Do any #18thC literary (specifically Pope) scholars out there, have an opinion about JW Croker's edition of Pope's correspondence, particularly with regard to dating? Trying to unpick an unhelpful March letter and work out whether Croker had located it in the correct year. Suspect not (by context).

The first great American 250th anniversary date of the year arrives this Friday: the publication of Thomas Paine's COMMON SENSE, which occurred on January 9, 1776. Many sources have the date as January 10, 1776. This is incorrect. But what accounts for the confusion???? Friends, follow me.

My article “‘In Just Seven Days, I Can Make You a Man’: Queerness and Masculinity in Frankenstein (1818) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)” has been published in the Keats Shelley Review! 👇🏼 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Did you spot news segment on tonight’s STV News programme about Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library with STV news reporter Joanne Bonnar, speaking with library’s Josh Smith, Alastair MacDonald, Celia Aitken & Dan Gunn. Watch it on STV Player on 5.20pm News programme for Sunday 28 December…/👇

#ArchiveAdventCalendar theme 18 is #ArchiveElves. Perhaps Archives Elves for Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library this year have to be project team of Books & Borrowing 1750-1830 (in which Leighton Library collection & borrower records feature, & several members of team are…/👇

A nice surprise this morning: my article on prison reform from below is out! I believe it’s open access but let me know if you can’t get a copy and would like one. academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

#ArchiveAdventCalendar theme 1 is #presents. Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library shop has host of present ideas, from place-mats & coasters, to mugs, tote-bags & more ☕️ Support us at our Christmas Coffee Morning on Sat 6 Dec 10am-12 noon in Dunblane Cathedral Hall …/👇

This was such great fun. Listen below for some highlights from the PhD including the only individual to be fined for a late borrowing from the Leighton, an unlikely library friendship, and the conspiracy theories of library members.

📢 Happy to announce that registration is now OPEN for our conference, 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century' (15 Jan. 2026) 📢 Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/sex-in-the... Provisional Programme here: www.rrrjournal.com/_files/ugd/d... Please share widely!

#Museum30 theme 27 is #achievement. It’s been remarkable achievement for Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library to have undertaken major restoration of 17th century building. Help us achieve next phase to redevelop Undercroft to create accessible welcome, interpretation, engagement and exhibition…/👇

Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library is open for Dunblane Christmas Extravaganza, and we’ll have a stall also at St Blane’s Church Hall

Newly available, here’s recording on Leighton Library YouTube channel of Leighton Library 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith on Sat 15 Nov ▶️ youtu.be/rFYkUOsluyw

Want to learn more about Scots in the British Army in North America? #HATM Matthew P. Dziennik Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier in British America Nicola Martin, The British Army in Scotland and North America 1745-1775: militarisation on the fringes of the empire,

View the programme on our website here. So many fun and important papers, really demonstrating the quality and originality of research happening at this critical moment in the field. www.rrrjournal.com/_files/ugd/d...

Registration for @rrrjournal.bsky.social's annual conference is now open! Please join us for what will be an intellectually stimulating and rewarding day for PGRs, ECRs, and academics to connect and discuss 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century'! www.eventbrite.com/e/sex-in-the...

Come visit our excellent Archives & Special Collections! Especially strong in eighteenth-century and Romantic-period books due to the copyright privilege. Awards cover costs up to £2500.

This Saturday! Do come along if you're about in Dunblane!

It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3

I don't know anything about fantasy and sci-fi as genres - is there crossover? I feel like they share a lot of similar traits and I'm wondering if time travel narratives can be classed as fantasy 🤔 (does it depend on if the method is magical or scientific?) Any recommended reading?

All welcome on Sat 15 Nov at 10.30am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to free 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...

Any transcription help, please, lovely bluesky? My language skills don't extend beyond the place and date 🙏

Excited to be speaking in Dunblane on 15 Nov for the Leighton Library. I'll be sharing findings from my PhD and the @books-borrowing.bsky.social project. Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about the fascinating historic library, as Dr Josh h shares findings from his project completed at @stir.ac.uk

A date for your diary! All welcome, Sat 15 Nov at 10am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith, Leighton Library Volunteer Guide www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202... …/👇

Here’s something to look forward to! In celebration of the publication of Medieval Manuscripts in Bristol Collections: A Descriptive Catalogue / Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social & Melek Karataş - 📚 Bristol Central Library are having an exhibition! 🗓️ 4-18 December

And we're away. Bridget Phillipson is introducing the Post-16 Education and Skills paper. 1/x

I’d rather Sam did not do so much participant observation in hospitals but when he does he gets more insights into the problems of the NHS (this post is free). samf.substack.com/p/on-the-edg...?

For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

Could Charli XCX be Gen Z's answer to Lord Byron? Read my first @theconversation.com article to find out!! theconversation.com/why-charli-x...

Stephen Mullen, a highly regarded historian specialising in Scotland's links with Atlantic slavery, objects to a right wing scholar's flagrant misrepresentation of his own work and that of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum's curators in @thetimes.com alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...

History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public. Starting this week:

New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory' doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory

5 days left to submit your abstract!

We had such a great response to our History teachers webinar on teaching 'Migration and Empire' that we're offering another one! Come and find out about brand new resources co-created by teachers and academics: 4pm, Monday 29 Sept. Register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/decolonisi...

FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system on.ft.com/47HEE46

"One does not have to be a theologian to be aware of the frailties and errors inseparable from the use of power in the conduct of human affairs; it is sufficient to be a political historian". Great quote from Norman Gash, in Richard Gaunt's excellent article. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

📢 Just a few weeks left to submit your abstracts for our exciting conference at the University of Stirling in January! 🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept 📩 Email: [email protected]

We appear to have come up with a blank on the identity of the author of the unpublished Philip Francis biography. However, channeling our inner Bagpuss, we will be taking the draft with us to our new offices and we hope may one day find a lost owner...

Calling the #skystorians hive-mind. In the process of clearing out files at @histparl.bsky.social we have come across part of an apparently unpublished biography of Sir Philip Francis. The treatment suggests it would have covered 18 chapters. Any ideas who the author may have been?

Very happy to read about these young, principled, and interesting librarians working in various places in Philadelphia 📚 www.phillymag.com/news/2025/08...

My column this week, on whether you should thank your chatbot, and what the question reveals about “longtermism”:

2025 is a big year for us with a first and a big milestone. The first: Westmorland I, Lonsdale Ward is our first ever #BigRedBook on that county, and is out *soon* from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social. The milestone: Westmorland I is our 250th #BigRedBook Learn more and join our celebrations! 🗃️

One like, one Presses universitaires de France book cover from the 1990s

I've finished the eighteenth century! My clerical naturalists database now contains biographies and links for all individuals born before 1801, many of whose careers reach into the 1880s. You can find our more about the project and access the full list at www.brycchancarey.com/naturalists/

📢 A reminder that registration for #BARS2025, ‘Romantic (Un)Consciousness’, closes *this Friday 1 August* Instructions for registering as a presenting and non-presenting delegate are here: barsconference2025.wixsite.com/home We look forward to welcoming you online and in Cambridge in September!

CFP for Sex in the #19thC (deets in alt) Abstracts (300 words), biographies (100 words), and should be submitted on Monday 22d September 2025 to rrr @ soton.ac.uk. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for a travel bursary, and include your full name, discipline & institution.

RRR Journal is now accepting abstracts for our 2026 Conference! I’m thrilled to be hosting at my home institution as the journal's incoming Editor in Chief. With generous BAVS funding, we’re also offering travel bursaries up to £100 for eligible PGR & ECR delegates. 📅 Abstract Deadline: 22 Sept

Now available on the BARS Blog: BARS President's Report 2025 www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6068