Maria Elena Cortese: 'So I know that the grief that's now a burning wound will be worse in coming years. When, distracted, we start thinking, 'I need to ask Chris about this', 'I want Chris to read this article', 'What would Chris say about this'—then we'll really measure how much we miss him.

Somewhat hard to overstate for those who don’t know the field what an extraordinary loss this is.

Please read this lovely story about Chris Wickham. We all need to be more Chris. Especially now there’s no more Chris.

This is awful, awful news. Not out of the blue, but still somehow unbelievable. Chris was the very best of us, and as a human and as a historian his passing leaves the world a smaller place.

Yeah oddly I don’t think it’s made their reading list?

Really really old stuff. That we know almost nothing about. My happy place.

Apparently I'm giving an inaugural lecture - all very welcome! Thurs October 8th, 5pm, drinks to follow.

Thanks Sarah! I’ve also got a bit in How the World made the West on the archaeological evidence for Levantine ships bringing (drinkable?) wine and the techniques needed to grow it to Iberian ports so I’m excited to see the DNA here.

Ditto (except Prosecco rather than Negroni).

Same.

Done, and I’ve asked my Facebook friends to do the same. Thanks for the reminder!

Map produced from the perspective of Galicia but applicable to the world before the revolutionary changes brought by arrival of the railway. By sea: A Coruña to London: 5 days. By land: Coruña to Madrid; 20 days.

Oh no - we left at 9am I’m afraid!

Lucerne is an absurdly pleasant pitstop with a beaver ramp on the hydroelecric dam and a nineteenth century wooden needle dam that they still use to control the level of Lake Lucerne. The delightful riverside restaurants we inspected last night magically turned this morning into a farmers’ market.

Professor Brooke negotiates the TGV to Strasbourg

Interesting concourse furniture at Gare de l’Est: all quite attractive and even rather cool, but also bolted to the floor at a distance just too far from the hip little tables to reach your coffee

Gosh, that’s lovely!

Interesting list of projects - cheerful reading!

Can't get a moment's peace on this bloody planet.