In an increasingly depressing world, I can't offer insightful takes on current events but I can offer mild distraction via lots of puns and silliness about the French Revolution and #FrHistory

An extract from my stand-up routine on the French Revolution. Excuse the poor sound and image quality. youtube.com/watch?v=SSLV...

On the way to do my stand-up set on the French Revolution at @brunelmuseum.bsky.social this evening. Really looking forward to it, and to seeing the other sets!

Great to see this well-deserved positive review of the book born of @mjgronau.bsky.social's PhD thesis (which I enjoyed co-supervising)!

As a complete dweeb goodie-twoshoes who seeks external validation, I used to love school parents' evening. Now, I've just come back from one for my son in Reception, and I get a similar feeling.

@smidbob.bsky.social is a great historian and I'm sure his book will be fascinating, as will the launch!

I've read so much about anticlericalism in French history, and yet I still don't understand what its supporters had against office workers. (An unused joke from my comedy routine on the French Revolution, perhaps for good reason)

My four-year-old has returned from his first 100 days in school. Looking back at his achievements and policies, he's made good progress and hasn't made too many U-turns.

There are still tickets left for this, if anyone is interested in jokes about the French Revolution and engineering!

Really looking forward to performing stand-up on the French Revolution at this event!

My four-year-old, whilst we sat on a bench together in the park: "I love you. Even when you're angry, I love you. Even when I'm angry, I love you. Even when you're a bit annoying, I love you." Maybe we're not completely failing as parents. I hope he feels like that forever.

Just saw a Reform billboard with the slogan 'Family, Community, Country.' Hard to know whether they're aware that it's worryingly close to interwar pseudo-fascist and WWII Vichy France's tryptich of 'Work, Family, Country/Fatherland.'

Bilingual four-year-old, after I said "Be careful" as he nearly cycled into someone on the pavement: "Daddy, I don't like it when you speak in English."

A pamphlet written by supporters of the far-right extra-parliamentary league Croix de Feu from inter-war France. I was struck by the racist, incoherent, angry rantings of a disturbed individual with a penchant for odd capitalisation. It rang a bell for some reason... Je dis ça, je dis rien.

Not doing much better this morning: had to rush to get my son to school, then realised a few minutes later that I'm wearing two different trainers.

Aujourd'hui, le premier des livres issus de ma thèse a été publié! Destiné à un publique francophone et plutôt littéraire, il sera accompagné d'un autre ouvrage plus historique en anglais.

Got on the wrong train on the way home, after running for the correct one and getting there in time. I was desperate to get back ASAP to relieve a friend looking after my son after school. Now I'll be almost an hour later than planned.

Giving a departmental research paper today in which I'll discuss the challenges of my research on the occupied Rhineland. One is the sheer number of archival documents: calculated that I've read c.7,000 pages resulting in c.64,200 words of notes. Still have another 18,000 pages to read through.

My four-year-old this morning: "I love it when you wear your glasses but I don't like not when you take your glasses off. You look like an old man, and I don't really like old mans, unless they look good."

There are much bigger problems in the world, but: having to run to school with your son, then run for a train, sweating profusely, doesn't set you up brilliantly for a day of intensive teaching followed by an open-mic stand-up spot in the evening.

The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (CSLBS) is excited to announce 3 new roles on our groundbreaking Valuable Lives project! 🔍 Open roles: • 2 x Research Assistant (Digital Humanities) • 1 x Research Fellow (Digital Humanities) 🗓 Closing date: 23 Jan 2026 shorturl.at/OCpLP

Just uploaded a recording of the SSFH Douglas Johnson lecture to the society's youtube channel. You can explore some past lectures there as well: www.youtube.com/@societyfort... 🗃️#skystorians

I've come into my office today both for office hours and to force myself to revise an article. Great progress: my office is now extremely tidy, various scraps of paper have been sorted properly, and my bookshelves are even more ordered than before. It's the work equivalent of washing up.

Brilliant round table online ahead of print from @frenchhistory.bsky.social on “Colonisations: notre histoire”, a history in reverse of France and empire, written by 268 contributors (!!!) doi.org/10.1093/fh/c... 🗃️

This roundtable from @lmebroch.bsky.social @alisoncarrol.bsky.social Daniel Gordon and Laura O’Brien on blogging French History is free to read until the end of February doi.org/10.1093/fh/c... Come for ‘blogs build academic communities’, stay for the COVID diaries. 🗃️

Nothing reinforces that I'm under average height more than when it's raining and I'm holding an umbrella, stretching and bending my arms to avoid hitting other people.

Proof that if you don't use it, you lose it: last night, I read a French book to my 4-year-old son containing the word 'biberon,' and he asked me what it meant. It was one of *the* main words of his life for years, one he used to say a lot.

Just noticed predictive text means I'd entered a work 'all-staff meeting' in my calendar as an 'all-stars meeting' - if anything, I'd say that those who consider themselves stars are less likely to turn up.

Proud former PhD supervisor moment: I've just read the first review of @mjgronau.bsky.social's book 'Deutsche Minderheiten in Frankreich und Großbritannien: Im Niemandsland der Identität zwischen 1914 und 1924'! Found here: B.Braber (2025). Immigrants & Minorities 43(3): 568–570. (Link not working)

Just opened this letter. I have direct experience of the horrific impact of knife crime - a sibling witnessing their boyfriend being stabbed to death three years ago - and yet I wholeheartedly reject this narrative, and Reform's divisive, disgusting politics.

May 1923, the Interallied Rhineland High Commissioner informed the German Commissar of the Occupied Territory that recent acts of sabotage carried out by people from unoccupied Germany were organised by the new 'ultra-nationalist' NSDAP, the military wing of which was led by a certain Hitler.

Off on a week-long archival trip to Paris. I've only spent a total of two nights away from my son since he was born 4 years 3 months ago, so it feels bittersweet to be leaving. Yet I know I'm very privileged to have not needed to spend time away so far.

If you'd like to see an amateur comedy routine vaguely on the subject of peer review involving lots of puns and me forgetting a line, look no further! Credit and thanks to @drstevex.bsky.social for the video and, as always, being a very funny, supportive compere! youtube.com/watch?v=D4ll...

If you'd like to see an amateur comedy routine vaguely on the subject of peer review involving lots of puns and me forgetting a line, look no further! Credit and thanks to @drstevex.bsky.social for the video and, as always, being a very funny, supportive compere! youtube.com/watch?v=D4ll...

I'll be performing at this - really looking forward to it! It'll be my sixth time doing stand-up, almost a year exactly since I first tried it. Also my fifth different set, which is admittedly a slightly abnormal way of approaching things.

"You have to very watch out" is my son's cute sign that he has internalised the French I speak to him (being a literal translation of "Tu dois faire très attention").

Currently with my four-year-old at a play café. It's half term, so absolutely packed. I count 17 mums and 1 grandad; I'm the only dad.

Responding to peer review feels like someone's telling you to unpack a full suitcase you spent ages packing, remove all underwear and every third sock, add twenty new pairs of shoes plus clothing clearly wrong for that destination BUT MAKE SURE IT ALL FITS BACK IN NICELY AND THE ZIP STILL CLOSES.

I was about to share the story of how I got conned by a man selling me a broken mirror, but it reflects badly on me.

Absolutely love losing hours of painstaking word-cutting and editing because a file didn't save correctly 🙃

Le fait que les journalistes se sentent obligés de nier cette histoire ridicule, c'est mauvais cygne...

My four-year-old who can just about write his own name just criticised my handwriting in a birthday card for his friend. Feels like there's some kind of allegory here. Or simply a a clear insight into quite how bad my writing is.

After 4 years of speaking in French to my son, I finally managed to encourage him to say a whole sentence in French. Unfortunately, it's for the following rapid-fire conversation, which he finds hilarious and we're repeating loads: Him: Papa a pété? Me: Papa a pas pété!

My son starts primary school tomorrow. I got a particular pleasure ironing his Dunnes Store polo shirt, knowing that whilst he'll be the third generation Connolly to start school in London, even in a superficial way there'll still be a link to the familial homeland.

Not normally a fan of these types of signs, but this one isn't bad - and an odd find in a South London play café.

Overheard on a train: "I was in the reserve marines... And it was Jeremy Hunt's dad, Nick Hunt, who was the admiral in charge..." I guess his dad was getting the swear mispronunciations long before the famous journalistic slip-ups of a few years ago.

I get sleep apnoea, but I think I'd be too self-conchious to do this. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Today, my almost four-year-old son learnt how to ride a bike without stabilisers. He also, in a discussion about height, asked, "Are you the smallest man ever?" I was a proud but small man today.

An undergrad student contacted me about a document I only reference once in my PhD: a police report on the death of a beggar in Lille, 1917. The student thinks the woman appearing in this report could be their great-grandmother! I sent them photos of the archival documents, but it's a tough read.

Mandatory conflict of interest training offers scenarios that just aren't possible in my field. It may as well be: 'John is a time traveller from 2080, researching the 2020s but also trying to ensure that his ancestors become sole custodians of The Spoon of Destiny. Is this a conflict of interest?'