A perfect snapshot of modern Britain; a delayed train and the most circular non-explanatory explanation conceivable.

Big fan of our new recruitment wheeze. ‘Want to study Physics/English/Education? Join us for less Physics/English/Education and more Generic Stuff!’* *Satire, obvs. We’ve been officially told that only ‘hero’ courses are advertised and we’re not heroes. Which makes us villains I guess.

This whole book looks very good and is available as an open-access PDF.

Those Protestants, up to no good as usual

‘Why’s Truss holding that pillo…’

FILTH: Failed in London Try Hebron The worst of British imperialism and American capitalism unite to make Tony Blair commandant-viceroy of the biggest prison on the planet. Oh well, hope he’s familiar with the fate of Cavendish and Burke. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Not sure why I couldn’t get an e-ticket, but 9 pieces of cardboard for a rerun journey is ridiculous. Over in Ireland one ticket covers all the legs including seat reservations. And your name appears above the seat to preclude arguments.

Bendigedig! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A sample of the Austen material culture stuff I brought along to the first class of the module. My current favourite is the Pemberley Rain scented candle (not pictured) which evokes public toilets more than a landed estate.

I particularly enjoyed the internal newsletter proclaiming our hugely improved ranking for Drama…a subject we closed in one fell swoop a few years ago.

If you can’t study with me, go with this departments!

Thanks to BBC’s The World Tonight for their discussion of the 30th anniversary of THAT Pride and Prejudice adaptation: my module on Austen and adaptations, retellings, sequels, tourism and material culture starts tomorrow morning. An excellent discussion point.

Here’s a free tip for universities. If teaching ends at 9 pm, maybe don’t switch off the lights, switch on the alarm and lock the doors at 8.30. The postgrad-level is not then getting pissy when staff want to a) leave and b) go back to their offices to drop off material and pick up keys, bikes etc

Also on his list: the Slender Man, Wakanda, Candy Mountain, Cokayne and Avalon.

If my university marketed my course (which they refuse to do) and wasn't also hooked on AI like a magpie with a milk-bottle top, I'd be promoting it as 100% Organic Artisan Thinking. But what do I know?

For the first time ever, a student nearly got my literature quiz question right. None of my colleagues ever got so close. Without looking it up, which classic of American literature mentions cricket, and which classic of English literature mentions baseball?

Nearly time for the first class of the year. Teaching every day this semester - poor kids will be sick of the sight of me.

Mazzy Moon.

Just what a burning planet needs: 100,000 more flights on a new runway. Yet again, so very glad I left the Labour Party. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This is very clear and convincing. I think I'll show it to students in assignment briefings.

Episode 23 of 1990s space-university soap Jupiter Moon and the students are quoting GK Chesterton ('Lo I come to Autumn') to justify mutiny against the drunken leadership (last seen in Galtieri's Bar(!). Only they must have used AI because they claim it's Shakespeare. Anna Chancellor is not amused

Definitely one for @yplac.bsky.social

Looking forward to Matthew Paris dismissing this and Stewart Lee standing up for uncomfortable art.

Very much enjoying the culture of trust and respect implicit in the installation of room usage monitoring devices on academics' office doors today. Imagine my shock on discovering that managers' doors remain unsullied…

In addition to this, my university and some others don’t employ new staff any more. They’re hired via a subsidiary company so new staff don’t get the USS or TPS pension - a massive pay cut imposed on already badly-paid, precarious people. I hate it.

2nd year running of putting the returning students’ events on their calendars but not proactively inviting them, or asking academic staff to do so. Result: an empty room and embarrassment. Sigh.

I particularly enjoyed the bits where the head of a far-right propaganda machine decried 'polarisation' and wasn't challenged when he said that his channel was oppressed for its demonstrably untrue election lies, which led to a multimillion-$ legal settlement.

A) Nobody has to work in politics B) if you do work in politics your behaviour should derive from your values C) If your values allow you to make sexual assault jokes you probably shouldn’t be in the Labour Party D) Unless this is what Labour really is now: a lads-only Thick of It tribute act.

It’s not out yet, but this book looks interesting: The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. In an economic history series but surely of wider interest. www.cambridge.org/core/books/e...

Went for a wander the other day and took the proper camera. Anyone know what this very geometric plant is?

This will be excellent.

What are my odds on surviving a glass of this 2014 Blackberry Wine? I ask not solely from health concerns, but because I once read TF Powys's lovely novel 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (1927). Mr W turns up at the right time and gives his target a glass of blackberry wine: he's god, the wine is death.

As it’s Freshers’ Week, a blast from a more optimistic past: the front page of Black Dwarf, 5th July 1968. Very annoying layout though.

The right thing to do is add Musk to those deemed unfit to enter the country. Or does media and economic power make him exempt? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

I’m going to suggest a more efficient business model for @crosscountryuk.bsky.social. If my train arrives at the destination (at all, or on time), THEN I’ll pay you. Save us both the deliberately tortuous system of me paying upfront then claiming a delay refund every single time.

I would like historical fiction (and non-fiction) to do the same with calendar changes.

What is wrong with journalism when a Labour minister defends Nazi rallies as ‘free speech’ and he’s not asked why old ladies are arrested for passively supporting Palestine Action?

Been to a record shop: a fine haul of CMAT, Gruff Rhys and Camera Obscura records.

Absolutely appalled by the two pieces on AI at university. Multiple experts recommending it without a single mention of the obscene energy and water consumption; another one recommending students upload our lecture materials to AI. Copyright, @theguardian.com?

At least Bonnie was awarded a Blue for her sporting achievements.

The screen on my 56k Mac SE started flickering badly recently so I think that’s the end. It came from a (different) university’s Psychology department skip in 1995 and had nothing saved except for the membership list of a Masonic lodge in Edinburgh.

I’d give my eye-teeth for one of these.

Virtuoso stuff.

A political class that depends on focus groups and vibes (and can’t spot that Peter Mandelson is a wrong’un despite 30 years of evidence) thinks it knows what low-quality research looks like.

Getting research funding is too much hard work. I have a 0% success rate over the past 3 years (6 applications). It has inspired me to become a hobbyist.

Princess Anne: Bounty Hunter

She’s the Princess Big behind lay-by cafes. She also cornered the market in vuvuzelas back in the day.

There’s a lot about this in early 20thC political fiction/non-fiction. For example, the syndicalist pamphlet The Miners’ Next Step warns about the social embarrassment that a young working class MP experiences when meeting his new colleagues, leading to accommodation and eventual separation from his