Francesca Brooks

Read these words from 100 years ago about immigrants in Britain – and see how history is chillingly repeating itself | George Monbiot Shabana Mahmood’s new rights clampdown looks outlandish until we remember that this kind of hardline action is part of our country’s fabric, says George Monbiot

Was not expecting to start my day with this good #20s30s history from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The deadline for this has been extended to 27th April. Although it's not exclusively a creative medieval CFP, some creative medievalists might be interested in its framing via Jarrow, the Codex Amiatinus, and site-writing! @guildmedmak.bsky.social

The deadline for this has been extended to 27th April. Although it's not exclusively a creative medieval CFP, some creative medievalists might be interested in its framing via Jarrow, the Codex Amiatinus, and site-writing! @guildmedmak.bsky.social

Introduction to Making Medieval Manuscripts (Practice Based) This course introduces students to the complicated and messy processes of production through which pre-modern manuscripts were created. It offers a mixture of talks and practical sessions that give…

The “messy” course returns to London’s palaeography summer school, 8-12 June. A chance to make your own medieval manuscript. Places are limited so book now (tell your friends)! #medievalsky taught by the amazing @saracharles.bsky.social @stevelawesarts.bsky.social 👇🎨🫟
palaeography.uk/study/short-...

This is a good point! I sometimes look at young people now, and feel a bit ashamed of not being more politically engaged when I was young (I think it took the 2010 election!), but there was perhaps a bit of a climate of comfort and complacency.

Wow! There's definitely an imbalance there!

Absolutely - all far too casual for something that will have an impact on future earnings & savings etc, even if it doesn't impact credit score.

But none of the people downplaying the debt had ever taken on a loan like this! Obviously, I have no regrets about going to uni, but I am very angry for people on Plan 2 loans (as someone with a much smaller loan to pay off).

I graduated in 2011, so luckily I'm not on a plan 2 loan, but this really fits with my sense of the discourse around student loans & debt when I was at school. I went to a state school where there was a huge push to try & get as many of us as poss into HE & everyone told us the debt was meaningless!

'Misleading' school talks compared student loans to £30 phone contracts Graduates hired to deliver the presentations a decade ago were told to avoid using words like

'The presentation was part of a series of "student finance tours" delivered to thousands of schools between 2011 and 2017, by graduates who were asked to speak to pupils and parents on the then-government's behalf.' 1/2

If it's feeling a bit springlike, Green Island CPH is a fun floating beer and pizza place on the river! I also second recs for Tivoli and the Glyptotek. Will you get to Billund and Lego House?

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

🧵 1/4

AI’s ‘memorisation’ problem: the novels it can’t forget Research that shows LLMs memorise more training data than previously thought raises questions about copyright infringement

‘The world’s top AI models can be prompted to generate near-verbatim copies of bestselling novels, raising fresh questions about the industry’s claim that its systems do not store copyrighted works.’
www.ft.com/content/e4b7...

A black and white glass plate negative of daffodils, ferns, and grasses, set amongst craggy rocks

St David’s Day/Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant: Ferns & Daffodils (c.1850s) by Welsh botanist & photography pioneer, John Dillwyn Llewelyn. His sister Mary Dillwyn was also drawn to photography & was probably the 1st female photographer in Wales. They produced many images of flowers, animals, people, & places.

Thanks to @thesowhat.bsky.social and @arthurianajrnl.bsky.social teams, wonderful to be in this great publication ☺️

Assistant Professorship in Medieval Literature (temporary cover) at University of Cambridge Apply now for the Assistant Professorship in Medieval Literature (temporary cover) role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

An opportunity for a medievalist to join the team at Cambridge: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQQ346/a...

Anyone who’s followed me for a while will know that I love a good medieval mystic! Victoria Mackenzie’s ‘For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain’ is the story of Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich; it’s concise, but incredibly vivid and moving. I loved the meeting between the two women!

It was such a pleasure to work with Susie on this post! Do check out the intriguing prompt too! 😯 And seek out Susie’s new book from Guillemot Press, WASTELANDS.

Get lost in a good book for Ireland Reads. Here's what I'm reading:... - Ireland Reads Ireland Reads. On Saturday 22 February we’re inviting people of all ages in Ireland to get reading. Why? Because taking some time for yourself to relax and do the things you enjoy (like reading) is im...

Throughout February and especially on Ireland Reads Day, February 28th, Libraries Ireland is calling on people across Ireland to get lost in a good book. It doesn’t matter what you read, where you read or how well you read, as long as you read.
www.irelandreads.ie

The study of the environmental impact of hanseatic trade and is a truely novel approach. If only you feel just a tingle of interest, do it. Not only is Sander quite a sharp thinker, Ghent is a great place to be, too!

Taking pre-orders for gorses 12 + 13:

gorse.ie/book/no-12/

gorse.ie/book/no-13/

(Double release, like Tom Waits' Alice + Blood Money.)

Just in case you haven't spotted this, @norseincork.bsky.social !

My review of the new book 'Runes: A Concise History' is out in the latest edition of the @historytoday.com magazine!

The review in brief: runes are great, so is this book, and it does a good job separating runic fact from runic fiction.

if circumstances were different I would 100% be applying for this gorgeous job — maybe you should?

Facsimile – Penn Press An unprecedented cultural history of reproductions of medieval manuscriptsFacsimiles are, or claim to be, exact copies of objects, and medieval manuscripts h...

@katherineweikert I haven't read Siân's new book yet, but it may touch on this too: www.pennpress.org/978151282705...

Facsimile – Penn Press An unprecedented cultural history of reproductions of medieval manuscriptsFacsimiles are, or claim to be, exact copies of objects, and medieval manuscripts h...

Siân Echard has written a brilliant chapter on facsimiles & access, which contextualises her argument with reference to the British Library hack. It's forthcoming in a book I'm editing for UCL Press - Beyond Medieval Archives.

On a totally different subject, this brilliant article on the legacies of Rorke's Drift is also currently free to read on History Today!
It was the anniversary of the battle this week.

Conferences ​Sites of Memory: making, remembering, forgetting 15 - 17 May 2026   Hybrid Conference – in person  and simultaneously online Aberystwyth University The Thirty-sixth Annual Conference of the...

It’s #CfP time for the Association of Welsh Writing in English: this year’s themes are Sites of Memory: Making, Remembering, Forgetting.

15th-17th May, hybrid and Prifysgol Aberystwyth University.

www.awwe.org/conference.h...

Check out the CFP for the Gender & Medieval Studies conference in Oxford in Sept! Theme is ✨GENDER & CREATIVITY✨ Conf generously support by University College, Oxford; the John Fell Fund (Oxford University); the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship; the GMS group; & @guildmedmak.bsky.social

Ten Pathways into the Digital Bibliography of Welsh Writing in English This multi-authored paper draws attention to the new, digital bibliography of Welsh writing in English, the English-language literature of Wales. Hosted at the website of the Association for Welsh Wri...

One of those publications that slipped out without me noticing

A contribution (amongst others) to reflections on the new Digital Bibliography of Welsh Writing in English

I'm C18th-ing, but see also Charlotte Williams on Black Welsh writing, @francescabrooks.bsky.social on Welsh modernism and more!