will also add - yes, this is my personal crusade - that turning podcasts into videos implicitly asks women to once again make more effort than men, as the bar for "camera-ready" for one gender is obviously higher than for the other

oomf who is a librarian had to take down the David Walliams poster at work today and said it felt like pulling down the big Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad in 2003

The whole point of being an academic is that you need to be willing to spend three days creating a 700-word footnote that you will later delete. And you need to LIKE IT.

Two separate people trying to restrain this lion from eating a toddler, and yet I find myself thinking: is it not also Christmas for lions? Ancient Animal Advent Day 18!

Spent today filming a TV thing and most of it was spent walking backwards and forwards looking with awe at things and my god it's like all my autism exploded. How do legs work. Where do arms go. Unbearable.

Big news! My upcoming book, Rebel of the Regency, is now available for preorder in the UK and Australia!! It's not listed in every online store yet, but I have spotted her avail for UK preorder @blackwells.bsky.social and for Australian preorder @booktopia.bsky.social links below!

Time again for my favorite christmas post ever, one that still makes me laugh every time i read it

Olivia Nuzzi's greatest contribution to the world is making everyone else (mainly me) feel much better about their own writing ability

Depends if you've been spelling it c'nt, I guess

Doing final proofs of the new book and I've somehow managed to get the word "cunt" in three times so far.

Obsessed with this person who has given a popular non fiction book one star for the crime of using contractions.

We have an answer!

Don't suppose anyone younger and cooler than me recognises the person in the b&w poster here?

Happy gazpacho soup day to everyone who still cringes to death over something they did that absolutely noone but them even remembers

It's my birthday this week and what I would really like is for people to tell other people about something I have written! Honestly at this point there really is something for everyone

There's the history podcast I make with @emmasouthon.bsky.social where we answer the questions you don't have time to research yourself historyissexy.com

Actually I would really like a 5 hour podcast that had none of the Greek stuff but told me about what the Persians were up to in eg Tajikistan or Pakistan or Afghanistan aka the 99% of their empire

A new Fall of Civilizations episode is always great but this most recent one is a special delight because it reminded me that there was once a Persian King of Kings called Arses

Growing up in a time when “selling out” was the most shameful thing you could do and then being forced to live through the 2020s feels like being kicked in the head by a horse every day

For fully the last 15 mins of Del Toro's Frankenstein all I could hear in my head was Garth Marenghi.

am reminded of the old joke: what did James Watson discover? Rosalind Franklin’s notes.

The context in which the Day Today skit is put into this documentary made me laugh so hard my friend asked if I was ok

Bro did you just flank my phalanx. My macedonian phalanx bro, you're flanking it aren't you. Why would you do that dude, I thought we were friends and here you are casually flanking my goddamn phalanx

Every time I get a copy edit back I end up feeling like I should send the copy editor flowers to apologise for my shoddy typing.

Been responsible for a child for three days and I feel like I've been run over seventeen times

Here’s the final version of the cover of my upcoming book REBEL OF THE REGENCY! Truly an object of beauty, I couldn’t be more thrilled! Thank you to @hanoversquarepress.bsky.social for taking a chance on me! The book is released in February; get all the links to preorder at rebeloftheregency.com 🤗

Burst out laughing at the bishop of York claiming that today's world is "more polarised than ever" while celebrating the king having out with the pope for the first time in 600 years because of all the BURNING EACH OTHER ALIVE people did in the 1500s

This is how you blurb

Much like Hillsborough, you have to marvel at how Britain as a system is so utterly impervious to accountability: decades of orchestrated bullshit, legal shenanigans and institutional roadblocks, and then one final great rasping fart of “maybe it was elves that did it, and fuck you”.

As we await a verdict in the trial of Soldier F, another reminder that in 2010 the Bloody Sunday inquiry found - the killings were unjustified - none of the 14 dead (7 of whom were children) had guns - no warnings were given - no soldiers were under threat - the troops were the first to open fire

Glad to see Celebrity Traitors is no different than regular Traitors when it comes to reading intelligent analysis of what's going on as a cause for suspicion. David Olusoga: "Think logically. Don't get swept along by groupthink." The rest: "He's being too clever. Burn him!"

Am on the final Vorkosigan book (sob) and the reveal that Cordelia and Aral are and have always been Sex People has truly delighted me

Thrilled to say I'm a judge for the first ever Inspiring History Teaching Awards, in association with Historic Royal Palaces. Do you know a great history teacher in the UK who deserves to go down in history? Nominate them here bit.ly/42yhGZP

Slightly surreal that a significant plot point in the tv show I'm watching is a character writing and pitching the exact book I'm writing next

Supporters of male primogeniture during the Anarchy of the 12th century:

Finally got a stupid ai written bookclub scam email. Was beginning to feel a bit left out.

Turns out that the biometric border thing is what finally prompts me to do the admin nightmare that is pulling together my Irish passport application documentation and get my eu privileges back

Reading the new Penguin Classic Horror Anthology where they've copy pasted a load of 19th Century short stories together with such little effort that they've left the explanatory endnote numbers in the text of one of the stories but haven't included the endnotes. Just numbers floating in a void.

Fun fact: Thiel didn't even come up with the gawker lawsuit idea. It was pitched to him by a student at Oxford who went on to come up with the Enhanced Games aka the Steroid Olympics, also bankrolled with Thiel's money. The world is so stupid.

I suspect that someone in my professional life is getting chatgpt to write their emails to me and I'm weirdly shook

This is what happens when society tells techbros they're very very very special people

Hi! We've made the Put This In Your Ear Object. It is the ideal size and shape to put in your ear, feels really nice when you put it in your ear, and can be used to clean out earwax, by putting it in your ear. Just one thing, though. Under NO circumstances should you put this in your ear.

I know what you're thinking and no, that's not how they rescued him. www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster...

Realised I am technically now an award winning audiobook narrator of children's books. What a life

WE WON!! Best children’s audiobook!!!! @emmasouthon.bsky.social

The first five chapters of my serial novel are still free to read! Have you read them yet? calamitystrinket.ghost.io/a-stranger-a...

These very true words from Steve Hely have given me tremendous comfort over the years.

I have made the first five chapters of my serialised novel FREE TO READ for the next TWO WEEKS. I would love for you to read it and to tell everyone you know to read it. calamitystrinket.ghost.io/a-stranger-a...