A reminder that drug-related crime is not new (1926)

Absolute SCENES in Stamford in 1926

I am not sure that a single criticism levelled at these schools couldn't also have been directed at schools in England. AND YET.

Prince George, Football Manager

Today, for scholarly reasons, I am reading the Blue Books. Hoo boy

Will the BoB flight come over my garden today? PROBABLY!

It’s been a week

I will absolutely be watching in my pyjamas

In the 1680s a man in landlocked Wiltshire looked at a stone shaped like a shell and concluded the Bible’s account of creation didn’t work. He was John Aubrey. His extraordinary life & work is explored in a new exhibition at @chippenhammuseum.bsky.social www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

Someone told me this morning that they can’t imagine me using the tube

On the bright side, uh... AI is making it much harder to get away with murder? www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

Fanny Prison England and Wales, Census, 1861

Omg Stanley Tucci has just announced he’s doing a UK food series. Cannot wait to see him try regional specialities like Buckfast.

We have indexes of inquest for a portion of eastern Suffolk from mid 19 century through to 1933. The most recent ones have just been added so we are very much aware of the value of such records and it is purely coincidental the timing of the zoom

There are only a tiny handful of 18th-19thC inquest historians in the UK but we will all tell you how amazing they are as a source

New article! When did #criminology in Britain begin? Where did it come from? @jkivivuori.bsky.social & I explore the forgotten roots of British criminology in a burst of statistical research between the 1830s and 1850s. We show that British Criminology didn't first emerge in the later 1800s...(1/5)

Carpeted as in disciplinary/ sacked/ disqualified, said to originate with the English Jockey Club where miscreants would stand on the carpet before the trio in judgement of their sins. I suspect there are multiple definitions though.

Anyone know what "carpeted" means in terms of a negative crowd response? It's 1890s, possibly Scouse origin. Mobbed? Jumped? Rolled up in a carpet and carried away?

Alison Baxter writes about the tragedy in her own family history that inspired her first novel, A Fatal Choice. Her research uncovered a strange story of secrets and lies, as she reveals at historiamag.com/secrets-lies-family-history Three women made a desperate decision @alisonrbaxter.bsky.social

Ah I'm delighted to see this series finally announced. I worked on it extensively in the strange hinterland between submission and viva, and there is a great variety of cases! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

What is the charge? writing a history? A succulent cultural history ?

I have had a really lovely day at a microhistories of violence workshop at Cambridge Institute of Criminology. @drstephaniebrown.bsky.social and I presented on a REALLY WEIRD inquest. Obviously.

Impossible to travel on the railway at Manea without thinking that this train is almost a boat

Let’s go do more Terrifying Speaking Things

Jane Bond is every woman working in local government

I swear judges in the 1970s are far more openly misogynist than judges in the 1870s.

Now, how much will Thameslink attempt to charge me to go home slightly earlier than planned?

£7.99! In this economy!

Foolishly left the house without a pen and had to buy one from WH Smith in Kings Cross. Wanna guess how much two biros cost?

You lovely people have got me up to 190 responses, so I'm going to keep going to 200! If you're an academic in UK HE who's had pastoral responsibility for students in the last 5 years under any title, please take 10 mins to share your thoughts about that work. Please do share to widen the pool.

Not a single frame of Elder Scrolls 6. Why do they forsake us?

We only converse about Welsh Bible books and the Rhondda

I love Sophie’s theory of the ‘dead dress’ phenomenon - women dehumanised in death by the Victorian and Edwardian press. Exactly this happened to the Ripper’s victims and to Belle Elmore, the wife Dr Crippen killed. They just become a series of injuries and body parts, their true identities erased.

I don't really talk about this, because I'm actually quite private about my personal life, but many many years ago Tony Head took me under his wing and showed me the kind of person I could be. It's not an exaggeration to say that I'm the person I am today because of the kindness he showed me.

oh good the daily telegraph have found out how to annoy exactly me (to paraphrase Stuart Lee)

go.bsky.app/GwHgAAF - have added!

My kid has severe interoception problems and… nobody can help us because nobody knows how! So please share this study

Gutted

Probably not

I am having a bad day. I've got two major speaky-things early next week and have broken The Evil Tooth. No dentists can fit me in, so I'm going to have to just... drug up and carry on. To cheer me, you, everyone up, let's talk about murder.

OH MY GOD! COLLISION SEASON! (Have you seen this @rwldproject.bsky.social?)

This must be AI generated, right? (Sold by George @ Asda)

Are there any stats available on how many wills went through probate in a given (19thC) year?

Niche question for the Welsh... Anyone seen a map with the old (mid-19thC) divisions of Glamorgan on it? Trying to figure out a coroner's lair

Everyone banging on about AI when my creative process is "stop looking at phone, find good pen, find good notepad, write" (Uniball Eye and Pukka Pads)

The successful candidate will be expected to draw a sword from a stone.

In 1998, someone I love (then a white, male teenager) had a psychotic break. He had his head kicked in by bouncers, was arrested and only taken to hospital after the police custody doctor said he was dying. I don't know whether he would have survived if that custody doctor hadn't been on duty.

After fourteen years as a student with the Open University, I am now a visiting fellow which means I FINALLY GET A STAFF ID

Misconceptions I have had on separate occasions about the book Moby Dick 1. The whale is called Ishmael and narrates the book 2. The whale is nameless

If you ever wondered why I write about historical injustice, it's to try and remind us WHY a framework around deprivation of liberty was instituted in the first place.