The Government ten days ago released a new strategic vision for archives which makes a strong and convincing case for their central importance. Using it as a yardstick shows just how far short of best practice the BBC Written Archives Centre falls. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/new-strategi...

I learned this the hard way.

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

FFS. Outdated within 24 hours of publication. What are the chances, etc

I wasn’t going to post this, on the grounds that it was a little niche. But then I thought: “Actually, it’s quite a big one, and it’s got an effigy of Anne Boleyn in it…” #Carshalton

On The Thread of her Tale, I wrote about three things that make the truth shimmer out of focus: a drowned village, a house with my family name; a purple coat.

Learned a new word today: sloppergänger. If a.i. uses your words and arguments, and talks for you, you have created a virtual #sloppergänger echoing you.

9 Mar 1540: A commission investigating the Pale of #Calais reports on 13 'heretics' there #otd - 5 were protégées of Thomas Cromwell. This was very bad news for him.

I am reading the will of Sir Henry Wyatt, who leaves a cup with his arms on to Thomas Cromwell and makes him one of his executors. Henry was imprisoned for opposing Richard III, then supported Henry Tudor's claim & became courtier under him (Henry VII). Here he is in prison with a nice cat:

Four strong women for #InternationalWomensDay. More than wives and bodies. Political advisors. Religious reformers. Diplomatic negotiators. International players. Women in their own right. (Also remembering Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr; but I can only stitch the queens Cromwell knew.)

What a horrendous age when 'human-rights obsessed' is understood by some as a sort of insult rather than the standard by which we should seek to operate ...

Much of this also applies to creating artwork. The space between the thoughts and the material result.

Especially for @whitstabletail.bsky.social

The first Wolf Hall Quilt - all 46 ft of it - has its own sofa this week.

Today we talk Stitching Cromwell @worcesteruni.bsky.social

If you are in the Worcestershire area and would like to join us you can book a place here: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/events/engin...

The exhibition accompanies @drelvey.bsky.social 's contribution to the University of Worcester's Institute of Arts and Humanities 'Engine Room Lecture Series'. 'Stitching the World Within and Without Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy', which takes place 4th March 4:30-6pm at the Hive!

Beyond delighted that @drelvey.bsky.social has bought her beautiful work to the Hive at the University of Worcester in this collaborative exhibition 'In the Weave: From Text to Textile - Stitching Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy'

Having a good time at The Hive @worcesteruni.bsky.social with Stitching Cromwell.

Happy publication day to 'Hilary Mantel', published by @livunipress.bsky.social Thrilled to have been able to undertake this project with the support of the excellent LUP team. It's currently 20% off on the LUP website too! www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Today I saw the Cromwell Textile Cloth - a representation of a list of textiles in Thomas Cromwell’s hand - hanging properly for the first time. In 22 years of quilting, I have made precisely two pieces I am completely happy with. This is one of them.

this policy is cruel and will make minimal difference to immigration numbers (as refugees are only a small % of overall immigrants, and most of them come from countries that aren't going to be safe any time soon [e.g. eritrea;afghanistan]). It will actively harm integration and finding work.

I suspect Cromwell would approve of the Chamber of Commerce taking an interest in the Stitching Cromwell exhibition..

Thomas Cromwell looks into his future.

I wrote about Anna of Cleves, Agnes Strickland, and stitching an admirable lady.

Very much looking forward to exhibiting #StitchingCromwell @worcesteruni.bsky.social next week! Come along and see me; I’ll be stitching in The Hive Monday to Friday.

Limited seats still available for June, we’re almost full for event.

While we're on historical parallels, I'm thinking today of Tudor lord Walter Hungerford, whose wife's complaints of domestic abuse were ignored until his patron Thomas Cromwell got in trouble. Only then did people start paying attention. He went to the block in 1540 alongside Cromwell.

oh god. It's going to be a day in which we are forced to tap the 'the world didn't start in 1900' sign every five minutes, isn't it? Anyway, stop firing your premodernists, stop making them feel irrelevant, stop making them do just the introduction sessions of 'the real' history.

Tfw you didn't study much medieval history at school

Oh goodness. I had to read the shooting script for the #ReluctantWidow for a book chapter I wrote a few years ago. The script is even more bizarre than the final film. I seem to recall that it started with a shot of Napoleon. All very odd.

the loss of the World Service would be a tragedy and huge lost of soft power for Britain

I wrote about Agnes Strickland’s opinions of Jane Seymour. And some carnations.

For a day of hearts: initials inside a heart. Included in the First Wolf Hall Quilt (2020-2021): inspired by a letter from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, referenced in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and now held in the Vatican Archives. photograph by Michael Wicks

“He comes into his hall to find versions of himself in various stages of becoming: a tentative outline, partly inked in. Where to begin with Cromwell?” - Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall When I stitch a portrait I usually leave the face until the very end. For Cromwell, the stitching started with the face.

Stitching Cromwell exhibition Monday 2 - Friday 6 March; and Lecture Wednesday 4 March at 4.30pm. The Hive, Worcester.

I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.

It is not down in any map; true places never are.

Some news I’m so happy to share. An exhibition to launch my new business www.marchlands.co.uk Excited and scared in equal measure to be going out on my own! #exhibition #london #allwelcome

Agnes Strickland, Anne Boleyn, and Stitching Cromwell.

It’s me! Talking about Stitching Cromwell with friends @guildmedmak.bsky.social!

Just came across this ticket in my studio. On the train back to London the following day, I said to my beloved “I’m going to stitch that.” 12 years later, I’m still stitching Cromwell. I’m just making a start on my latest Cromwell Trilogy piece, a full length portrait of Jane Seymour.

Doesn't he know that women eat the rage that this induces for breakfast, to make themselves even more powerful and terrifying to small men like this one? I hope the countless women archivists, historians, and annals keepers over the centuries haunt his dreams.

Some good news, though, if anyone has mislaid medieval Britain.

STITCHING CROMWELL EXHIBITION: I’m giving a public lecture, “Stitching the World within and without Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy”, at the Hive, @worcesteruni.bsky.social on Weds 4 March. There will be a Stitching Cromwell exhibition all week. e-services.worcestershire.gov.uk/LibraryEvent...

Anna Regina (2026). Anne Boleyn in her Coronation robes, the second in the Thomas Cromwell’s Four Queens series of 6ft portraits.

4 Jan 1540: Representatives of #Cleves swear #otd that Anne had not previously been married to the Duke of #Lorraine #otd - and so the nuptial wheels move on... (TCC)

In preparation for this year’s #WolfCrawl with @simonhaisell.bsky.social I wrote about Stitching Cromwell and how the archives find their way into each week’s slow read.

Sculpture by Korean artist Do Ho Suh, 2010s-20s, whose fabric structures recreate the places he has lived, reflecting on broader concepts of migration and what makes a "home".

The first person recorded wishing someone "Merry Christmas" was Bishop John Fisher, in a letter to Thomas Cromwell #OnThisDay, 22nd December 1534. "And this our Lord God send you a mery Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart’s desire." 🖼️ Wikimedia Commons