Actually, SHAPE subjects cross-subsidise STEM subjects in most comprehensive UK universities annually through differential central charge or 'contribution' models. It's another reason we're all in the current HE crisis together, whether our own particular discipline is 'at risk' at present or not.

So so confused at the choice for All American Accents in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. Feels bizarre to listen to Tom Holland and Robert Pattison in Ancient Greece speaking generic New Ywak (or is it Boston/Chicago??) gangster. youtu.be/jWwvbwm6VUM?...

If you read the judgement, it's an extraordinary "can't anyone here play this game?" tale of basic regulatory mistakes, including not knowing your legal powers, not setting up independent committees, not engaging in good faith dialogue... www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The Rendlesham Forest mystery: ‘It’s the perfect storm of a UFO case’ www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Fern’s book is really good — she’s both a great historian and an empathetic storyteller 👇

All writing is terrible to someone. Write for yourself and the people who like what you do.

“…I am fearless and therefore powerful.” 🖤

The new children’s book by @drfernriddell.bsky.social is VERY PRETTY!! A lovely compendium of women from global history who ruled, rebelled, and rampaged

JD Vance, the man who dares ask, "IS the Pope Catholic really?"

So… I have some news…

This is from a bbc docudrama and that is Rebecca Front and Chris Langham, so it is not in fact "George Orwell's last interview". It's a speech garnered from his works, not a direct quote and this scene is often shared without context, misleading people into thinking it's archive footage.

Cliftonville (Kent) Council By-Election Result: 🌍 GRN: 38.8% (+26.7) ➡️ RFM: 33.1% (-7.0) 🌳 CON: 15.2% (-4.5) 🌹 LAB: 10.4% (-11.6) 🙋 Ind: 1.3% (New) 🔶 LDM: 1.2% (-1.9) No Ind (-3.0) as previous. Green GAIN from Reform UK. Changes w/ 2025.

Has anyone asked Joanna how she feels about The Casual Vacancy being banned in the Manchester Anti Trans/Anti Women/Anti Diversity Book Ban Scandal? Full list of banned books at the end of this article: www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...

A very good thread about journalists and AI, much of which also applies to writers of nonfiction books. We are being told, with increasing frequency and stridency, that we "just don't get" how AI can help us, by people who are manifestly not interested in helping us. Know your enemy. Hold the line.

When people found out about Shy Girl, an emerging career was over in a heartbeat. This motherfucker has had: a generative story published in Wired, the first AI novel reviewed in the New York Times, and an art exhibit in a gallery using generative text to create prayers. He also still has a career.

At this point, the repeated failure by Harlequin to invest in or at least cash in on the success of Heated Rivalry can’t be anything other than homophobia in the c-suite, right? Like, failing to do new print runs, no tie-in cover?? They could be printing money right now, but 👬 is a big no I guess!

Very proud of this book, published by the brilliant DK

Yep. In fact, the real failing of students was when we stopped requiring them to regularly search a library catalogue for their reading and instead produced lists with hyperlinks that students simply had to click. As soon as they have to go off list, they’re lost.

Fantastic news in the UK today - the government has apparently ditched its plan to force creatives to 'opt out' if they don't want AI companies training on their life's work. www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog... 🧵 1/4

The paperback for Victoria’s Secret - revealing my 4 year investigation into Queen Victoria’s passionate love affair with John Brown and a hidden family archive kept secret for 150+ years - is just 99 p on kindle for the WHOLE of March lnk.to/victoriassecretbook

Am teaching a course on Pain & the humanities this yr, and I can't stop thinking about this 1950 experiment conducted in New York hospitals and Cornell University hospital, where physicians burned the hands of women in labor (IN LABOR) to create a measure for pain/study pain thresholds. #histmed

One of the things that made George Michael unusual as a popstar was his activism. Whether it was speaking out about apartheid, AIDS, or the Iraq War. My new book, Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: the Meaning of George Michael is published soon. sathnam.com #GeorgeMichael #Wham #TTMSSL #Iraq

New in paperback! My brilliant friend @drfernriddell.bsky.social spent 4 years researching this extraordinary new biography of Queen Victoria’s love life, finding brand-new and explosive evidence of her relationship with John Brown, and I think you should read it 😁 www.penguin.co.uk/books/453641...

I'm one of many professors quoted in this report from Alice Speri. I really appreciate The Guardian taking an angle which has basically eluded every other major outlet.

The hack of the British Library, from which it has still not fully recovered, should have been a warning that we cannot rely on digital books alone, but that would require the people making decisions on these topics to be even mildly informed on the subject.

Biker Mice From Mars (the ORIGINAL series)

An 'epidemic' of violence: The women and girls killed by men last year www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Congratulations to the marvellous Dr Fern Riddell and Dr Emily Hauser on their new paperbacks, out today! Both books reframe what we know about famous women from history & myth

Tbh I can really see Kier Starmer pulling this off.

Media: Incredible photo of Elton John and his family, to be hung in the National Gallery Authors: desperately trying to find a high res version, to see if their book is on his shelves www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Any authors or image creators who haven't registered their latest work with ALCS need to do so asap. The next payment is being processed and you really don't want to miss out.

Napoleonic Historians to the front pls

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

FOA: Drinks Historians: Can anyone help me find an image of a 'Swiss Green Absinthe' bottle c.1800-1820? actual object or illustration - either would be brilliant [claws own face in research hell]

A poor Labour canvasser came to my door in London last night and I told her as much. At length. Hopefully something, somewhere gets through to them.

Hello Bluesky! My new book, THE FIREARM REVOLUTION, is out on 14 April. It’s about how a new technology changed society, and how hard it was to control. Here’s a little thread of what’s inside:

Yes, theatre majors do very well in business fields. Yes, women’s studies prepares those who take their classes for a complex world. Yes, English majors are highly adaptable to many careers. Yes, history provides excellent research skills But our fields are not just about transferable skills.

There’s a lot of talk (rightly so) today about courses in high demand being marginalized/downplayed/cancelled, that the humanities in particular are very “cheap” & high ROI comparatively. I do want remind us that justifying “what matters” via revenue generation is what got us here in the 1st place.

hate this in general but also what is Labour doing to reopen women's shelters? what is Labour doing to make sure conviction rates for rapes start going up again? what is Labour doing to make sure women feel they can trust the police? what is Labour doing to stop sexual harassers?

Reminder that the British far right is led by men who are terrified of women and are desperate to control them

Fascinating interview by @siennamarla with Reform UK's Danny Kruger - who (among other things) tells her political parties have a "limited but important" role in undoing the sexual revolution and UK is suffering from a "totally unregulated sexual economy". www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling. If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Unalive" "grape" "seggs" This has got to stop. Do people hear themselves? Its like talking to a particularly sensitive toddler. We can't remove serious words from our language just because we're afraid some fickle algorithm will show our posts to less people

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

This is such a good thread, and this was where I had to tap out

Written English has barely changed in 300 years. If you can read Harry Potter, you can read Robinson Crusoe (1719).

"He wasn't actually arrested for--" WE KNOW. THEY ARE NEVER ARRESTED FOR SEX CRIMES. Society dngaf about protecting women, and women know that. We're just happy he was arrested at all

just to be clear there is SO MUCH precedent for arresting a senior royal. just not any precedent where it ends well for them

I only wish Virginia Giuffre could see this. I wish she had gotten justice in her lifetime instead of repeatedly being punished for seeking it.

Historians’ Favourite Royal Cover Ups KLAXON: When Prince Ernest, Duke of Cumberland (& Queen Victoria’s Uncle) was accused of murdering his valet, Joseph Sellis, in 1810, the inquest found the man committed suicide, even tho…