Any experts on British BBQ history? From what I can tell the British thing of having a barbecue in a domestic garden when the weather is nice becomes more of a 'thing' in the 1950s and 1960s (though barbecue as a form of cooking had been brought to Britain several centuries before)? Correct?

Why is Aylesbury the county town?

Probably going to have to flesh out the traditional dismissal of Great Man Theory in first-year historiography lectures now it turns out that two to three deranged geriatrics actually can slingshot the entire planet into the sun

Just under two weeks left to apply for this programme! Please share.

Yep. If anything the billionaires are making it worse.

I am convinced. Give the horse the cake!

I’m being a bit of a devils advocate here, but one begins to wonder whether assessment itself is the problem. If we didn‘t have assessment and were able to focus on ‘learning’ rather than evaluating the success of said learning?

If you’ve got a Mubi subscription and have never explored the oeuvre of Jafar Panahi now is your opportunity - loads of his stuff on there and they’re such brilliant films.

I think it sums up the quality of Labour's media and communications that they are having a raft of new policies and interventions to help the cost of living come in on April the 1st...

If I wanted to watch a 'Reporting Scotland' episode from February 1974 where might I go? Is there a place with old episodes I can find online? It doesn't appear to be on Box of Broadcasts or YouTube. Not sure if there are other online archives of British TV (or TV produced by BBC Scotland?)

Please do spread the word about the @srsrensoc.bsky.social Scholars of Colour MA Scholarship Awards -- two pots of £4,000 each, and an optional mentoring opportunity. I've very much enjoyed being a mentor to a fantastic scholar through this scheme!

(1/2) being a big old nerd but also interested in the way nostalgia features in contemporary culture it feels like Games Workshop have gone for a deliberate invocation of the 2nd edition 1990s box art and theming for the new edition of 40k, which is giving me a warm fuzzy feeling and recalling the

*stands up and cheers*

Very interesting piece that sets up intriguing questions: how does this fit into the history of smell/senses and 'what happens next' post-1700. The latter I'm actually currently exploring a bit for the next book as I delve more into the post-1700s history of early modern ideas about smell/health.

This is such a compelling and well-written piece. The last line, really hits: "Calling it an “AI problem” gives those decisions, and those people, a place to hide." www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ma...

Talked a lot in recent work about the idea that we exist in the 'chemocene', an era that started in the nineteenth century and that involves the mixing up of what I term the 'molecular commons' of smells in which all creatures live. The evidence keeps mounting... www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

Woohooo massive grant rejection happy Wednesday everybody.

The bursary of £1,700 will be awarded to a mid-career historian working on 17th-century British history who wishes to make use of the IHR’s library collections. #Skystorians

Predictably, I love this.

🥳The Routledge Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities is published today! Ed. by the fab Amber Abrams, @victoriabates.bsky.social & @rothiotome.bsky.social. It also includes a chapter 'Research on the Move' by @draflint.bsky.social and me. (Probably one to ask your library to order tho' £)

Had these cameras set up at St Pancras yesterday. As one of the most densely surveilled stages in terms of CCTV etc already it’s sort of insane that this is being pushed now as well.

This looks lit www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🔥

Good to see this but the scandal to my mind is that the government let this uncertainty and anxiety about World Service funding drag on right up to the wire. Stupid austerity posturing over what's effectively a pittance. Be serious! www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

Great. Everyday provides another example of AI ruining things for everybody.

Putting together my ‘Anti-AI because history is important’ class activity ahead of our first assessment

Think this is going to be a really important book for anybody interested in the question of 'experience' and its historicisation.

There’s a funny existential element to a lot of Labour supporters’ criticism of the Greens. If your core political identity is that you are The Progressives, it’s destabilising to realise that another party is building successfully on that identity (partly by discrediting your claim to that role!)

'...a lively, scholarly account, full of bold personalities and surprising connections' Thanks to Neal Ascherson for this generous review of 'The Paris Commune in Britain' in the @lrb.co.uk today Particularly pleased to read that the book took Neal to the Newman Arms in search of the Communards 🍻

Yep they should just do this. If you want more space in your car, just buy an estate.

www.theguardian.com/technology/n... don’t we all.

In a few hours I’ll be reading live from the Overture of my next book in a virtual talk at U Edinburgh’s History & Games Lab. This is the first time any part of the book has been read in public, or by anyone outside of my circles of trusted first readers (& MIT’s peer reviewers)

You must all buy electric cars to save the environment, but you must also use the environment-killing plagiarism machine to do your jobs. Thanks government.

R4 this morning talking about the destruction of heritage in Iran thanks to US AND Israeli bombings. Did they invite one of the many experts on Iranian architecture, art history, and heritage in the UK to speak? No, they asked David Cannadine...

Off to Manchester to talk about smell and the past (I mean, what else do I talk about frankly) at 13:00 so do come along and like the sound of it! www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

If you want to hear more about the experience of being a taught postgraduate student here at York, do read the blog written by Grace, one of our Renaissance and #EarlyModern Studies MA students blogs.york.ac.uk/student-voic... 🗃️

Proud of this. Packed with stuff we’ve been doing.

The absolute state of this. Sheffield Hallam’s leadership should be ashamed. Agree with one of the responses below the post that it feels like the Union have largely ignored what’s going on in post-92 institutions for too long and left it too late. It certainly felt that way when I was at ARU.

can see labours next attack line: ‘‘A vote for the Green Party is a vote to force my son to hug trees’

‘Eliminating UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by adopting… green technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, would be the best and most cost-effective option for the future economy.’ So both things that, grant schemes aside, consumers pay for themselves. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

So R4 Today sets up an interview on student loans plans and chooses to position it as students versus universities (in the form of UUK)… it’s the government we‘re all the trying to convince here guys, come on!

Liverpool friends - I’m giving this talk on Wednesday!

COVER REVEAL. Really excited to show off the fantastic cover for my new book Sniff from @yalebooks.bsky.social. It’s a history of smells across time and space and hits the shelves on the 8th September. Pre-order from Yale, your local bookshop, or the usual suspects! yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

‘And now in Britain one of the great success stories in human history is going into reverse’. You‘re spoilt for choice in terms of what this quote could refer to over the last few decades. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Find the way in which the nineteenth century ‘past’ is mobilised by water companies fascinating. Claiming that we have the cleanest water since the Industrial Revolution (low bar?!) whilst also (wrongly) suggesting our sewage system is entirely Victorian.

Renationalise the water industry. Just do it. Do it Now. None of this tip-toeing around messing with fines www.theguardian.com/environment/...

tell you what, cutting words really sucks the joy out of writing

Have noticed point below with history where lots of people boosting from instagram/tiktok or podcasts into books. But I do wonder how the 'fiction = escapism' versus non-fiction = depressing pans out for history. Would love more granular breakdown of non-fiction www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

An exciting, unique and smelly project coming to industrial museums near you! More to come, but so delighted to be working with Will, our Sniffer in Residence extraordinaire!

Delighted my collaboration with Industrial Museums Scotland @shacklington.bsky.social ‘Sniffers in Residence: Using Smell to Engage Intergenerational Audiences with Industrial Heritage' is one of the projects to be funded under this scheme! Look out for industrial smelly things from April onwards!

Strongly recommend Dirty Business on Channel 4. For those who’ve followed the story it’s not shocking, but it captures the farcical nature of marketisation coupled with deregulation.