'I can't disassociate Basil from his bicycle. It was almost a part of his anatomy. And I never knew a man who could cycle so slowly without falling off.' Some lovely vignettes about Basil Brown in this recent biography by Sarah Doig. Thanks to the Sutton Hoo Society for the prompt to read it!

This looks great: forthcoming from @manchesterup.bsky.social. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781807071936/

Has 2016-2026 been the most unstable decade ever in British politics? No. By my measure, it's only the 3rd worst period of prime ministerial turmoil

If you happen to be at a loose end in Ipswich tomorrow, it would be lovely to see you! Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-bas...

New open access volume on languages and identities in early medieval Europe (inc a chapter by me on Britain) 🤓

Very tough week here in Nottingham. 40% of academic posts in my School are being made redundant and the numbers are even higher elsewhere - modern languages and music are being cut completely. The scale of the HE crisis in the UK is almost impossible to comprehend.

So the £85million+ spent (aka 'wasted') on a completely failed new city campus has dropped off this news altogether. This disaster was defended repeatedly in Senate by the VC who is now 'excited' by the opportunities presented by ending the careers of 100s of staff. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Seems especially unperceptive on this UK news day...

Looking for something else, I've just stumbled on a piece written forty years ago by an early medieval historian which ends with the sentence, 'what we need is not more books on women but better books on history.' Any guesses (without cheating) who wrote it?

Plus, a 'gudly heron' of the kind Katherine Bulkeley, last Abbess, sent to Dr London, one of Thomas Cromwell's commissioners, in a bid to stay open. 2/2

All the talks from the What's the Point? 2 conference in York are available to watch here: historicengland.org.uk/advice/techn...

Bright sunshine yesterday for a brisk burh walk, led by John Blair, around the Anglo-saxon fort at Oxford. Remarkable that we still don't know for sure if it was built under Mercian or West Saxon authority. @oxembi.bsky.social.

Death of a Nun: Medieval Women Scribes & Networks of Piety Prof. Elaine Treharne, @etreharne.bsky.social, will be giving the first of her Smithies Lectures, Thursday 14 May 17.15, Gillis Lecture Theatre @ballioloxford.bsky.social. All welcome! @oxmedstud.bsky.social

Woodstock Road acquired a new Blue Plaque yesterday to honour Lucy Faithfull, a welfare officer for the WWII evacuee programme, one of the first children's officers, and the first social worker to sit in the House of Lords. www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/fait...

tonight oxford, u coming? wegottickets.com/divineschism

Death of a Nun: Medieval Women Scribes & Networks of Piety Prof. Elaine Treharne, @etreharne.bsky.social, will be giving the first of her Smithies Lectures, Thursday 14 May 17.15, Gillis Lecture Theatre @ballioloxford.bsky.social. All welcome! @oxmedstud.bsky.social

Born #OnThisDay in 1900 was Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. In her doctoral thesis she concluded stars are primarily composed of hydrogen & helium, an idea dismissed by the establishment of the day. It was later described as "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy."

The first Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain & Ireland for the summer term is a joint event with the Medieval History Seminar.

This is striking: 'by the early C11th the total sailcloth requirements for the Danish & Norwegian fleet would have amounted to about one million square metres - the annual production of two million sheep'. That's a lot of sheep & many looms... Richard Hodges citing Neil Price.

What a tender poem from Ursula K. Le Guin I recognise this anger/love very much

How about these?! Bronze and gold nutcrackers, c. 2300 years old. Archaeological Museum, Taranto, Puglia. Two female hands, wearing snake-shaped bracelets, hinged for use. Surely they'd be a gift-shop sell out! 📷My own.

The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living: a ‘richly’ detailed book: Katherine Harvey’s fascinating history of health in the Middle Ages 📌 buff.ly/ZtDpKpO 📚 buff.ly/AtYUIFO

This new compilation of archaeological, literary and epigraphic evidence for the history of Gaza deserves to be better known.

Excited/ anxious/ honoured to be giving this year's Basil Brown Memorial Lecture for the Sutton Hoo Society next Saturday 16 May, 11am in Ipswich. www.suttonhoo.org/index.php/ev...

*New books* on display @bodartlib.bsky.social. An in-depth exploration of the craft of antler, bone, horn and ivory working as it evolved within the pre-Viking emporia of northern Europe. Published by @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social www.bloomsbury.com/uk/craft-of-...

Crug Hywel hillfort, Table Mountain, Brecon Beacons, last Saturday. Just north of Crickhowell, in the heart of the early medieval kingdom of Brycheiniog.

Eventually the harms of educational malpractice do manifest.

Crug Hywel hillfort, Table Mountain, Brecon Beacons, last Saturday. Just north of Crickhowell, in the heart of the early medieval kingdom of Brycheiniog.

Out (again) now, having been near unobtainable for some time. Word is that more titles from this excellent series could be digitised depending on uptake, so do pass on and recommend if so inclined!

Yes! An almost life-size statue group, perhaps of Orpheus & the Sirens, made from terracotta c. 350-300BC. Taken from a tomb in Taranto in the 1970s, once stars of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, recently returned & brilliantly displayed - story & all. www.theguardian.com/culture/2022...

African red slip ware, first half of the sixth century, found in a grave in Taranto, Italy, with birds that look to my eyes like inspiration for insular art...

Interested in people who lived through the Norman Conquest? We have a new pre-print out about the aDNA of a rural community in Surrey who did just that! With more bioarch to come on this amazing site: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @liabetti.bsky.social @cegamorim.bsky.social & others not on 🦋

This pretty much says it all. Thanks to the brilliant @estheraddley.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Taranto, Puglia, Italy. This is the grave of an athlete, buried in a stone sarcophagus, inside a painted chamber, along with the vases that he won at the Panathenaic games, held in Athens every four years: pentathlon, boxing, chariot racing. He died aged about 35-40 in c.480 BC. 👇

Taranto, Puglia, Italy. This is the grave of an athlete, buried in a stone sarcophagus, inside a painted chamber, along with the vases that he won at the Panathenaic games, held in Athens every four years: pentathlon, boxing, chariot racing. He died aged about 35-40 in c.480 BC. 👇

Hello Bluesky #BookSky! The Public Scholar is out today from @hopkinspress.bsky.social. You can buy it everywhere books are sold. Bookshop: tinyurl.com/2uj47sa7 Order from @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social and I'll sign it - moonpalacebooks.com/item/I12x_a-... You can read an excerpt here. (1)

East Kent currently has no permanent Chair, are two NEDS down, a CEO who’s not at work, a Medical Director who’s acting as CEO, no Director of Midwifery & no Deputy Head of Midwifery... What role, if any, did NHSE play in creating the mess they're now trying to manage? www.hsj.co.uk/leadership/n...

Two babies buried in late Roman York were wrapped in luxury textiles: 'This remarkable discovery tells us a lot abt the importance of children... & the willingness of the family to give their baby the best possible send-off in tragic circumstances.' seeingthedead.ac.uk/blog/discove...

Step back into 1930s Oxfordshire… Balliol Librarians Naomi and Nigel took to the road on a cycle ride inspired by letters in Balliol’s Historic Collections. Discover the story behind their journey in the latest Historic Collections blog: balliollibrary.wordpress.com/2026/04/29/r...

Woodbridge Saxon Festival, Saturday 23 May saxonship.org/saxon-ship-e...

Not long now for the next season of @hugh-willmott.co.uk's #cerneabbey dig. If only we were having more luck getting funding for more...

This is one of the events of the splendidly creative Cerne Giant Festival 'Celebrating Humanity in the Landscape'. Full programme here: cernegiantfestival.org Shame this isn't (I think) what REF impact looks like!

New! Nice to get my @universitypress.cambridge.org series editor's copies of this today. Congratulations Peter Clarke @historyatsoton.bsky.social!

This is one of the events of the splendidly creative Cerne Giant Festival 'Celebrating Humanity in the Landscape'. Full programme here: cernegiantfestival.org Shame this isn't (I think) what REF impact looks like!

This is cool! A copy of Bede's History, written in Nonantola, Italy in the early C9th, with an Old English version of Caedmon's hymn in the main body of the text rather than in the margins. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Cycling home on the field path tonight, the light - if not the temperature - hinted at summer. Can the solstice really be only two months away? It makes me think of this evocative new book by @jonwoolcott.bsky.social in which I'm delighted to have a cameo role.

And more good writing... this time a (refreshingly!) heart-warming story from Michael Buchanan @bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social. 'mainly doing bar-work - not to be mistaken with Bar work' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'What does grief contribute to GDP?' Characteristically fine writing from @tomlukejohnson.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk on Jane Whittle et al's The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Here is our glorious poster !

New Directions in the History of Liturgy Study Day Saturday 25 April 2026 Cambridge, English Faculty, 10-5 Tessa Webber, Henry Parkes, Juliette Day, Sarah Hamilton - & more - Bede's deathbed, Canterbury pontificals, the early history of Prime, C14th Frankfurt... royalhistsoc.org/calendar/new...