My 1967 copy of Wuthering Heights is looking a bit sad. The sellotape holding the back and front on has gone hard and fallen off. Amongst all the current hype around the film, I want to read it yet again to remind myself what a horrific tale of obsession it is. Maybe finally a time for a new copy?

Whoever does PR for #BritishMuseum has done a great job with #BBCRadio4 on the Samurai exhibition. 3 pieces on the exhibition in 2 days! And those are just the bits I heard.

The Dorestad Brooch ~ Found in 1969 at the bottom of a well, probably ending up there after one of the many viking raids that plagued Dorestad, a major trading hub on the River Rhine close to the North Sea. Created around 775–800 AD, during the reign of Charlemagne.

Once upon a time “global warming” was all about vineyards in North Yorkshire. Nowadays “climate crisis” means wet and windy. All the time. (And I’m not even in the worst-hit areas)

Lovely talk from @markthebirder.bsky.social about the birds in Filey and Bempton, for the Brighton RSBP group. Such great bird photos.

Satellite-tagged Hen Harrier called Edna "suspected illegally killed". Was she killed & dumped at a windfarm in Northumberland as a ploy to cover up the crime? New blog ⬇️ #RaptorResearch #WilldifeCrime 🌍 raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/01/19/s...

Gheeraerts: Thomas, can you hold the helmet like a regular person? Thomas: …

OK. Anyone want my Mrs Joyful Prize for Raffia work? Would swap for a Booker Prize, Oscar or similar.

I still love #DiggingForBritain but to me this series seems to be concentrating a bit too much on the “lovely treasures” side of archaeology. Not entirely a realistic picture.

Heard a lad earlier talking about ‘Belgian whistles’ “A basic website costs 10k or 25k upwards if you want all the Belgian whistles” BELGIAN WHISTLES

I don’t want to worry anyone but Digging for Britain has just said that the largest UK archaeological dig is currently taking place a stone’s throw from where MR James set A Warning to the Curious.

Instagram keeps showing me #knitting “hacks” for correcting things when you make a mistake. Thing is, I never realised some of these WERE mistakes - I thought they were just, sort of, how I knit.

Good old Macc, eh?

Does anyone (particularly gov departments) ever take “indecisive action”? If not, why swank about you action being “decisive”

Watching an online Zoom preso. Some people’ve kept their cameras on. 1 chap wrapped himself in a sort-of horse blanket, hid his head & went to sleep.The blanket moves from time to time. It’s like a C21st MR James story - watching someone being killed under a blanket while following a Zoom meeting.

So much for 2026 being a new start. So far I’ve been put on a course of antibiotics, and now the raucous cough I’ve had for 5 days has turned into the cold from hell.

‘It was not in his nature to do anything by halves:’ Mary Booth on her husband’s work. No lie detected. I run a course that demystifies Charles Booth’s massive Life & Labour survey and the accompanying Poverty Map. Starts Tue 13 Jan at the Mary Ward Centre, nr Stratford High St DLR short.do/wLa3Vc

First bird of the year? Feral pigeon, of course. Merlin also had a go at telling me it heard a red-throated loon. Unlikely in this little park in the middle of Hove!

This is literally the best thread you’ll see today. Give it a whirl.

I would NOT have done a military gap year. Why would I want to be shouted at, call people sir or ma’m, be at risk of sexual harassment and wear a uniform?

Something lovely for the weekend! Beautiful blue glass beads from the late Bronze Age 💙 Ploughed up by a farmer in Denmark in 1885, analysis shows the beads were made in Mesopotamia, pointing to long-distance trade in luxury goods some 3,000 years ago. 📷 National Museum of Denmark #Archaeology

Blimey. It’s only 9.30 on Dec 27. And the first tree has been thrown out by someone! #RecyclingChristmasTrees

Despite frequent remonstrations from digital archivists, Persephone never accepted that she could not photocopy a whole book in one go.

Something lovely for the weekend! A 1,800 year-old Roman glass flask shaped like a mouse! Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️ 📷 by me www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... #Archaeology

When you're told 'no more chocolates' but it's okay because you've got deep pockets... Painting: Captain Sir Thomas Dutton, circa 1605-1615, artist unknown. From the collection at Sherborne Park Estate in Gloucestershire.

Like the world wasn’t bad enough. Even a small glimmer of light about reintroduction of birds has to be extinguished.

uh oh

Following yesterdays Cumberland Rum Butter purchase, today’s “buying food from my childhood Christmas” is Scottish Tablet. Known as Granny R Fudge. I was horrified when I found commercial fudge was a strange thing the texture of plasticine. What Granny made was actually tablet: hardish and grainy.

FFS, just go ahead and ban ALL the best people, why don't you.

It is an odd specific of UK govt migration policies that someone, somewhere, seems to think that families fleeing in fear of their lives are diligently keeping up with every new announcement about specific changes to the hostile environment.

Just remembered - I wrote my thesis in #Calibri. I guess Marco Rubio will never be able to read it now. He’ll miss out on an important aspect of Brighton & Hove’s nineteenth century history.

Bugger. The short course online about Vikings I was about to start in Jan has been cancelled. For the second time. What should I do instead?

Ridiculously excited that I have just ordered some Cumbrian Rum Butter. When I was a child we used to MAKE it but it will be interesting to find out what the trad. version tastes like.

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

😍

Wondering if there is any risk that Pickles the Dog will run off with the peace prize? (One for the older readers there)

This Peace Prize is the worst piece of craven toadying since our PM produced a piece of gold-embossed paper inviting the man to have a holiday in Windsor.

Now with alt-text:

Refunds wanted after 'awful' Christmas drone show www.bbc.com/news/article... Yes folks, it’s the 1st entry in the annual “can this be worse than the Grundy World of Christmas” competition. Could George have done a better job? Christmas is on its way. #TheArchers

Anyone interested in interpreting historical documents, (particularly for #familyhistory research) and the pitfalls of making assumptions about people based on shaky evidence, must surely choose Arcadia as Stoppard’s finest play.

Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary: His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”

Oh dear, Mary B. doesn’t get her own chocolate.

Went to this exhib @ Brighton Museum. Interested to see how horrid some clothes were: red anorak? Blue pac-a-Mac. I was too young for much of this & it took longer to get to rural Cheshire. Exhib had great music & good mini dresses. If you were old enuf to remember, you needed these handy seats.

I miss the days when Budget Day came with speculation about what tipple the chancellor would have chosen to get them through their speech.

Assume the lights were turned on by Nobby Holder

Met officers often received a reward for gaining control of runaway horses (and the occasional "infuriated cow") in the streets of Victorian London, but these escaped elephants in 1884 Kentish Town were an altogether rarer occurrence ... #Museum30 #animal

So once you are fit after using your Peleton device maybe you’ll be big and strong enough to jump on the box and cut it up so it will FIT in the recycling bin, you selfish git. & don’t tell me the bin was full - you clearly hadn’t cut it up at home so were planning on leaving it on the pavement.

Had to go to hospital twice today because of problems with yesterday’s bloods. Arm feeling a bit like a pin-cushion. But NO PILLS - won’t get them til Monday - assuming the bloods are OK. Am just sooo tired of it all.