Mariadele Boccardi

Professional news! My book Environmental Neo-Victorianism is coming out in early 2027.

Stephen Spender, 'The Pylons.' BBC News - Wales plans to ban steel pylons as government launches consultation www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Burnham wants to end “40 years of neoliberalism”. Great. For universities, one very welcome - and stabilising - step would be the re-introduction of the student numbers cap. (Some would stop overflowing; some would stop shrinking; all of them would benefit). Is there a reason this isn’t an easy win?

Beards in adaptations: Fabrice de Sauveterre (a French aristocrat in the 30s!) had a beard in the BBC' The Pursuit of Love and now Colonel Brandon (a Regency landowner) in Sense and Sensibility. WHY???

I think I've found my Bsky niche: posting the titles of literary works relevant to the day's news. Today's recommendation: Michael Frayn's play Democracy.

"For Brutus is a f-ing honourable man."

" ... please make yourself aware of your nearest chance for redemption, which may be behind you ..."

(I don't watch a lot of TV.) Chernobyl would be my n.1 and I would add The Terror & The Last Kingdom. Non-English language shows: Gomorrah, The Killing, the Bureau, Spiral.

What's an example of perfect casting?

This government reminds me of Joe Biden. Biden didn't want to be the prosecute Trump president, he wanted to pass an infrastructure bill. Burnham doesn't want to be the take on the hard right PM, he wants to do social care reform and devo. But you have to do the task you're set or face disaster.

www.maptap.gg September 6 100🎯 99🎯 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 Final score: 999 😭

they’ll figure it out if they get hungry enough

We are entering my favourite period of the year: Sep-March, when you can snuggle down with a book in the evening's darkness and appreciate the sunshine as light reflects on recently wet ground.

www.maptap.gg August 28 99🎯 97🔥 99🎯 99🎯 97🔥 Final score: 982 First time I've got close to full marks for each individual place.

Not a TV series, but I had the same problem with R.F. Kuang's Katabasis. Everything about doing a PhD at Cambridge was wrong (and just modelled on US doctoral programmes). Having had direct experience, the mistakes were so jarring that they spoilt the book for me.

Spurs 🤦‍♀️

My PL prediction to my son (Man U are going to win the league) off to a great start, I see.

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social Thank you for recommending A Scandal in Belgravia. I really enjoyed it! I didn't work out the murderer but guessed the twist on the final page. Very satisfying too. If I may reciprocate: Cyril Hare's An English Murder and Sarah Caudwell's Thus Was Adonis Murdered.

happy birthday ethan hunt 🤫

My mum once called the police to report that her car had been stolen from a supermarket carpark, then had to call again to explain that actually, she was just looking for it in the wrong place. For once police slowness to respond was useful to save her from in-person embarrassment.

And the Culture Secretary is still MIA (though inaction would be more accurate). And we still have the same all-too-active Home Secretary. And Andy Burnham thought it would be a good idea to keep both in post.

Plus ça change, et plus c'est la même chose. That's what happens when you leave Mahmood in post.

Baby Shark.

We’re sourcing our reshuffle news from an alternate timeline of the 1980s…

The SAHGB Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion book shortlist has been announced, and I'm delighted to find that my book on Percy Thomas is included, alongside brilliant new books by @alistairfair.bsky.social @holsmith.bsky.social @matthewwhitfield.bsky.social and others. www.sahgb.org.uk/features/202...

Someone explain to me Spurs' defence this season and Djed Spence here.

Kazuo Ishiguro Ian McEwan Sarah Waters Alan Hollinghurst Amitav Ghosh

I am no longer alone! (Now for someone correcting "on behalf of" when it should be "on the part of", please)

Labour increasingly opting for barbarism over civilisation

Alas, this is unlikely to happen but I just wish Burnham got rid of her and Smith, both philistines who should be shamed for their attitude to culture + education generally and the arts specifically. They have been worse for universities than the Tories.

I despair of this ongoing idiocy. I know people rate her, but for me Phillipson is the worst cabinet minister: the philistinism is off the scale and when coupled with defending the indefensible as Equalities Minister I wonder what exactly is good about her.

Obligatory "I feel so old!" comment while watching football: I remember watching Deschamps play for Juve.

So, online quizzes results so far: the Jesuit (early-modern Europe); the Church (Vae Victis) and now the Pope. Not subtle!

Vae Victis - I am The Church. It is at least consistent with being "the Jesuit" in early modern Europe.

www.maptap.gg June 22 99🎯 90👑 99🎯 97🔥 100🎯 Final score: 978

Current state of US-Italy relations.

This is interesting, in that it shows that it *is* possible to hit back at Trump when he insults you (she's done it twice in 2 days now). Meloni is v conscious of how this plays in Italy, i.e. well for her. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

England are Arsenal: discuss.

Pickford's kit: my eyes!

È morto lo storico Carlo Ginzburg

Onions. (Any variety, any cooking method.)

I'm so pleased! 🏎 🏁

Five favourite books that didn't make the Guardian 100 in no particular order: The Ambassadors (Henry James) Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbon) The Shooting Party (Isabel Colgate) Voss (Patrick White) Les Mémoirs d'Hadrien (Marguerite Yourcenar)

Cuts include access programmes, because of course God forbid anyone who can't take a straightforward path to HE should aspire to go to university. Class gatekeeping *from a Labour government* and yet more reasons to despise it, if the cowardice in the face of the far right was not enough.

We don't usually see each other's header images. Here's mine.

Among the West Bank atrocities, the Hebron killing of 9m old baby hits me most. Broad day light. Soldiers wave for car to stop. Car slows down and stops. Then the soldiers shoot live bullets at the car. Middle class family. The dad is a university professor. This could be me or you.