Pre-internet scholarly procrastination:

#EarlyModern 🗃️

📢 This Friday! 🗃️

Just gathering my thoughts for my roundtable - I'll be talking about the transformative potential of new digital tech but also why we can't just leave Social History to the machine.

Come along - Emily, Harry & I will also have a stall & look forward to chatting to all!

🐶

The Dog’s Gaze by Thomas Laqueur review – the art of the canine, from Velázquez to Picasso A clever and beautiful survey of dogs in painting, with a brilliant interpretation of their role at its heart

One for @bhamhistory.bsky.social ? www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

! I suppose it makes a bit more sense once they mention the 'mourning a son' connection. Amazing that it turned up like that.

I might have to start a related hashtag on here now!

:-)

Thank you! We've often ended up there after a walk in years past, so nice to be able to wander home after rather than have to get into the car!

Robin Friend - Bastard Countryside Bastard Countryside by British artist Paul Friend reveals the margins of the UK landscape, exposing tensions between pastoral ideals and polluted realities.

One of my smaller ambitions is to one day own a copy of this loosejoints.biz/products/bas...

😄 if it makes you feel better there was a disemboweled sheep on our walk

A small wooden shelter which housed an honesty box and duck and chicken eggs. A sign on the side reads 'Employee of the week' and there is a photo of a black hen with red comb, with the name 'Emperor' underneath.

local business

Rolling Devon hills, mostly green with one red one in the middle. A few houses are clustered in the middle distance, in the far distance Dartmoor can be seen.

that's the new place, just over there, with Dartmoor on the horizon

A narrow lane with verdant bright green banks either side and two trees just coming into leaf. Over head a very blue sky with white fluffy clouds. Lovely!

In the foreground a picnic table with two pints and a packet of crisps on it. The table is infrton of an old pub, old houses line the road in the background.

A slow worm wiggles in the dirt. It's a brown shiny creature that looks very much like a snake.

when I said things were busy here what I meant was we moved & i live in the countryside now

local walk
local pub
local slow worm

Always such a restorative gathering of excellent people!

And October cannot come soon enough @universitypress.cambridge.org www.cambridge.org/gb/universit... #earlymodern

A highlight of three excellent days at the Reformation Studies Colloquium - Ros's book will be out soon!

Text that reads 'The idle man is the devil's cushion, on which he taketh his free ease'.

very busy at the moment, but then again ...

ICYMI - the Wills project spring 2026 newsletter is out now. Find out what we've been up to over the past 6 months 👇

#EarlyModern 🗃️

A cartoon drawing of Agent Cooper and Laura Palmer from David Lynch's tv series Twin Peaks: The Return.

april 8th

An otter swimming in a river.

On this day 5 years ago ... the River Otter lived up to it's name!

Opens 16 April and runs until 20 September 2026. #Skystorians

Festival of Social History

And the presentations are:

~ Emily, Harry & I at the Festival of Social History, IHR 24 April
~ Me at @ihrscb.bsky.social seminar IHR, 7 May

Plus I am looking forward to talking wills at the #Reformation Studies Colloquium next week.

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Four people and a flautist sit on a stage playing, a man in a hat stands next to them singing into a microphone.

The newsletter links are:

Project progress blog: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Will of the Month Series: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Chris Hoban: chrishoban.com

Singing the wills blog: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

The front page of the material culture of wills newsletter, with updates on data analysis, a book contract, project workshop and the blog.

The back page of the Material Culture of Wills newsletter, with an update on the collaboration with musician Chris Hoban and details of upcoming research presentations.

📢 Wills Project Spring 2026 Newsletter📢

Winging its way to many an inbox this week! 📜👇🌱

#EarlyModern 🗃️ @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeternews.bsky.social

Two trees coming into leaf on a sunny morning with a touch of frost on the ground. The tree on the left has orange leaves, the tree on the right bright line green leaves.

Zing!

A greater spotted woodpecker clings to the side of a telegraph pole. It has a white chest and patches on its wings and face, black beak and wings and bright red rump.

woodpecker bum

why are academic books so heavy

An early 15th century alabaster panel for Easter Sunday depicting the Resurrection. Produced in England, the panel is now part of the collections at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. 📸 My own. #EasterSunday #BurrellCollection

Photo of a tiny new frog sitting on a piece of wood, with ivy growing around it.

shed buddy 🐸

Wise man - we did in fact scoff all the Bun Bun yesterday.

oooo yes, that looks mouth watering!