The last academic in the UK, please turn off the claude.

New Medieval Books: Medieval German Tales - Medievalists.net Discover the richness of later medieval German literature through these 20 tales, now translated into English. Ranging from comic stories to courtly narratives, they offer a vivid glimpse into the…

New Medieval Books: Medieval German Tales www.medievalists.net/2026/04/new-... #medievalliterature #medievalbooks #GermanLiterature

We all need to lodge an official complaint. It takes no time at all, and I've dropped a link to BBC Complaints in the comments. This is shocking.

Two hooded figures with lamps approach a moonlit, isolated cottage. A woman answers the door. We have come for the child, says the hooded figure So soon? she asks It is time, says the hooded figure. The woman is distraught. We should never have got him a library card! What is done cannot be undone, says the hooded figure We couldn’t see the harm! We just wanted him to enjoy reading! For most, it ends there, says the hooded figure, turning away and walking into the wilderness Oh lord, What have I done! says the woman, the child walks past her and out into the darkness with them. Do not cry mother. I am a writer now.

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Michael Rosen wins Hans Christian Andersen award The former children’s laureate missed the announcement of the award in Bologna due to post-Brexit passport rule changes

Just making sure Bluesky #BookSky #KidLitUK is all-a-buzzing with the news that “our” @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social has been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award for writing.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...
@ibbyuk.bsky.social

(All in spite of #PassportWoes)

Perfect parrots, or popinjays as they were known in the early 14th century, when they were painted on this timber screen to a side chapel in wonderful St. Mary’s and All Saints Church, Willingham, Cambridgeshire 🤩

I would in essence vote for any political party that made this announcement and rule a legal requirement on all UK public transport.

The Holy Foreskin: The Story of Christianity's Strangest Relic - Medievalists.net When I first heard about the Sanctum Praeputium I thought it was a joke thought up by some medievalist. However, in the Middle Ages there was much debate if a little piece of Jesus Christ remained on…

The Holy Foreskin: The Story of Christianity’s Strangest Relic www.medievalists.net/2024/04/holy... #relics

Oysters and carbon capture: embarrassing that this combination comes as a surprise. If major media outlets all headlined one initiative like this each week we'd be a much better informed (and better) public.

Victory: Court Reinstates Alaska Critical Habitat for Bearded, Ringed Seals Center for Biological Diversity: ANCHORAGE, Alaska— A federal appeals court today upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s designation of nearly 160 million acres of waters off Alaska’s Arctic…

Arctic seals have regained one of their most important legal protections. A federal appeals court in the US has reinstated nearly 160 million acres of critical habitat for bearded and ringed seals off Alaska’s Arctic coast, reversing a 2024 lower-court ruling. buff.ly/kB0iIYe
#ShareGoodNewsToo

🎯 The exact location and size of William Shakespeare’s London house has been revealed after the discovery of a lost floorplan.

The property, bought in Blackfriars three years prior to his death, was located on a 1660s plan.

Read all about it in AWLOH! 📰 open.substack.com/pub/historyh...

“The wide panda” lolsob

We need more baby goats 🐐 ♥️

The eyepatch really makes it

For #worldcurlewday
Curlews over Pentre Ifan.
The haunting cry of this bird always feels to be a call from another land and when heard time always falls away and one is filled with melancholy and joy in equal measure.
Do support @curlewaction who work tirelessly to save this bird.

Cheers Richard, I couldn't have written the Crowley chapter without your Perdurabo

A linocut illustration of a magpie in front of some headstones. The print has been digitally coloured and put on a photograph of a grass field with trees on the background and a cloudy sky above.

Another reworked linocut print with a folk song theme.

‘One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl and four for a boy.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never told.
Devil, devil, I defy thee.’

The Dragon of St. Leonards Forest, from "Old Speech And Manners In Sussex." By Mark Antony Lower in Sussex Archaeological Collections Vol.XIII, 1861. #FolkloreThursday

A book called The Little Book of Fairies by Carolyne Larrington, published by the British Library. It has a purple band down teh side and an old fashioned fairy painting of a very elaborate green fairy. It looks like it might be a stage costume. Victorian? Older? I'm not sure, I'll have to read the book to find out!

Original art for a picture book by Erika Meza. It shows a girl with light brown skin and long dark brown plaits, wearing a pink dress and white trainers. The text at the bottom reads, "...The hero will be ME." It's in a frame on the wall of the exhibition.

An elaborate pop up book with mermaids behind a glass case. You can see the reflection of my fingers and phone taking the photo, drat, I thought I'd avoided that.

Signposts inside the exhibition pointing to dragons, happily ever after, helpful elves, swimming selkies and talking animals.

The Fairy tales exhibition at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social is immense fun. Lots for adults, lots for small children (less for medium children, but they might consider themselves too old for fairy tales anyway, even tho they're not). Came away with a book - @profcarolyne.bsky.social's on fairies

I have a couple of lit analysis books out on the influence/usage of medieval (or medieval-coded) history, tropes, imagery, etc. One on GOT/ASOIAF and one on N*il G*man (which I obviously don't promo very much anymore 🫠). The fiction is still a work in progress; I'm currently actively querying.

"has become"????

My photo shows a circular Saxon brooch made of copper, the front of which is ornately embellished with gold and garnets. There are five raised, circular, gold bosses which are outlined with inlaid garnet slabs, and set with a central, round garnet. Four of the gold bosses are arranged around a larger gold boss in the centre of the brooch. The central boss sits within a star-like, four-pointed geometric shape composed of a mosaic of inlaid garnet slabs. The outer edge of the brooch is decorated with two rows of tiny inlaid polished garnets. The eight gold sections at either side of the four smaller bosses are decorated with raised gold filigree which looks like looped, braided cord. Parts of the brooch are worn, with some chipped edges, and missing garnet stones. The brooch measures approximately 7 cm in diameter. It was excavated from a woman’s grave by AOC Archaeology in 2000. This type of brooch was a fashionable status piece amongst wealthy aristocratic Anglo-Saxon women in the AD 600s. The woman’s grave also contained glass beads and silver rings.

Saxon copper disc brooch intricately decorated with gold and garnets, AD 650-670.

This must have been a treasured possession!

From Floral Street, Covent Garden, once the heart of ‘Lundenwic’, the early Saxon town of London.

Museum of London 📷 by me

#Archaeology

🎨 mid 12th century illumination created in Winchester Cathedral; it is part of the Winchester Psalter which contains a cycle of 38 full page illuminations. Christ and the Archangel Michael defeat the hellish gatekeepers while rescuing Eve, Adam and all of fallen humanity, leading them to Paradise. The Hellmouth gapes open, its power destroyed. As a theological event, the Harrowing of Hell occurs today, Holy Saturday. The quotation is from the York cycle of medieval mystery plays

A popular subject in medieval literature & art, the Harrowing of Hell shows Christ's soul liberating the lost from Hell's mouth & restoring them to bliss: "Michael, my pure angel, receive these souls unto yourself & I shall teach you to lead them to Paradise" York play 37 #BookWormSat #MedievalSky

Ahh, it’s another beautiful CaturDogDay

This is the production line uni ‘execs’ are pushing for across most of our sector. HE becomes a production line of employment training courses. Criticality and creativity; creation, discussion and debate of new knowledge aren’t even secondary for these people. They don’t see it as necessary at all.

Mine is indeed little, but it has THE best pictures.

This. It’s strange that Americans who haven’t studied, or have only briefly studied, German, find the lack of spaces so compelling.

Runic mysteries The art of deciphering ancient alphabets

Send your #runic queries to @vikingologypodcast.bsky.social for @jaztherunologist.bsky.social to decipher them on the podcast! Great idea: open.substack.com/pub/vikingol... #runology #runes

Publication day here for this louche character and private view day for British Library fairytales exhibition happily enough. On my way to the BL to celebrate