It may not be pretty, but this Khmer-spiced veggie shepherd’s pie was an absolute beast of a dinner!

Whisper it for now, but I’m starting to think I may actually finish everything I promised to do during my period of research leave…

Ok, tis the season.

The BBC staff film society’s in-house magazine letters page in the summer of 1987 was an absolute ROLLERCOASTER

My husband was just granted indefinite leave to remain in the U.K. and now I don’t know what we are going to do with all the drawer space freed up by not having to hold on to 5 years of utility bills, bank statements and council tax statements.

Whichever one of you ordered a sunset for 4.30pm is on my naughty list, I’m afraid.

My brilliant friends and colleagues at @cinemaforall.bsky.social are popping up on ITV News at 6.30pm tomorrow (Weds) to talk about community cinema’s 100th anniversary. Check it out if you can - a taste of the film society life with your dinner!

How am I supposed to focus on writing grant applications when Florence has a new album out on Friday?

Oh look - it’s me popping up on Ayesha’s marvellous science fiction cinema podcast again! This time featuring triffids! Come have a listen - I had a proper giggle recording this.

Community cinema and its 100th anniversary being celebrated in the Guardian today!! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

We have lots coming up for #halfterm / #readingweek next week! Don't miss our #halloween trail, kids' shadow puppet workshop or our lunchtime talk about our 'Dinosaurs, Dragons & #Monsters' display - all free, all welcome! 🎃🍁 #museumsky #filmsky @exeterlibrary.bsky.social @exeterunilib.bsky.social

Impromptu weekend on Guernsey it is!

There's still time to apply for a Research Stipend 2025-6 - for #international & #UK-based #scholars, researchers & #practitioners to #research using our collections on #cinema & moving image #history. For more information & to apply, visit: tinyurl.com/54wvy2du #researchsky #filmsky #musueumsky

Couldn’t make it to Sheffield for the 100 Years of Community Cinema exhibition I curated with the wonderful @cinemaforall.bsky.social a few weeks ago? Well today is your lucky day - a special guided tour just for you! www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyPj...

Episode 42 is detour and a lighthearted chat about one of those stories that connects people through shared refrences and humour. Don’t Panic: The Hitchhiker’s Guide Phenomenon is out. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 🎧 If you want, that is.

📣 Exciting news! We're offering stipends for 2025-6 for #international and #UK-based #scholars, researchers and #practitioners to #research using our collections on #cinema and moving image #history. For more information and to apply, visit: tinyurl.com/54wvy2du #researchsky #filmsky #musueumsky

#SheffEvents #Today

Today’s the day - the @cinemaforall.bsky.social gala event and 100 Years of Community Cinema exhibition showcase at Bloc Projects gallery in Sheffield. I’m giving a guided exhibition tour at 3pm if anyone is nearby. Marking a century of community-led film exhibition in style!

Opening tomorrow at Bloc Projects gallery in Sheffield - 100 Years of Community Cinema: The Exhibition. I’ve been working hard curating this with @cinemaforall.bsky.social and can’t wait to finally show it off! Giving a guided tour and talk about the history of the movement on Saturday at 3 too!

Disappointed not get the job at Salford Uni I was interviewed for back in July but even more disappointed they're still refusing to reimburse my travel expenses to attend interview, and now appear to be ghosting me, forcing me to go public with my dissatisfaction to try to elicit a response...

Can we talk about the fact that the AHRC Catalyst and Curiosity funding schemes, 2 of the 3 major arts and humanities research grant schemes available through our national funding councils, currently have success rates of 5.1% and 6.9% respectively? I knew they were low, but WOW.

FYI: We are hiring a 3-year research postdoc at @camdighum.bsky.social to study AI and the future of creativity. Application deadline Sep 21; more info below. Please circulate / apply! www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/about/news/r...

Cambodian spiced mac and cheese. That’s it. That’s the whole message. Cambodian spiced mac and cheese.

Great postgrad job in Glasgow researching horror and 'psy' sciences🚨 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOM520/r...

Book contract secured! If any of the phenomenally generous reviewers are on here, THANK YOU!!! ‘A Century of Community Cinema: The First 100 Years of Non-commercial Film Exhibition in Britain’ will be coming to your nearest library in a couple of years. Woohoo!

We are hiring 4 lecturers in our dept! 🟦 Lecturer (Teaching) Publishing, Knowledge Production, Platforms and Society 🟦 Associate Lecturer (Teaching) Digital Humanities Methods 🟦 Lecturer Humanities Data Science 🟦 Lecturer/Associate Professor in Publishing Practice www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Our #Dinosaurs, #Dragons and #Monsters display is now open! 🦖 From #JurassicPark to #Frankenstein, don't miss your chance to catch merchandise and memorabilia from some of cinema's most memorable and monstrous #MovieMoments! 🎥🎞🎬 We're open every day, 10am-5pm. #filmsky #cinemasky #museumsky

Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign here: tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

This little munchkin. Wait for it…

📣JOB ALERT 📣 The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has a vacancy for a Project Records Assistant, which will give experience of both Archives & Records Management. Closing date 5 pm on 22 Aug. Come join the Heritage team! cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/rcsed/jobs/p...

A funding panel apparently liked my application so much they want to use it as an example for future applicants. A wee bit flabbergasted and more than a little proud of myself.

HoMER's recent AGM set up three working groups on: 1) A new hosting platform for the HoMER website; 2) A mapping project; 3) New administrative models for the HoMER Network. Interested in one or more? Fill out this form by 4 August 2025: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

After a wonderfully hospitable, engaged and thought-provoking conference in İstanbul, we look forward to continuing our conversations in Exeter next year!

Book proposal submitted! What’s next?

Istanbul nights

Good news- I have been awarded AHRC Impact Accelerator funding to build an evidence base documenting the social, economic and wellbeing benefits of community cinemas in the South West to inform policymaking in the region. The next phase in my collaboration with @cinemaforall.bsky.social is live!

Your face when you remember you haven’t heard The Tingler episode of the podcast that covers the amazing legacy of William Castle’s ballyhoo marketing, Vincent Price, LSD and manly screaming. Link in bio.

Just a few days now until #HoMER2025 in Istanbul and my annual fix of a) New Cinema History goodness and b) the awesome folk who make our network so rich and exciting. Can’t wait.

Apply by 14 July to work with Andrew Dunning to make the Medieval Libraries of Great Britain project online accessible again - 6-month postdoc position @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social. Pls advertise, @oxmedstud.bsky.social @bkhistoxford.bsky.social medieval.ox.ac.uk/medieval-lib...

Applications now open (until 27 June 2025) for the Institute of Historical Research's non-stipendiary IHR Fellowships. Ideal for active, non-affiliated historians who would benefit from a period embedded in @ihr.bsky.social 's community of public, local & academic historians, archivists, curators.

Guess who got an email this morning about being featured on the @pocketcasts.com recommended "Fresh List" of 20th Century History podcasts? Alongside heavy hitters and big companies. 🥹 Go on… guess. 😁 Thank you. ♥️ lists.pocketcasts.com/20th-century... (Please share the podcast if you can!)

It happened again - the wonderful @everyscififilm.bsky.social had me back on the podcast the discuss science fiction at the end of the 1950s, William Castle, Vincent Price, The Tingler and film culture at the cusp of a new age. Always a pleasure to be invited back and such a rich conversation too.

I can’t put my finger on it, but something about this just doesn’t sound quite right…

Well, that’s that then. Again.

Well, that’s that then.

I will from now on be referring to junk mail exclusively as ‘precycling’

No difference detected

With apologies to colleagues at Harvard, for whom this must be extremely worrying, I think it says a lot about the state of British academia that my initial, involuntary thought was ‘ok, but this could be good for UKHE international recruitment’ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

At the end of these long days of grant application writing and the marking, I’ve been retreating to the garden with the husband and beavering away to make our little patch of Devon paradise shine.

That moment of inbox silence where you know that everyone is just as deep in the marking vortex as you are and the lack of incoming emails feels like tacit empathy. Or maybe I just need a tea break.