V excited to be delivering this online talk for the wonderful @chawtonhouse.bsky.social on the evening of April 23rd. Book tickets now if you want to hear more about why I think Fanny Knight was the prototype for Sir Walter Elliot! chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/onl...

The Atlas of Early Printing has a new URL at the Folger. 📜 #BookHistory atlas.folger.edu

My Easter books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Some abject book handling here from Isidore. Good grief man, put down the crook. Dear dear

Congratulations to the editors and all who contributed to this long-awaited first vol (2 pts) of the History of the Book in Scotland! Great achievement. Proud to be included on Esther Inglis in pt.2, with her portrait highlighting the cover of pt.1. #bookhistory @edinburghup.bsky.social

BookBeetle in action at our Open Day! (Printing off keepsakes for visitors). #letterpress

BookBeetle in action at our Open Day! (Printing off keepsakes for visitors). #letterpress

What a joy to talk about British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical with Miranda on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social I hope you'll check it out! #18thcentury #WomensHistoryMonth #regency #bookhistory #JaneAusten @hopkinspress.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/british-wome...

Let's please also acknowledge the work of @sarahlamdan, who's been documenting this phenomenon for years — and who wrote a whole book about it!

Behold! My physical copies of my book 'Rebel Grrrls- the Real Story of Women and Punk' have arrived and they're so PRETTY 😍 So I had to do a cringe vid to encourage you to pre order 😀

Dammit my dexterity sucks. First time setting type yesterday but nerve damage in my fingertips (thanks Chemo) made it quite awkward. And that was 36 point.

Secret tricks to get much better results out of the very dreadful 'Google search' these days, plus other search engines for specific things. Statospherically useful for researchers. open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...

Michael Portillo as Easter Eggs A thread 🧵

😂

“March is the month of Blackthorn, the creamy buds and white flowers exquisite upon their twigs of ebony. It is the month also of daisies, opening their eyes among the grass (daisy means ‘day’s eye’)”

🚨 CFP deadline extended - 31st March 🚨Apply for our @bsecs.bsky.social PGR/ECR Conference in Montpellier in September! Theme is Improvement, Degeneration, Stagnation. We can’t wait to see your abstracts! Details below ⬇️ #18c @royalhistsoc.org @ihrlifecycles.bsky.social @long18thsem.bsky.social

CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 to the winner of our Digital Prize 2026: Eighteenth-Century Libraries Online (ECLO). The project is the result of a 5yr AHRC-funded project on the role of books in social, cultural & political change across the #18thC Atlantic. www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/rese... #skystorians 🗃️

Happy Mothering Sunday!

“Rooks are gathered in their rookeries, rebuilding the nests of last season” Artists: CF Tunnicliffe Writer: EL Grant Watson (What to Look for in Winter, 1959)

Thus is a brilliant piece of writing. People ask me where labour history writing is. It's in journals like this.

A nice surprise for my birthday week: my first ‘proper’ academic publication, for UCL Press / Paper Trails. I hope you enjoy it! ucldigitalpress.co.uk/BOOC/Article...

😧

📣 New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView 🔬 Susan E. Whyman, 'Edmund Rack: master of knowledge, scientific societies and social networks in eighteenth-century Bath' 🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory

In 1626, a Cambridge fishwife sliced open a cod, only to find a gelatinous, half-dissolved manuscript inside. It was published the next year under the name "Vox Piscis or, the Bookfish." At this point, why not get your news from inside a dead fish? #earlymodern #bookfish archive.org/details/bim_...

When one bed isn’t enough.

Hi #EarlyModern Bluesky - did you know that someone brilliant has built working printing presses using Lego and they are trying to get enough supporters so that Lego will release it as a kit? They look so cool! beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

📢 Birmingham UCU members – the Employment Rights Act 2025 is now live and it’s a big shift for us in HE. Key points for staff at UoB: Unfair dismissal: qualifying service will fall to 6 months and the cap on compensation is going, increasing the risk to employers who sack staff unfairly. 1/4

And just look at how Adam Tickell, economic geographer and vice-chancellor, has chosen to word his attack here: 'getting access to the student loan book', 'investing money in people who are not really capable of graduating'

Link to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee report on 'AI, copyright and the creative industries': publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ld...

That Friday feeling Artist: Martin Aitchison (1964)

“He who laughs last, laughs longest “

For those who are minded to do so, there's now a petition to sign too... #DirtyBusiness petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...

When the boss brought in that big new power loom, I was skeptical. He said once he got it running, we’d be out of a job, so when the boys started talking about breaking into the factory and smashing the thing, I was on board. Until, that is, I saw the funny tapestries it could make.

Steve is back from the pub. I can tell something has happened. He has shenanigans written all over his face.

Today is St David’s Day: patron saint of Wales, of course, but also of vegetarians and poets. He was reputed to have helped introduce bees to Ireland. He is famously quoted as saying “Gwnewch y pethau bychain”, meaning “Do the little things”. Small changes and good choices matter, especially now.

St David's Day Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Artist: H Woolley (1954)

This is great.

Number 4!

Attention @iangadd.bsky.social

A big ask for my #Letterpress friends! I would like to ask a few working printers (amateur or pro, different experience levels welcome) to share their thoughts about the current state of the craft with a particular emphasis on their feelings about deep impression / debossing as … 1/2

Primrose, Sweet Violet, Wood Anemone (1957) Artists: Edith Hilder, Rowland Hilder

Apply & share! @englishpen.bsky.social writing residencies for "writers currently based in England who identify as experiencing displacement – including (but not only) refugee writers, writers seeking asylum, and writers in exile." www.englishpen.org/posts/campai...

Turner looking out over a misty Bath this morning.

18th Century specialists, a question for you: I’ve come across several period sources claiming that Britain was notorious among neighbouring countries for its high rate of suicide. Was this actually true, or just a national self-image? If anyone can point me to modern sources I’d be v grateful