Spat at, threatened and kidnapped: British Jews tell of rising antisemitism British Jews have described to BBC Panorama how they are experiencing a rise in antisemitism.

For shame.

BBC News - Spat at, threatened and kidnapped: British Jews tell of rising antisemitism - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Photograph of a broad hilly grassy landscape. In the foreground are 18th, 19th and early 20th century gravestones.

Photograph of the same landscape looking a different way: over a lichen-covered stone dyke in the foreground. Is a sloping marshy hill, with a few scattered trees. In the background looms a hump-backed hill.

Was also blown away by the landscape of Liddesdale. These views from the cemetery and lost church site by Liddel Castle, the de Soules earthwork base.

I have it on good authority the landscape was largely treeless since the 2nd millennium BCE, throwing cold water on what makes a medieval ‘forest’!

Photograph of Smailholm Tower.

Back from 4 days of castle-bothering in Scotland’s west march (and a bit of the middle tbh). It was fab to spend time talking phasing, function and landscape, and to see old acquaintances. As an organiser, it was v tiring, but altogether great visits. Also got the chance to rustle up some new plans!

So no, he wasn't struck off for asking a Muslim woman to remove her veil.

He was struck off for multiple counts of serious misconduct, including lying during an official investigation, followed by working 17 times while suspended, and THEN refusing to engage with the GMC about returning to work

Northumberland: castles and the borderlands of power Podcast Episode · The English Heritage Podcast · 16 April · 50min

The first of two new episodes here on medieval Northumberland. V grateful to one of my former PhD supervisors Prof Oram (Stirling) for joining this convo avout the odd things of England’s medieval far north! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Northumberland: castles and the borderlands of power Podcast Episode · The English Heritage Podcast · 16 April · 50min

The first of two new episodes here on medieval Northumberland. V grateful to one of my former PhD supervisors Prof Oram (Stirling) for joining this convo avout the odd things of England’s medieval far north! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

A tweet by “thuksgiving” reads “Pope Leo is WEAK on crime” you bolt awake in the university of Wittenberg. You are not online. It is 1517. You are Professor Martin Luther and you have changed your mind. The future cannot come to pass. The church must remain.

Oh look. I’m not alone.

Not sure I can make this in person but perhaps of interest to folk keen on the processes of construction.

csca.aha.cam.ac.uk/building-sit...

AI and the Digital: The AI Con

Coming up: Mon. Apr. 20 ~ 2pm ET / 7pm UK
"AI and the Digital: The AI Con"
Emily Bender and Alex Hanna with Audrey Borowski

Does AI hype help the rich get richer by justifying data theft, motivating surveillance capitalism and devaluing human creativity?

www.thephilosopher1923.org/events/ai-an...

Legal advisers help migrants pose as gay to get asylum, undercover BBC investigation finds The BBC exposes a shadow industry charging migrants thousands of pounds to help them cheat the asylum system.

Disgusting reporting by BBC using a tiny number of cases to suggest widespread abuse of a system which routinely denies LGBTQIA+ individuals asylum and forces them back into environments of persecution. This article massively distorts the reality of the situation. 1/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Paperback of Máel Coluim III book is now available to pre-order from publisher:
birlinn.co.uk/product/mael...

Book highlight that says: "A not-wholly-unfair analysis of academic publishing would be that it is an industry in which academics compete against one another for the privilege of providing free labour for a profit-making company, which then sells the results back to them at monopoly prices."

Enjoyed reading "The Unaccountability Machine" by Dan Davies: at turns thoughtful and hilarious. Goes deep into cybernetics, history, neoliberalism, and accounting (!).

A friend sent me this quote which is pretty funny and on target unless you're an academic; then the joke is on you (and me).

Madame would be most welcome - and at a discount, I would hope!

The cover and a spread of History Today. The cover story is Servants on the Grand Tour. An early modern engraving shows a man, standing next to some ruins and gesturing up at a statue.

🚨 Job alert! History Today is hiring a PT freelance copy editor, either remote or in the office. Please share widely! www.historytoday.com/jobs

Interior of a church with the words 'Work With Us' overlaid

WORK WITH US: ReACH Research Officer

We are looking to hire a new member of staff to help deliver Research in Action on Church Heritage (ReACH), our partnership project with @scotchurchestrust.bsky.social.

Find out more and apply before 11:59 PM on 3 May 2026: www.socantscot.org/news/work-wi...

Come and enjoy our ever expanding Research Team!

#HeritageJob

Photograph of Rosamund’s Tower at Pickering Castle in North Yorkshire in England. The tower, carrying from the the castle’s eastern outer Bailey curtain wall, comprises a ground-floor Postern passage below two stacked chambers. Its dates to the first third of the 14th century.

Detail of Rosamund’s Tower, showing the round-headed Postern portal recessed within a square arch recess. Above the round head is a small cut opening, where a chain or rope could operate the drawbridge which nestled in the square frame when lifted to seal the opening.

Photograph of the south-east corner of Rosamund’s Tower.

Detail of a projecting angular block of masonry, comprising a wall-head latrine serving the chamber in Rosamund’s Tower.

Bit late for this but happy #ADoorAbleThursday! A fine doorway below Rosamund’s Tower at Pickering Castle. Not a conventional doorway, this; it was sealed by a drawbridge operated in the tower, a chain or rope passing through a small hole above the portal.

And: bones projecting angular latrine.

The status of thegn in late Anglo‐Saxon England This article considers how the term ‘thegn’ was used in tenth- and eleventh-century England. Although commonly thought to indicate members of a face-to-face service aristocracy with specific attribut...

And finally, Richard Purkiss on thegns in early medieval England, arguing that 'thegn' was really just a term for "quite ordinary landowners" (open access) 7/9
doi.org/10.1111/emed...

Haven’t been a Romanist for well over a decade but always recommend the Fontana edition. Very sad.

The great historian of Late Antiquity Averil Cameron, who has died, reminding us that class matters alongside gender in British society wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/05/22/s...

I've got a 45-50 minute book talk ready to go on my 2024 blockbuster 'Onomantic Divination in Late Medieval Britain'. Want me to come give a talk for expenses? Email via website, link in bio. #MedievalSky

I don’t have a dog but I’m in the habit of greeting dogs I meet and asking them their names, introducing myself, and telling them I don’t have any sausages in my pocket. Every time I do I realise they don’t answer me back, but I do it anyway.

A stack of books on a blue surface with the text: "Amplifying voices: The Cambridge Amplify Fund.

The inaugural Cambridge Amplify Grant will support early-career scholars in History and Area Studies in publishing their first book, providing financial and editorial support over 12 months.

⏰ The closing date for submissions is 13 April 2026.

Find out more 🔗 https://cup.org/3NJAd1a

Donald Trump Jr. stigao u Banski Dvor na panel diskusiju s privrednicima iz RS-a Donald Trump Jr. stigao je u Banski Dvor u Banjoj Luci gdje će prisustvovati panel diskusiji, a prethodno je oko tog objekta napravljen perimetar od 200 metara...

Trump Jr & Brad Pascale have arrived in Bosnia to meet w/ Milorad Dodik’s Russian-backed secessionist regime. Dodik, a long time Serb militant & Bosnian Genocide denier, secured US sanctions relief in Oct after hiring Blagojevich & Mike Flynn as lobbyists. www.klix.ba/vijesti/bih/...

Medieval floor tiles, presumably 13th Century, seen at Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire yesterday. The community had a workshop making the tiles on site.
#TilesOnTuesday

Photograph of a PC monitor displaying a dog licking its nose, its eyes shut. Behind the dog is blue sky and what look to be pink blossoms.

GDPR (General Dog Protection Regulation) prevents me from sharing the full lot, but I attach a sample image. This is Whisky.

Through some sort of tech mess I’ve somehow been included in a thread called ‘Dogs of Historic England’ and let me tell you, this is a great start to my working week.

I’ve got the same chimney wall colour in my bedroom. It’s v soothing I find.

Serbia’s Vucic Says Explosive Found at Gas Pipe Near Hungary Serbian police and army uncovered explosives next to a major gas pipeline that supplies much of the country and neighboring Hungary, where pivotal parliamentary elections are scheduled in a week’s tim...

Obviously this is a false flag op in which Serbia is involved. But what is salient is how it illustrates how emancipatory the fall of Orban would be far beyond Hungary. His allies in the Balkans - Vucic and Dodik, especially - would feel his loss acutely. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

An outline drawing of Cambuskenneth Abbey near Stirling, as it might have looked in the 14th century. This reconstruction shows what the abbey and adjoining monastic buildings might have looked like in their rebuilt state following an attack by the army of King Richard II of England in 1383. The abbey has an accompanying freestanding bell tower or campanile, which is unusual in Scotland. The tower is the only surviving part of the original church still standing today. It may have been spared its destruction by virtue of its use as a watchtower. Artist: Bob Marshall. © (2019)

Happy Easter!

If you're stuck indoors and bored due to the stormy weather, you can always colour in my drawing of Cambuskenneth Abbey ;)