at all.

14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

'Creative Medievalisms Now: Writing the Middle Ages Today and Tomorrow', forthcoming symposium at Cambridge. A two-day symposium for writer-researchers working on medieval materials to reflect on craft, research processes, and work in progress. Booking essential: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-m...

I love Google translate, it has all the best suggestions: '...the scabby and upright men of St Omer...' [1221]. 'Scabini' (law men) are the same as 'scabby' right?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Vacancy: Assistant Professor of Celtic, with a specialism in Old Irish, University of Cambridge. #MedievalSky www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

Please…the temptation… I spent 6 yrs teaching a module where I made absolutely clear to students that as a comparative and diplomatic historian, I view Alfred as a minnow - very small fish….