One of those spam emails that pretends to have hijacked my computer and recorded me doing dirty things writes that they have videos of me 'enduring enormous amounts of pleasure' -- a curious but poetic choice of words!

Absolutely gorgeous edn of Les Mis in the BL shop (Union Square/Hachette). Love the decoration style. Renaissance/Rogers-esque without being pastiche. Not a great photo, sorry 😔 I didn’t buy it, I don’t think this is a book I will ever read again. Kinda regretting it now though 😔📕

CUP report on publishing futures opens with the most important point, which isn’t a publishing point at all: ‘Only by reforming how academic work is recognised and rewarded… and what is valued and prioritised by academic institutions, can real change happen’ www.cambridge.org/core/service...

This worries me a lot. Absolutely not something peer reviewers can be asked to do. But what can be done? Any caught post-publication should certainly be named and shamed (the authors, not the publishers). But by then it's too late, they're already polluting the research.

Here's a stellar example of holding authors accountable for hallucinated references. LLMs may have hallucinated, but LLMs didn't submit a paper with hallucinated references. The authors did. Kudos to ACL leaders for taking this action even after original acceptance. 2026.aclweb.org/acl_statement/

‘The phrase “death spiral” was repeated numerous times in the responses’ Report from @englishassociation.bsky.social on the state of English Studies in UK HE. Grim reading but important work englishassociation.ac.uk/the-state-of...

Now published in MHRA New Translations: Thomas Mann, The Later Stories 1925–1953 Translated by Malcolm Spencer Brand-new translations of a collection of stories that make up some of Mann's greatest achievements in short fiction. Available now! All info 👉 www.mhra.org.uk/publications...

‘AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector & tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more.’ pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...

An interesting set of marginal proof notes 🤔

Hi all, I need help with late 18th-century theology, specifically: was universal salvation a crackpot idea or widely accepted (c. 1790); what the likely interpretation of Romans 11 might've been then ('until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved') Help appreciated!

William Pickering, the 19th-C 'English disciple of Aldus', sometimes put his (multi-page) catalogues of previously published titles at the *front* of his books, rather than at the back as has always been more usual -- a strong flex for a publisher that, I'd say

NEW from me: many of our universities are now in a dying fall. A new global-national-regional-local split is opening up, which could choke off progress on almost all the Government's plans. Do they have a plan? Nope, nothing, not a clue. 👇 isrf.org/blog/whats-t...

Any #earlymodern or #eighteenthcentury folk know what 'the village ring' might refer to? The village green, I assume, but is that right? Could be a Scottish thing.

🗣️ We have just signed a new volume for our 'Critical Texts' series! 'George Psalmanazar, An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa', edited by Alice Wickenden (@awickenden.bsky.social). 👉 www.mhra.org.uk/publications...

Why is Docusign offering 'AI' summaries now? Is it really a good idea to inaccurately summarise something you're putting your signature to? 😐

Picked up a bunch of Poul Anderson paperbacks at the £1 book sale last weekend. This guy could really crank ’em out 📚

Years ago I was asked in a job interview for a big editorial project why I thought it was important they were still doing a print version. This would’ve been a great answer (though I still wouldn’t have got the job)

Had to dig out my old BL card to renew it so why not take the opportunity to reminisce over my old library card collection from my doctoral days 📚 (Embarrassing headshots hidden)

A privilege to have presented my edition of George Chapman's The Shadow of Night and Ovid's Banquet of Sense, published by the MHRA, @themhra.bsky.social, at the Autonomous University of Madrid, to a group of dear colleagues and enthusiastic English literature students. Poetic difficulty matters!

Love the concept of this disgusting conference from the British Association of Decadence Studies and @ies-sas.bsky.social! Some great paper titles in there: bads.gold.ac.uk/disgusting

The Nonesuch Press edn of Donne’s love poems (1923), printed in the Fell types #typography #bookdesign archive.org/details/love...

I just signed a petition to stop the rollout of facial recognition surveillance in the UK. The Government and shops are scanning us without clear laws in place, using our faces like barcodes. It feels really invasive. Can you take 30 seconds to sign it too? you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Going to be utter chaos as we approach 'Need something published for REF' aligning with 'There's nobody to willing to or able to do peer review'. Prayers for the journal editors, but perhaps also a plea to review if you possibly can.

Of course, academics do a great amount of unpaid labour, such as when they’re allocated an hour to write an hour-long lecture, but leaving peer review out of the job description means it’s not even considered in the same terms

I think we really need to stop saying peer review is unpaid labour, because surely that will encourage university admins to see it that way and act accordingly, when the opposite is needed: more acknowledgement that peer review is an important part of what research academics are paid for.

This DFS bed frame review really captures the zeitgeist

What on earth is wrong with these people? I guess universities are rolling money at the moment eh... 🤦‍♂️

I thought it was only black metal bands and tattoo artists that used blackletter type in all caps, turns out they did it in the eighteenth century too! #Typography

A reminder that the closing date for applications to the MHRA conference grant fund is 27 April 📆 The grant is for conferences/colloquia the field of medieval & modern European languages and literatures, including English, in the UK or Ireland. Details here: www.mhra.org.uk/funding/ Please share!

I love that contracts can still include 'rebellion' as an act of force majeure

Decorated initial designed by Aubrey Beardsley, in an edition of Ernest Dowson's 'The Pierrot of the Minute' (L. Smithers, 1897) Wish we had a whole alphabet of these! #bookdesign #typography

‘Outside academia, people aren’t well informed about PhD research – and that’s a problem’ theconversation.com/outside-acad...

Peer review is the factory floor. Admins treat publications like finished goods but starve the production line. Result: declining quality, garbage in hiring metrics. I've seen it in acquisitions—metrics without process verification kill decisions.

Academic administrators need to understand this as a matter of urgency. No field of study can survive without peer review. HE admins rely on publications to make their hiring & promotion decisions for them, yet won't provide time for the peer review that makes those publications possible.

Candid footage captured of me preparing to ask authors to cut their discursive footnotes #editing

Why do designers of online journal submission platforms seem incapable of writing automated review reminders that aren't inappropriately aggressive? Don't they know how little time academics have for peer review these days? It's almost like they don't know what they're doing.... 🤔

Is the Easter break a good or bad time to go to the BL, would you say? In terms of busyness. I’m thinking more academics but fewer students? Or is it to be avoided?

Book design really lost its mind in the 19th century (Type specimen from 1830) #typography

@srsrensoc.bsky.social what happened to the SRS website? I used to be able to see all past announcements I've submitted, but I can't find how to do that any more. Is there a way?

Publishing in May: a brand new translation of Thomas Mann's last short stories 📘 Available now for review – journals are welcome to get in touch Details here: www.mhra.org.uk/publications...

🔈 The latest issue of the Modern Language Review is out! 👉 www.mhra.org.uk/publications... Articles on Marlowe, Balzac, Dadaism, and more, plus the usual book reviews 📚 Access via @projectmuse.bsky.social 👉 muse.jhu.edu/issue/56632

The Diamond Head riff kicks in...

A very easy step the Secretary of State could make is to shut down the use of consultancies in #UKHE. It leaks SO MUCH money out of the (public) sector to for-profit firms, is creating a truly dangerous monoculture, and is so seemingly obscure none outside the sector will be pissed off.

Trivia question: what do Katherine Parr, Francis Bacon, Simon Forman, Anne Askew, John Donne, Robert Dudley, John Milton, Thomas Wyatt, Lady Anne Blount, and James VI & I all have in common? #earlymodern

Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Doves Press, 1911 #bookdesign #typography

Just read the gross phrase 'according to multiple people familiar' in the FT 🤢

Just gave myself a huge fright because I thought I’d missed a major step in the publication process (because it was ages ago and I couldn’t remember it being done). But I hadn’t, phew. Always gotta write down what you’ve done as well as what’s still to do! 😳

I didn't know, or had forgotten, that MHRA books are available to purchase from Walmart. Not in the stores, obviously... Still though. Nice to know I guess.

Worth a look for anyone interested in textual editing and related fields. Though I'd love it if someone with a proper understanding of the relevant laws could put together a summary in decent English.