My latest #Croydon chronicle

Quite a lot of people lost someone, maybe an elderly relative, during the heatwave. My Aunt Barbara, very ill with advanced dementia, died yesterday aged 91. She was unmarried, no kids and I had been taking care of her affairs for the past few years. That’s the least interesting thing about her. 1

#MorningPrayer Increase our awareness, Lord Jesus, both of our need for you, and also of your activity in our lives. Let us not become so attuned to the impact of your Holy Spirit upon us, that we lose sight of your ongoing blessings. Keep us from complacency in our discipleship.

Suggestion: all CEO's, founders, squillionnaires etc should have to spend one hour a week in their own customer service department dealing with complaints.

this is the guy on your zoom call who refuses to mute himself and causes your entire meeting to be dominated by astonishingly loud gps directions to the St. Louis airport

🗃️📜

THREAD. A collection of photos I have taken of excellent cats I have met on walks. You will find the captions to the photos in the alt text.

#cofe #narthex in-depth and illuminating - in a way that makes me even more concerned than I am was about #HTB and the money and power behind it.

Competition over, we have a winner

erigeron karvinskianus is a major feature of my front garden, I planted one in a pot ages ago &now it grows of its own accord in the cracks in the paving &I love it. It pulls the garden together #GardenersWorld #BloomSky #GardenSky

Perfect remedy to me beginning to cross the barrier into unironically using cozzie livs recently

Spare a thought for the poor cats who desperately want to sit on their human, but cannot because it is too hot.

If you missed any of this year's Institute of Historical Research (IHR) British History in the Long 18th Century seminars and would like to catch up, the recordings are now available. We resume on 7 October. #Skystorians

This is remarkable.

Today on the blog, librarian Erin Winter explains how recent updates to the London Stage Database could help you discover new connections between people, performances, and dramatic works! blogs.uoregon.edu/londonstage/... #digitalhumanities #dh #18thc #18c #theaterhistory #theatrehistory

TODAY: the first day of our exhibition, ‘REVOLUTION 250’. It tells the story of the American Revolution through the British archive. We also look beyond the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration to encompass further stories, including Indigenous nations and Black Loyalists.

I am so delighted and honored to be a part of this Past & Present Supplement, “Medicine, Race, and Slavery in the Transatlantic World, 1600–1850.” It was a pleasure and so enriching to work with @hsmurphy.bsky.social and the editors at @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/past...

... which reminds me of this story that Barry Cryer told about Willie Rushton:

A post below about our new book, The King's Dinner (with @adamcrymble.bsky.social @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social and Rachel Rich) plus a short thread about collaboration... www.essex.ac.uk/news/2026/06... #skystorians #HistFood @phaisessex.bsky.social 1/6

A/C discourse, which I will otherwise be avoiding please and thank you, has reminded me of this passage from Norman Malcolm’s memoir of Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein visited Malcom in Ithaca, NY, in the Summer of 1949 (his only visit to the US).

Someone with more expertise than me should look into what Cromwell represents to the likes of Paul Marshall, Toby Young, Nigel Biggar, James Orr, etc.

A penetrating analysis of Morecombe Bay FC's 1952 season would make for a more purposeful news article.

A Law Prof friend should let me take one of their classes some time and do vagrancy law up to 1824 and how massive that statue is in global history (work's been done on this). While I'm at it we can look at how vagrancy law was used expansively the way 'terrorism' laws now can be.

Yes, obviously it is suspended, but is it operating or not? Useless TfL app.

Amused by South East Water seeming to be constantly surprised that people expect them to supply water. "What, through pipes? Is that still a thing we do?"

remember when they lost in Uxbridge and Keir Starmer leader of the opposition then told the mayor to “reflect” on this policy

Haha, nice one @privateeyenews.bsky.social !

Helen is like a cheese juggernaut, nothing is allowed to get in her way #TheArchers

When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.

On that point - the planet is currently heating at a rate of 0.35°C per decade By that calculation, it would take us 170 years to add 6°C. Something that naturally took 5,000-10,000 years previously (So yes, climate has always changed - but NOT at this rate!) 9/

Instead of Prime Day, please support your local shops. Money spent locally goes back into the local economy, benefitting your community.

It's struck me that I don't think I've shared the Radioactive Blu Tack story on here yet So, back in the long distant past of 2016, I was a first year uni student, already suffering at the hands of my Physics degree. I hated labwork most of all. One day, we're doing an experiment with radiation 1/

Lloyd’s of London has commissioned a requiem mass from Manchester-based composer David Önaçto to memorialise the lives of enslaved Africans, with a libretto drawn from the Catholic requiem mass, documents in Lloyd’s own archive, and eighteenth-century legal testimony.

"The fate of America hung by a slender thread." Abigail & John Adams were not the only prominent political couple who exchanged political news & views. Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress and pen of the journals that tell us what happened when, and his wife Hannah Harrison Thomson w lots to say.

Good piece on the extremely poor building design of the last two decades. As noted recent changes to building regs have changed this

#C18th 🗃

It’s really remarkable how almost the entire trade in goods and basic necessities of the earliest English colonies relied almost completely on Dutch trade. From Virginia to St Kitts, Dutch trade didn’t just facilitate English colonial expansion but was essentially its co-partner and life line.

John summing up my entire internal dialogue the first time I saw the house

Delighted to read this article featuring the research of my brilliant colleague Dr Robin Eagles.

"The figures come from a study by Imperial College London which also found that toxic air pollution in London had reduced sharply, with nitrogen dioxide levels down 41% and fine particulate pollution down 28%." ULEZ works

Expanding ULEZ London-wide was even more important than we previously thought. Action on air pollution has been life-saving.

Yikes man

Anti-Prime Day starts…NOW! 🥳 Today through 6/26, enjoy free standard shipping site-wide, all while supporting local, independent bookstores.

I think of myself as a fairly liberal person, until someone starts playing music so loudly that the floor vibrates. My punishment would involve locking them in a very echoey concrete cell &playing the whole of Wagner's Ring Cycle on tinny speakers at maximum volume. Entirely proportionate right?

Since there still seems to be some bafflement around about why Starmer has failed so badly, I’m reposting this reply I made yesterday. At an overall level it’s quite straightforward, really.

#MorningPrayer When we stray from your path, Lord Jesus, as we so often do, inspire in us the will to turn around, to seek your forgiveness, for we find your arms open, searching to bring us home. Give us also your open heart to embrace other wanderers whom you draw back in love.

Intrigued to see this in my emails this morning - Freecycle as the new frontier for academic dissemination?

The met office want to know why I describe their forecast as ‘not at all accurate’