Today on this website

Go, Lions!

Que sais-je? Michel de Montaigne, French Renaissance philosopher, whose gentle scepticism shaped European thought; died #OTD 1592. Many books originally in his library at Tour Montaigne are now in the University of Cambridge Library @theUL.bsky.social

Seven of the top ten skills employers say they most need are not technical but human: resilience, empathy, adaptability, curiosity, leadership, creativity and self-awareness. And these are precisely the skills students develop when they do a BA… #HASS

A welcome statement from the Anglican Church in Victoria about Camp Sovereignty

Remembering with thankfulness Fr Gerry O’Collins SJ on the first anniversary of his death

Ever wondered how letters were folded and sealed before the use of gummed envelopes in the 19th century? Wonder no more: you’ll have hours of instructive fun on this ‘letterlocking’ YouTube channel, including a demonstration of the ‘tuck-and-seal’ method favoured by Voltaire… youtu.be/iNMoq28X2sQ

Failure to study languages ‘damages Britain’s reputation’. Former Schools Minister Nick Gibb says it may be time to make languages compulsory again up to age 16, but with a long lead time to ensure there are enough teachers www.thetimes.com/article/5332...

James Baldwin’s message was simple: we’re afraid of love, because we’re afraid of exposing our true selves. To manage that fear, we “other” the groups we don’t belong to in order to avoid a reckoning with ourselves.

‘Beginning to wonder’… George Oppen’s ‘The Forms of Love’ (1975)

So, you mean 80% of graduates have benefited financially from it? And, whisper it quietly, but *UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ISN’T JUST ABOUT SALARY*

On carrying poetry abroad… youtu.be/0nTmSu6v0LA

“Putin would eat you for lunch.” Today, exactly that happened.

🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...

A coffee in my @voltaire.ox.ac.uk travel cup while I watch the boys play soccer at Manningham Juventus FC in Doncaster: an almost typical Aussie Saturday morning ⚽️

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/

We are pleased to announce that the Australian Society for French Studies are now accepting submissions for the Jarrod Hayes AJFS Prize for 2025. 🏆 Find out more: bit.ly/JH-AJFS-Prize @sfhs.bsky.social @sfps.bsky.social @ilcs.bsky.social @profnatedwards.bsky.social

A blessed Feast of the Assumption! This sixteenth-century Macedonian icon of the Dormition of the Virgin is now part of the wonderful collection of icons in the Petit Palais, Paris.

Got distracted whilst looking for early 20th century sound effects. Can we use this for a 1926 British soundscape? No. Do I want to shoehorn it in regardless? Clearly, yes. www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Congratulations to all those on the shortlist for this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards creative.gov.au/news-events/...

W S Merwin, ‘Heartland’ (2008)

I had the honour of preaching at Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney, this morning for their Patronal Festival

‘Not all spaces are empty’: a beautiful new poem by Amy Crutchfield, ‘De Chirico, after Bruce Bond’s “Oval”’, published today for #PoetryMonth by #RedRoomPoetry #30in30 redroompoetry.org/poets/amy-cr...

Welcome news from the Albanese government ministers.education.gov.au/clare/managi...

A north London school hall is to be restored to its 1960s appearance and become home to the UK’s first Museum of Brutalist Architecture (MoBA) after it secured a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant. www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/lon...

Very clever reworking of this Nicolas-André Monsiau painting 👏

What a delight it will be to keep the feast of St Laurence in Sydney the weekend after next…

Reading Voltaire's entire correspondence (over 20,000 letters in 45 vols) has its disadvantages and rewards, says Gillian Pink. Read her blog post on one of the latter - a 1753 letter containing elements of Voltaire's Candide (1759): voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2025/06/20/f...

It’s 26 July — on this day last year, the Paris Olympics were just beginning — and I find myself drawn to this Mary Oliver poem…

I've never seen *anything* like this, either. Joint statement from BBC, Reuters, AFP, AP about their journalists literally starving.

A statement on the situation in Gaza.

I’m delighted that my presentation on Flaubert’s ‘Madame Bovary’ is now available on the YouTube channel of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne as part of the ‘Great Books: bite size’ series youtu.be/Jwu26CmOSuQ

What a privilege it has been to spend the last three weeks studying the Renaissance with these smart University of Melbourne students on a Summer School in the Loire Valley.

17 July 1999: installation of the Very Rev. David John Leyburn Richardson, previously Dean of St Peter's Cathedral Adelaide, at St Paul's Cathedral Melbourne, to be 13th Dean of Melbourne. #anglican #26years Dean Emeritus 2008. Director of the Anglican Centre at Rome 2008-2013. OBE 2013. AO 2016.

What really happened in the Battle of Trafalgar? And who shot Admiral Nelson? In this 10-Minute Talk, Dr David McCallam explores contemporary French responses to the battle and how they offer a fascinating alternative perspective on a well-rehearsed historical event. bit.ly/4kAnqIB

In Tours, the discerning gentleman could buy a pink three-piece suit for 679€… 🤔

The attacks on humanities & social sciences continue in Australian universities - this week the university of Tasmania chooses to make a significant proportion of its small faculty redundant www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

Langeais: lunch with a view

Grande joie ! Survivre s’est vu attribuer ce soir le prix de l’essai France Culture / Arte 2025 !!

Learn how humility and pride come together in many LGBTQ+ Christian journeys. Dawne Moon and Theresa W. Tobin tell Shae's story of sexuality and spirituality here: https://oxford.ly/44w34v7 #pride 🏳️‍🌈

Paris by night #PontMarie

It’s good to be back in the Chapel of the Holy Angels in St Sulpice, spending time with Delacroix’s ‘Jacob Wrestling with the Angel’

A Greek way of describing something that fails miserably is μάπα το καρπούζι. It means “the watermelon proved to be a cabbage.”

Absolutely hate University rankings. Especially QS. But can someone please show the government that the UK has 3 in top 6, and 4 in top 10 and ask if there’s any other sector where the UK does so well, especially with government putting obstacles in its path www.topuniversities.com/world-univer...

Honestly I still can’t stop laughing 😂😅🤣

‘How it snowed in clumps of white quiet’: I love Sophie Dumont’s poem ‘Yarrow’, just published in Issue 14 of Dust Poetry, with its poignant evocation of the effects of dementia.

omgomgomg french history woodstock lineup just dropped frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/blog/wp-cont... 🗃️

I’m excited to be returning to Paris where, this time last year, I picked up at a flea market outside the Bourse this gorgeous bronze crucifix which, it turns out, is the work of Max Le Verrier (1891—1973). I bought it, as the French say, for a mouthful of bread…

Proud of my former Faculty for running this Activist in Residence scheme (www.kcl.ac.uk/research/the...) — and wondering if it might be something for my current Faculty to emulate… #UniMelb #ArtsUniMelb