Dr Fern Riddell

I just... why is nobody talking about

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The hits keep on coming for the Louvre, but the headline could be clearer.

“'Between 300 & 400 works' were affected by the leak discovered on 26 November, the museum’s deputy administrator...said, describing them as 'Egyptology journals' & 'scientific documentation' used by researchers."

I am running out of patience for progressives who still are on the ‘let’s change Labour from the inside!’ wagon because it’s clear that Labour are not even trying to appear to be a left-wing party.

Can't believe our tax dollars are going to be spent settling the upcoming exorbitant defamation suit with Sabrina Carpenter, but maybe this is just how public arts funding is going to work now.

Adding @ankahajkova.bsky.social new book to my queer history shelf

White House removed video using Sabrina Carpenter song

Sabrina Carpenter is now the president

JRR Tolkien writing desk up for auction The author used the desk during his tenure as Merton professor of English language and literature.

Okay who wants to be my Secret Santa. www.bbc.com/news/article...

4. You see, the problem is this: History Reclaimed don’t know much about British colonialism. They’re not actually interested in it. They are a private company funded to prevent any truthful examination of the past that might challenge a right wing, white-centred version of the national story.

Not sure if any single part of academia felt more like a weird cheat code than Interlibrary Loan. Like, I just say a book I want, basically any book, and this crack team of experts just *get it*????

Lead Post reporter on that story Alex Horton served in the infantry in Iraq.

‘Making all allowance for the influence of education, and giving the fullest weight to that natural maidenly reserve, which in the early growth of affection teaches love to hide itself and affect indifference; there is in these characters an absence of all that natural desire which should accompany love. They are abstract and bodiless. Their love is feline; it is tigerish’ (American Whig Review, 1848)

I read a newspaper article the other day that suggested that all the contemporary reviews of Wuthering Heights were shocked by how sexual it was (not true).

Meanwhile, 1848 reviews are complaining it's not got enough passion and sexual attraction in it

We built a database of 290,000 English medieval soldiers – here’s what it reveals We created the database in order to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of everyday soldiers.

A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database.

An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️

Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day

Every year since 1988, the United States has recognized World AIDS Day — until now.

Why not? Maybe because the Trump administration doesn’t want to acknowledge that its foreign aid cuts led to nearly 150,000 deaths from AIDS, according to Boston University researchers.

Shameful.

Bob, it's called a pantomime, happens every year for at least 2 centuries

"Richmond Theatre has been criticised for running a 'perverted' Christmas drag show for children."

Was Nigel Farage a bit of a Nazi? Only he knows The Reform leader was a teenager when he made crass remarks but we’re entitled to ask a would-be prime minister what lay behind them

perfect column on Nigel Farage's racist, schoolboy past, by @hugorifkind.bsky.social. "The boy haunts the man." www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Masquerade is probably *the* book of my childhood. Many many many hours spent poring over it on rainy 80s Sundays, discovering new details in the illustrations, desperately trying to intuit some kind of logic to the clues.

One of my dads mates went a bit off the rails with Masquerade. Late night inspitation found him digging up random fields at midnight on several occasions.

I was obsessed with this book as a kid. Couldn't do ANY of the puzzles in it, mind, but it was just so gorgeous. Actually saw Kit Williams at a book fair and he autographed my copy and wrote "FAIRE FORTUNE BE YOURS" or something like that. 🥰

In my second year in secondary school, our English teacher devoted so many lessons to (obviously non-syllabus) Masquerade. He was desperate to find it.

When the hare was found, he read a long newspaper report on it to us. I've never heard anyone read something out loud in such a heartbroken manner.

This should be in the V&A. It’s an essential artefact of UK late 20th century culture.

Can we not start a go fund me or something? £20,000 feels like an amount that *might* be possible to raise.

Jewelled golden hare that sparked national treasure hunt set for auction Artist and author Kit Williams hid a golden hare with clues to its precise location given in his 1979 book

One of the most beautiful bits of english eccentricity and glorious design is coming back to Sotheby’s and should be bought by a musuem (or me) for THE NATION. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

My milkshake brings Rachel Reeves to the yard, and she’s like:

‘This is how we save the NHS’

Viola Fletcher, Oldest Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Dies at 111

As a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Viola Ford Fletcher bravely shared her story so that we’d never forget this painful part of our history. Michelle and I are grateful for her lifelong work to advance civil rights, and send our love to her family.

narrator: 50 years ago...

me: [nods] in 1945

narrator: in 1975...

me: what

Somehow no longer surprises me that it's the Guardian editorial proclaiming a victory for men in literature and their return to power, and it's the Times that points out this is such a bullshit take, while also advocating for both women and trans writers.

Stop calling David Szalay’s Booker win a victory for male literature The acclaim for the winning novel, Flesh, has exposed the dubious notion that women had somehow ‘taken over’ literature

"The truth was that finally, space was — albeit awkwardly — being made for women’s writing. Men had to budge over..."

and

"Ireland has excellent trans writers such as William Keohane and Soula Emmanuel, who are digging into what gender means."

👏👏👏

www.thetimes.com/world/irelan...

There are plenty of links between the anti-trans “women’s rights” movement & anti-feminist conservatism. And opposing abortion is a logical conclusion for a movement that says no, you should not have agency over your own body; no, you do not know best about yourself; no, you have no choice.

‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations

“He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right,’ or ‘Gas them,’ sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers" www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...

Donald Trump is on camera saying ‘Quiet, Piggy’ to a female reporter, after she asked him about the Epstein files while travelling on Air Force One.