The international legal order was carefully designed to avoid exposing western nations to criminal sanction; today's ICC announcement demonstrates just how excessively and recklessly Netanyahu has waged his brutal war on Gaza theguardian.com/law/article/20…

The recording of my Royal Historical Society lecture is live! I was bowled over by the warm reception of this work in London. But now I'd love folks working in Atlantic Canadian/Gulf of St Lawrence studies to have a listen, and tell me what they (really) think. youtu.be/scY61D7BZo0?si…

The tide of misinformation about the British Empire, mainly from those dismayed by greater awareness of its legacies, is relentless.

This book gives you the benefits of centuries of accumulated expertise in condensed & accessible form.

Its contributors are not hacks,

Readers of fuddly cursive! What are these words? Great Cauford looks obvious, but I cannot find any town that matches that name in Dorset (where it is said in the will to be). And Springstow? Again, nowhere matches. Halp!

Not only this, but then an entire group of them engaged in a collective delusion of being 'sleeping bunnies'. And to make matters worse they slept 'til it was nearly noon'. This generation of 3yos will never know the value of hard work.

Sláinte to the slugs. Drivin' me to drink.

Have just spent the day putting in my squash and beans so that the ARMY OF VORACIOUS SLUGS AND SNAILS CAN EAT THEM ALL.

Seriously though, it's the worst year ever. No cold snap this winter; wet cold spring. Me and my fellow allotmenters are in a state of total despair.

Solidarity with Dawn Butler MP, who joins 600+ members of the book industry (including me) calling for Baillie Gifford to divest. Full support for Dawn Butler MP✊🏾💙’s courageous choice to withdraw from Hay Festival

it's quite something to see the Conservatives waffle on about lanyards and sex education while people in Brixham are queuing to access clean drinking water devonlive.com/news/devon-new…

'Broken rail in the Potter's Bar area'.

'Here for the foreseeable'.

Ah such simple words, which strike fear into the heart of man.

Four years ago, a man came to my house with a box of hedgehogs to soft-release into the wood behind my house. It remains one of the greatest days of my life.

I guess, to put it more simply, I'm interested in DISorganized colonial violence.

Historians of colonialism: I'm reading a lot that argues the colonial state had a 'monopoly on violence' but can you recommend more contextualized, nuanced & complex readings? i.e. When the col state allows an oligarchy of violence? Negligently allows disparate violence, etc?

Today, I became the first Jewish-American political appointee to resign from the Biden-Harris administration over its policies in Gaza. Here is my resignation letter:

A lady gave Kid the Younger a toy robot at a car boot sale, for free! Thank you nice lady! But at home, we discover, upon turning a key, that it is a complex vertical puzzle. Partner's spent 40 minutes reassembling, for the 2nd time. The robot is cursed. The lady was a witch.

It needs to recognise that formula feeding may be preferable if the feeding parent wants to use formula, for any reason whatsoever.

Imagine destroying one of the country's most productive, valuable, & respected sectors just so you can cook the books to make it look like immigration is falling. It would beggar belief if I hadn't spent the last decade having to adjust my parametres of believability.

Congrats to the lovely folks over Profile Books!

I almost broke myself tearing the roses out of the shady back garden to transplant them to the front so that I could smell them from my desk at the front window. They have tried to forgive me & every year they are a scraggly delight. So here's rosebuds, an appreciation:

Canadianists: I'm looking for a digital copy of Robertson Davies, 'Keeping faith (Canada has a soul)', Saturday Night, 102:1. If anyone can help me out, I'd be much obliged.