Just in case I have any booksellers and book Shops in the UK and or Ireland following me, please tell me about your shop.

A new year, which will bring a new book, and feels like a new chapter in lots of ways, merits a new picture. Grateful to the talented Petra Herbert, who specializes in taking pictures of women, for welcoming me to her studio in St Pauli in December. Happy 2026, everyone. Let's make the most of it.

Someone has (kindly) retweeted an ancient 🧵of mine in which I make a case for -occasionally- looking on the bright side to find strength to improve things& now some trolls have decided that I am a horrid heartless person who is minimising their very real personal problems. Happy new year everyone.

Well I cannot pretend to be sad to see 2025 go. Wishing everyone a smooth and joyful ride into 2026. Let‘s make it better. ❤️🍾

Well I cannot pretend to be sad to see 2025 go. Wishing everyone a smooth and joyful ride into 2026. Let‘s make it better. ❤️🍾

Great. This has ruined my evening. (Never meet your hero and all that.)

Best Books about Eleanor Roosevelt? Go.

I did not expect this.

With the upcoming BBC Charter review we have a very interesting bit of work out tomorrow on public service broadcasting. Watch this space!

🧵

Put that on the paperback

Calling all followers working in British universities and science. Am well aware of all the difficulties with funding etc. BUT. Tell me what is great at your Institution? Recent breakthroughs, fantastic Labs, wonderful libraries, etc?!

I usually stay out of this stuff but the intrusiveness is grating. As is the need her siblings feel to talk to the Media.

It is my opinion that people should focus more on "How do we get through the next five years?" and less on "If only it was 2015 again!“

Prime Minister of Poland. 🇵🇱

It is in my opinion a more realistic and constructive way forward than to yell "Rejoin tomorrow“.

This is all deeply weird

Excellent article by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social

This is wonderful and also true. The analogies you draw, the thoughts you suddely have, the roads you pursue, the structures you comprehend, simply because a piece of art or theatre shakes you up and makes you think differently.

The fact that this insight is served with a heavy dose of almost superhuman confidence is the cérise on the gateau.

Oh dear oh dear.

Fabelhafter Satz.

Very much agree with this general point. There is never a perfect or safe moment for making a significant move, foreign policy-wise. And while we wait for it, things can unravel in ways that make everyone less safe.

Remember one particular conversation with a former civil servant in his living room in 2019 who said it was all about "sovereignty“ and "democracy“, as there was no "European Demos“. Then, I went to Scotland, where plenty of people told me there was no "British Demos“. 🤔

Oh look it‘s spreading. (Reality, that is.)

Well

The whole idea that studying the history of a country constitutes an attack on the history of a country is deeply deeply stupid.

There are think tanks, NGOs, etc that inform and analyse in order to promote serious political debate and others (most?) much more interested in making lots of noise....front runners in first group include @resolutionfoundation.org @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social and @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Politicians and pundits who describe themselves as atheists while preaching "cultural Christianity“ are an *interesting* feature of current British politics.

I find this deeply depressing.

This is very true and it affects authors too, because you know that every sentence you write could be taken apart aggressively and in bad faith.

Happy Thanksgiving to American followers.

Patently untrue. But a good line.

Fellows of the Society are elected for their 'original contribution to historical scholarship'. Our new guide provides more on the many ways Fellows achieve this - with activities going well beyond publications bit.ly/48mpcJa We welcome Fellowship applications from historians of all kinds 1/2

Great library of Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Libreria 1537-1560, designed by Jacopo Sansovino, influential Italian Renaissance architect & sculptor, died #OTD 1570; the library originally housed rare Greek manuscripts bequeathed to Venice by acclaimed scholar Cardinal Bessarion.

Ada, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, mathematician & a pioneer of computing; born 1815, died #OTD 1852. #WomeninStem Painted by Margaret Sarah Carpenter 1836 UK Government Art Collection

Deleting (once again) because of wild ways in which things are being mosunderstood.

Britain: American taxes and Scandinavian public services for the old. Scandinavian taxes and American public services for the young.

On Bregman, I was there in the audience and I can’t see what the BBC have gained by removing this line except more bad publicity. I will say that no such edits or censorship occurred when I gave the Reith Lectures and free-speech defenders might want think about whether this is the world they want.

Not good.

This is so important. People who study international relations love to fight over whether interests or values define relationships. It is both. An interest is something you define. And your values come into the equation. It is not either or.

This nonsense is not just mad and pernicious, it is just wildly entitled. Of course there are problems in Britain. But have a little look at the world around you, or indeed at the past. Where will you have such a nice free secure future? Genuine question.

I represented @houseoflords.parliament.uk at a Summit in Stockholm to remind the world of Crimea’s plight since 2014: killings, children sent to Russian camps, cultural heritage destroyed etc. Zelensky put it powerfully in his speech to us ‘Putin wants legal recognition for what he has stolen’.

We found that Jewish people were targeted with a wave of hatred & calls for violence on X after the heinous UK Heaton Park Synagogue attack. Following this research, more than 30 cross-party MPs & peers are urging Ofcom to take action against antisemitism on X. More in @politicshome.bsky.social ⤵️

This week we also launched a new Applied History Fellowship scheme, with @ihr.bsky.social and DC Thomson: bit.ly/4ijiuII Fellowships will support recent post-doc historians and demonstrate the appeal of historical skills for employers. £12,000 for 6 months. Closing date: 31 Jan 2026 #Skystorians

In 2010 I first spent an extended period of time in the US on research. And my main takesway from that time was how deluded Europeans in general are if we think of the US as little more than a very powerful extension of Europe on the other side of the Atlantic. This is not an anti-american point.

Good morning and welcome to your short thread of FT Weekend highlight giftlinks for this very cold morning. Why not stay in bed and enjoy some high quality journalism. Links are free 300x that's all I have and the actual paper with all the weekend journalism you need is in the shops now!

Why do men think LinkedIn is a dating Site? Don‘t answer that. I am just screaming into the void.

This is very true. I supported lockdown because on balance it seemed necessary to avoid a catastrophe and because it seemed like the least back option. I still thought it was a terrible thing especially for children. Thinking that does not make me a lunatic COVID-sceptic.

London is wonderful.