iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The bots have found this on Twitter/X. But it remains very hard to think of a more stupid thing to say about Britain’s relationship with slavery.

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Nothing in writing is more certain than signing off on the proofs then seeing a colossally stupid mistake the first time you pick up a physical copy of the book

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Last match of the season at the weekend. This may not have been my first beer.

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The current cover art for the US edition of the coming book. I think I like the chaos.

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

6 years, 6 books (sort of) = very tired me

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The "Britain spent 1.8% of GDP on suppressing slavery" claim is mostly nonsense Even the academic article which first made the claim - which *cites itself* and provides no other evidence - states that the actual cost was only 0.14% The remainder? Estimated opportunity costs

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Came close a while back to writing a book about the “nearly men” of professional sport - the guys who worked away but didn’t quite make it, and had little to show for it. This is much better than anything I’d have written.

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

This is a cat who does not care about the wreckage of fur on the sheets, or the fact that I cannot reach the book without risking terrible injury

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

How does an Allen Lane paperback by a Wolfson Prize winner get the name of a prime minister wrong?

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Plotting the chapters for the final section of the book I'm writing and, out of context, it looks like I've finally cracked:

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Truly the worst day of the year as I attempt to wrestle this creature to the vet for her checkup

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Alcaraz dedicating his victory to the Code of Justinian

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Men! What’s stopping you from drinking under the watchful eye of the German imperial eagle?

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Holidays are all well and good until you start missing your cat

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

It is a source of endless delight that when the (real) Illuminati collapsed from 1784-87, they were essentially brought down by the Dowager Duchess of Bavaria. A formidable, acerbic matriarch ...

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Shortlisted for the @duffcooperprize.bsky.social A book of the year in @thetls.bsky.social, @economist.com & @bloomberg.com Described as “marvellous” @theguardian.com, “beautifully written” @historyextra.bsky.social & “everything that popular history should be” (Lit Rev) … And now in paperback!

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Can we please draw up a list of places that a cat who is taking flea medication should not be?

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Checking the proofs of my next book - coming soon with @camhistory.bsky.social as part of @royalhistsoc.bsky.social’s Camden Series - and I have called for expert assistance

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Immensely honoured to be shortlisted for this year’s @duffcooperprize.bsky.social

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

The Harrowing of the North? The Hammer of the Scots? Eat your heart out …

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Absolute scenes at Ingolstadt in 1785 as one of the Illuminati’s allies is banished for the crimes of “wearing his habit in a gallant style” and “saying Mass in seven minutes at most”

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Start your Christmas with a comparative history of education in C18th Germany!

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

This interview remains peerless. Shame it never happened.

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

This is ridiculous. Jeremy Black in one breath despising historians who load judgments “with moral overtones”, and in the next he demands praise for Britain’s “benign” institutions and “national greatness” and insisting that “we should feel pride” in British history.

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

This cat is no respecter of work calls

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Unacceptable that I haven’t yet posted a cat photo on this platform, so here you go:

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Michael Taylor @mhtaylor.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

This has arrived in the post and it seems to contain a lot of discussion of tax policy, and I’m more excited about that than I should be

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