Kate Wiles
@katemond.bsky.social
7.6K followers 320 following 230 posts
Medievalist, linguist, manuscript botherer ❧ Co-Editor of History Today ☞ LOST VOICES (Penguin/Stanford, forthcoming, one day) ❧ Posting in a personal capacity ❡
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katemond.bsky.social
Hello friends old and new! On the Bad Old Place I did history, language, bad jokes, magazine stuff. Expect largely exactly the same here. I am what I am.
Reposted by Kate Wiles
emilyrcwilson.bsky.social
My essay collection focused on ancient literature and translation will be available for pre-order in the UK in October.
Reposted by Kate Wiles
niedermeyer.online
irresistible new elder millennial bait just dropped
atim.app
Sneak peek at a new client for Bluesky that is nearly ready for a beta release. atim.app
A classic 90s-style chat window between two users, Peggy and Joan, discussing getting a drink after work. A classic 90s-style instant messenger friends window showing users, chats, and timelines. A snapshot of a user's timeline feed in a 90s style window.
katemond.bsky.social
It must be an issue with my institution then, because I've tried safari and chrome, cleared cookies and a private tab and none of them work. Sigh. Thanks for checking.
katemond.bsky.social
Oh. Hmm. Ever since the redesign I've had problems with it. I'll try clearing the cookies?? Thanks for checking!
katemond.bsky.social
Is the OED broken again? I already have to use it in a private tab because for some reason the search doesn't work in a normal browser, and now it's not logging me in, even when it seems to accept my login details?
Reposted by Kate Wiles
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Reposted by Kate Wiles
paulhaine.bsky.social
Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild
katemond.bsky.social
I've just made the longest to-read list
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Literary hivemind: suggestions for excellent creative work (fiction, poetry, other) that engages somehow with the history or literature of the medieval period?
Reposted by Kate Wiles
emilyhughes.bsky.social
incredible thread from @masinger.bsky.social on a vintage tale of scented books bsky.app/profile/masi...
masinger.bsky.social
Did anyone ever tell you about the scented westerns?
Reposted by Kate Wiles
rhyskamjones.bsky.social
Sending this round again as I'd like to teach this poem! Irish Revival period specialists, do repost.

Have heard about Easter Rising prisoners making Tara-style brooches out of spoons etc. could that be it? I still find "dish" a weird word for that though
rhyskamjones.bsky.social
Any guesses as to what the titular "Shining Dish" is in this poem by Alice Milligan, about visiting Easter Rising prisoners at Frongoch internment camp? Medieval Irish literary reference? Something particular to the prison?
Reposted by Kate Wiles
Reposted by Kate Wiles
philistella.bsky.social
Today's cultural theory: I think 'Conclave' is basically a Merchant/Ivory film of the 'yes what is it, Sebastian, can't you see I'm arranging matches' variety and that's why we all loved it so much. The public longs for ARCHITECTURE and MIDDLE-AGED ACTORS in RESTRAINED AGONY.
Reposted by Kate Wiles
wolfsonhistory.bsky.social
We're excited to reveal the #WolfsonHistoryPrize 2025 shortlist, celebrating the finest historical non-fiction works from the past year.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors! 👏📚

www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk/2025-wolfson...
Reposted by Kate Wiles
Reposted by Kate Wiles
slipperyjack.bsky.social
In Intriguing Furniture news: yesterday I visited Lichfield Cathedral and found a new 13 metre long table made from a 5000-year-old oak log discovered perfectly preserved in a peat bog in 2016. The cut planks took 9 months to dry out, losing 2 tonnes of weight in the process. Definitely haunted...
Reposted by Kate Wiles
philistella.bsky.social
New email sign-off courtesy of original poetry in the India Gazette, 1823:
Reposted by Kate Wiles
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
who called them "the Huns" and not "H from Steppes"
katemond.bsky.social
I have a friend who's being threatened with an AI product called 'Teachermatic', which aside from anything else is extremely Wallace and Gromit.
katemond.bsky.social
... how much more value is attached to a scrap left by a scarcely literate machine minder, than to all the most elegantly turned dispatches of one of Her Majesty's ambassadors abroad.

Possibly this retreat into social history is an aspect of Britain's decline in the world generally…
katemond.bsky.social
Schoolboys used to know as much about Mehmet Ali and Don Pacifico as they did about anything in the nineteenth century; now they are likely to be taught more about the conditions of factory workers in Victorian Rochdale…