James_AL_Downs

Medieval Gender and Sexuality An introduction to conceptions of gender and sexuality in the medieval period. Each week historian Eleanor Janega discusses the philosophical and societal underpinnings that shaped culture and relatio...

My medieval gender and sexuality online courses is starting up again next week, and we have a couple spaces left if you want to come nerd out with me for six weeks.
share.google/Ye4kTijsrYee...

As the holy month of #Ramadan approaches, WCK is distributing Ramadan food kits to help families prepare daily meals. Each kit contains halal-certified staples and enough food for 70 meals—allowing families to gather each day in comfort and dignity. wck.org/ramadan-2026
#ChefsForGaza

Words Alive in Libraries - Literature Works Words Alive in Libraries is a fourth partnership with the South Western Regional Library Service, building on the success of previous writer tours of libraries around the south west.This time, the tou...

📚 WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES 🌿

Looking for a moment of calm, reflection, and creative inspiration? Explore life writing, nature, and wellbeing with A Flat Place author @noreenmasud.bsky.social.

📅 26 March 2026
📍 University of Exeter (Streatham)

@swrls.bsky.social @literatureworks.bsky.social

Photo of a marble memorial in a park, with a bust of Olof Palme on top of four smooth panels

When in Slemani last year I went to visit his statue in the park named after him

Photo of a valley filled with mist, clearing to reveal the grassy ridge behind and fields below

Mist clearing over Raddon Top

Photo of an earth embankment with a gap in the middle, trees on either side, in mist

Misty morning on Cadbury Castle

Green yellow and grey book cover for the title "Coptic Studies from Egypt to Los Angeles".

📕 New Release - 'Coptic Studies from Egypt to Los Angeles'
This volume, a Festschrift in honor of Hany N. Takla, presents a collection of essays–many of which contain unpublished archival material–showcasing historical and liturgical aspects of Coptic Christianity.
🔗 brill.com/display/ti...

The importance of a river's life.

March news! Come join us for our next CISA seminar on March 4th to hear Dr Muna Dajani, Fellow in Environment at LSE, talk on 'Wadi Gaza: a river valley recalcitrant to erasure'. More information and link on the CISA website to sign up.
www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Definitely should do

A Curse Against Stealers Of Books For him that stealth a book from this place, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, & all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy, & let there be be no surcease to his agony till he sink to dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that diets not, & when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of hell consume him forever & aye. (Monastery Of San Pedro, Barcelona.)

When Lucy from Compass Books in Dartmouth, Devon, was victim to shoplifting people told her to install CCTV. Instead she put this ancient book thief curse on the wall from the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona so book stealers would be consumed by "the flames of hell" with "their members blasted".

Green information box containing a black and white photograph of William Golding on the right hand side and text on the left hand side. The text reads: "William Golding Archive. Sir William Golding (1911-1993), novelist, was born in Newquay, Cornwall. He was educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. He subsequently taught at Bishop Wordsworth's school. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. The collection consists of notebooks, manuscript and typescript drafts of Golding's novels up to 1989 including the original manuscript and typescript of Lord of the Flies. Further information on the collection can be found on the archives catalogue."

Who watched the first episode of the new TV adaptation of Lord of the Flies yesterday?

Did you know that we look after William Golding's literary archive, including a manuscript draft of Lord of the Flies?

You can browse the archive on our online catalogue ➡️ lib-archives.ex.ac.uk/Record.aspx?...

Photograph of rows of vegetables on a Devon farm, with the trees on the horizon in the background

There's always something very pleasing about lines converging in the distance

I've only watched the first two episodes, but so much to love

Photo of a promotional image for the TV series 'Small Prophets' with this title appearing above a man with a grey beard holding two large jars, standing outside his house with garage doors and flowers

This Is England

This should be of interest

LibGuides: Special Collections: LGBTQ+ Research Resources: Introduction LibGuides: Special Collections: LGBTQ+ Research Resources: Introduction

February is LGBT+ History Month! 🌈

You can find out more about our LGBTQ+ research resources in this online guide ⬇️

Our collections are available to everyone - for research, interest or enjoyment!

#LGBTplusHM #LGBTQIA #Archives #RareBooks

Alasdair Roberts and I touched on some of this in our 2005 article 'Odo Blundell: a different kind of historian' which had sections on 'Walking the Ground' (as well as 'Walking under Water') - partly a gentle riposte to a historian's recent comment about writing his books w/o leaving the library

I used to see the posters on the bus to school each morning - at the Pavilion Theatre, I think? This would have been early 80s. I hope you enjoyed the show from the safety of the seats, rather than ending up on stage!

PhD students in the UK with a Victorianist bent will want to take particular note of the placement titled "Illustrated Newspapers: Beyond the Illustrated London News": cdn.sanity.io/files/v5dwki...
@rs4vp.org #Victorian

Women of Photography Join us to celebrate the contributions of women practitioners to the history and living present of photography.

4 weeks today we will be celebrating #InternationalWomen’sDay with our 2026 online Women of Photography conference-athon on 8th March.
Join 72 speakers over 24 hours travelling across the world beginning with photography of Antarctica. Registration is open and free.
womenofphoto.com

NEW ESSAY — Christine Jacobson’s “Typing for Love or Money”, on the neglected efforts of women like Theodora Bosanquet, Véra Nabokov, and Valerie Eliot, who — through their work as typists and editors — had a profound impact on modern literature: publicdomainreview.org/essay/typing...

There used to be a hypnotist, Robert Halpern, who performed shows for years in Glasgow where audience members were invited up onto the stage and tricked into eating onions in front of everyone, under the impression they were apples.

Photo of a church in early morning light with gravestones in the foreground

Gray morning for a churchyard stroll but at least the rain has stopped for a while

I'm hugely excited about the return of the Bury Psalter to @stedscath.bsky.social; the donation of the manuscript to the Cathedral means that it can stay in Bury. Along with the Bury Chronicle at Moyse's Hall Museum it's one of only two of the Abbey's books that remain in the town they were made for

Photo of the covee of a paperback book by Nevil Shute, 'Marazan', on a pub table

Quiet time

Dear BBC Archives... - Illuminations In a way, you’re spoiling us – and we’re grateful. ‘Us’ being the nerdy types fascinated by television’s deep archive. For so long, because of rights restrictions and a general lack of interest, telev...

Dear BBC Archives...

A letter to thank you for Mañana, the Ibsen collection and more,
to express my disappointment at how in certain ways you fail to treat these precious fragments with proper respect,
and to suggest how you could do things better.

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/dear-bbc-arc...

YouTube video by Walter Trout - Topic Going Down (Live)

Walter Trout's version of Freddie King's 'Going Down' - saw him perform this live in the 1990s

youtu.be/R88J4Xie01Y?...

Remember her name: Aliya Rahman

Her testimony is everything and it deserves to be heard, by everyone. Decide for yourself.

It’s powerful. It’s gut-wrenching. And no one should have to survive what she did.

ICE MUST GO‼️

This seems like a good idea — English professors double down on requiring printed copies of readings
yaledailynews.com/articles/eng...

An interesting report on the role of bookshops in the community. Focused on Wales but can equally apply to England, Wales, Ireland 📚📚📚🌞

www.booksellers.org.uk/getattachmen...