Roooooooot!! 🏏🏏

I am once again issuing a request to Italian historians: please write shorter books!

The Axis had many problems in their logistics chain to North Africa. Port capacity wasn't really one of them.

Plea for help: can anyone direct me to any published and/or online *primary* sources regarding the Reorganized National Government of China/The Wang Jingwei Regime that are, ideally, in English and would make good talking points for final year UG students on themes of occupation/collaboration? 🗃️

Success! Avoided spoiling the result *and* got the desired result! 🏉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Right, current challenge: stay off the web for the next 3-4 hours or so to avoid giving away the rugby result, so I can watch the recorded World Cup final after the kids are asleep. Living the dream. ish.

Just caught up with the rugby semi final and was delighted with the result but also to see it featured someone who I once briefly taught (even if she missed much of the module to play WXV)!

O Canada! 🏉

📰 Just published! My latest article in @modernitaly.bsky.social looks at how Mussolini’s regime used the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) to expand Italy’s influence in Francoist Spain between 1936 and 1943. You can read it open access here: 🔗 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I am very proud to share with you the introduction to the special issue that I co-edited with Robert Gerwarth in the journal @conteurohistory.bsky.social : "Intra-State Conflicts and the Politics of Aid in Europe, 1917–49: An Introduction" #Humanitarianism #CivilWar www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This document from @crusaderproject.bsky.social (who is fully acknowledged ofc) features in a forthcoming journal article of mine. I’ll post further details when it’s published.

🏉🏉🏉 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

England celebrate becoming the champions

Well that was….better?

Did Chloe Kelly just pull a Daniel Larusso?

Can’t be doing with these penalty shootouts. How am I supposed to sleep after that?

Today’s random find: a map of the secret radio transmitter network of the German Armed Forces, 1939.

Every time I have glanced at the Lions vs Reds live tracker so far for an update, there has either been another try or a review for a potential try…

OMG, the @ihr.bsky.social has uploaded a bunch of old interviews with historians on their youtube channel and I'm now deeply invested. Summer treat for #SkyStorians! Look at this interview with E.P. Thompson by an embryonic Penelope Corfield!

One of the all time great test matches!

It exists! I finally got my unboxing moment today! A short article to introduce my book Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War. Available for pre-order now. www.linkedin.com/pulse/emigra...

From a report from April 1940. Can almost hear the tiny violins.

Sign-up now open for the conference on 'Britain, Conflict & the Sea' that I am running with RMG this September: www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/nat...

Oh hey, a second hard drive failure in the space of 16 months. What a nice surprise….

Excellent closing comments. More of this please!

A *handful* (single figures) of the general attendance tickets still remain, so follow the link in the quoted post below to book now, if you want to attend this conference, featuring keynotes addresses from Profs Sheldon Garon and Juliette Pattinson plus papers by speakers from across the globe. 🗃️

Magnificent lol

The are still a few 'general attendance' tickets left for 'The Second World War: 80 Years on' conference at KCL's Waterloo campus in June, plus the related roundtable event at the National Army Museum! *Provisional* conference programme and booking link here: www.swwresearch.com/post/the-sec...

By my count, there are double the number of Northampton players in that Lions squad (4) compared to Wales players (2)

Waiting for the real white smoke (Lions squad announcement)

Don't mean to make anyone jealous, but I'm about to head out for my big bank holiday treat: watching Bluey: Let's Play Chef, at the cinema.

‘The fields are green, the sky is blue…’ Incredible game www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

Interesting passage to stumble across from a book published in 1947, by American authors, discussing a common sentiment among Americans that the US will generally always be 'successful in war', yet have 'never won a conference' as other countries 'take advantage' of them.

Please tell me that the local LIB campaign in this seat involved signs that said 'I'm a Fanjoy Fanboy'.

See one of our recent articles 'British Dominions and the Deterioration of London–Tokyo Relations in the Summer of 1940' by Adam Mordzak: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Amused to read, at the end of a 1941 Cagliari prefect's report covering shortages in key foodstuffs/essentials: ‘Wine, too, was the subject of much scrutiny and discussion, since...there was an intense export of them to the continent, with the danger of leaving the provincial market undersupplied.'

Delighted to learn that my book, Vichy's Double Bind: French Collaboration between Hitler and Mussolini during the Second World War, is now available in paperback. @strathhumanities.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

This is infuriating! I think that everything (or certainly very nearly everything) I’ve ever published has been used.

By my calculation, if you *only* count England points scored by Northampton players in Cardiff then you *still* get a 32-14 bonus point win over Wales!

CALL FOR PAPERS! I'm co-organising a conference in September on women's work in the Second World War, with a graduate research forum in the afternoon for PGRs to present their work. Please share with any postgrads who might be interested! More details here ⬇️ royalhistsoc.org/calendar/cod...

PSA: Joe Maiolo and Laura Robson's new Cambridge Elements book on the League of Nations is available open access and downloadable here: www.cambridge.org/core/element... 🗃️

It looks like Spring (or maybe just Fool’s Spring) is here. The kids are celebrating by playing an Xmas songs playlist all morning…

Still haven’t watched any of that ‘press conference’. Just can’t bring myself to do it

Masters scholarships for Palestinian students at Sussex. Please disseminate? www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...

Just successfully made my first very basic gantt chart. Not sure what this says about where my life is going...

New book just arrived, with the bonus prize that I get a mention in the acknowledgments.

Currently re-reading Paul Corner's classic book on popular opinion in Fascist Italy and am greatly amused by a footnote referring to a short diary entry by an unnamed Italian from November 1918: 'The War ended today. The cat is pregnant again.' From the global to the local. 🗃️

I regret to inform you all that is, in fact, still January.

I have (genuinely!) just received an email from the head of a motorcycle club inviting me to be a VIP guest of honour at an event in the summer, and to hand out the awards to winners. It is a very kind offer, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think they got the wrong Richard Hammond.