Omg 💀

A man of property Just outside the City of London, in the secluded streets once occupied by the monastic precinct of the Black Friars, is an unassuming warehouse building

Found a Shakespeare thing; wrote about it in @thetls.bsky.social: www.the-tls.com/regular-feat....

UK universities ‘foolish’ to bank on overseas student growth Foreign students no longer a magic bullet for cash-strapped universities as visa changes and pricing wars force leaders to reconsider growth strategies

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-univ... yes, but ... if we were market stall holders.. you said we could only sell apples for 50p. and it didn't matter how much inflation was, 50p was the price. but you also said we could sell peaches for as much as we like, because the price of apples was.. 1.

The correct way to deal with this particular negative externaility is to tax SUV ownership so that the cost of fixing the damage is born by those who cause it, rather than everyone else.

One of the First Comedy Double Acts? Meet Richard Tarlton, Elizabethan England's biggest celebrity, and his wife Kate in their stand-up venue...

Today’s new post is a quick read on Tudor “stand up” routines, celebrity clowning, and husband and wife duos:

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

“albeit” 😂

A quick glance back that never disappoints

A manuscript page with a large initial R formed to two intertwined dragons

Today we've launched our digitised Probate Registers and Bishops' Transcripts collections onto Ancestry. Together that's 16 million records covering 1389-1858 - these can be accessed via a subscription to Ancestry or for free here at the Borthwick!

www.ancestry.co.uk/search/colle...

Congratulations! 176 route ftw!

Yes came to say that!

This looks super!

Illuminating Media Reveals the hidden power of medieval manuscript decoration and its lasting influence today. The overlooked art of late medieval English manuscript illumination—its initials, borders, and non-figurativ...

🥁🎉BOOK LAUNCH AT KALAMAZOO🎉🥁

The Olympics Has a New Sex Testing Policy. The Evidence Doesn’t Add Up I’ve spent over 10 years obsessed with so-called “gender verification” tests. Proponents claim they have history and science on their side. They don’t.

Oh did you want 3300 words from me on today's IOC sex testing rules? An essay on the nature of evidence and why we can't seem to stop getting stuck in the same traps around sex and gender in sports? Wow lucky you!! www.coyotemedia.org/the-olympics...

A Visit to the Spanish Playhouses Golden Age Spain's 'corrales de comedias' as a guide to Shakespearean London's playhouses...

This travelogue post shares some of my new playhouse research, on the back of a
very insightful trip to see some 400-year-old Spanish playhouses. It’s helped me understand the Shakespearen theatre scene more keenly.

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

A 17th century black and white engraving of the interior of St Paul's Cathedral by Hollar, from perspective of the Nave up to the Altar

Very excited to be going to @britishlibrary.bsky.social next week to check out some Wenceslas Hollar engravings, which are just stunning. Like this one of St. Paul's Nave which gives you some sense of the grandness of the promenading taking place in the Cathedral during the 16/17th centuries.

I don't know what you are talking about, this is completely legible...

None of these even hold a candle to the indecipherability of modern Cyrillic cursive.

The British Academy ECR Network supports Early Career Researchers to connect, learn and grow.

Charlotte says: “As a result of being part of this network, I’ve had opportunities and experiences that otherwise I would not have had.”
Join an Opportunity Session to learn more.
https://bit.ly/4dHUX3I

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

A Frenchman in London gets brought into Bridewell having been "taken in women’s apparel", but they let him go after his mistress and neighbours swear "that he did it upon a merriment to fetch oysters and without any other cause".

🤯 (give or take a year on Almagro construction duration…and Curtain final activities? tho also c. 450 since opening…). Stars aligning…

Otium and negotium would like a word

Next year will be the 50th classical theatre festival in Almagro… excuse for a Curtain link-up and group trip 🤔

This place lives in my head rent free, so a pleasure & privilege to visit Almagro’s 1628 corral de comedias. One of world’s oldest surviving theatres, an uncanny analogue to the Curtain playhouse #CurtainBook. Grateful to the city & Councillor Genaro Galàn Garcia for their generous hospitality.

I see the King’s College London & Shakespeare's Globe
Postgraduate Conference 2026 is now open for CfPs, sharing here for any interested postgrads. Topic is "networks" and submission form can be found below; any questions to sclpostgrad2026@gmail.com

History's Most Prolific Playwright? On why we don't talk enough about Thomas Heywood...

Blockbuster action w/ loud SFX or kitchen sink realism? Take your pick. Today’s post is a celebration of Thomas Heywood. We don’t hear much about him today, but he wrote hundreds of plays, was a veteran of the theatre scene, & had a parallel career to Shakespeare…

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

Sheffield Hallam restricts TPS access to REF academics only Teaching staff at post-92 institution to be employed by subsidiary firm and lose right to access expensive pensions scheme

'Teaching-only staff at Sheffield Hallam University are set to be moved into a subsidiary firm, leaving research intensive scholars the only academics still being employed directly by the institution.'

Utterly inequitable & betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the teaching/research nexus. 1/3

New calls for research funding from the Royal Historical Society: opening in March 2026 - RHS The Society currently invites applications for the following two schemes — open to postgraduate researchers and early career historians — with closing dates of 5 June 2026. For further information on ...

Money for UK-based historians engaged in research and/or public history. #Skystorians

Dear Shabana, I notice today that you referred to me in your speech on immigration at the IPPR think tank. You said: “A party leader should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to make a perilous crossing on small boats.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised especially after the hateful Labour campaign in Gorton and Denton, but this is just the latest in a string of lies peddled by a discredited Government who intentionally fan the flames of racism and division. When I went to Calais, I was not there to encourage people to travel to the UK. I was there to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive Governments have done in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney. As you will know, if you even bothered to research my visit instead of taking Reform talking points, I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I filled water tanks and picked up litter. What that visit did do is confirm my belief that if we are to smash the boat gangs and stop the boats, we need to offer safer and managed routes for migrants to come to this country. Showing compassion as a politician is not a crime. In fact, we need to see much more of it. It reminded me of a young MP who in October 2015 spent three days in Lesbos helping migrants fleeing war-torn Syria. She posted videos on X, talked about handing out water and croissants to refugees and food parcels. When she returned to the UK, she wrote a very moving piece in the New Statesman. She said “we have to work with our European partners and create new, safe, and legal routes for refugees to get to Europe. We cannot abandon them to their fate, left as prey for smugglers whilst risking death on the seas.” She said “maybe we can make ourselves feel better by saying no-one is making them get on the boats. And again, the Home Secretary is not entirely wrong when …

Dear Shabana,

Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

It’s #worldbookday and so here’s a book I wrote! It introduces a dozen radical 17th women who have been ignored by history books for far too long ✍️📚#voicesofthunder #newbook