Robert Bickers

1/2 Two new posts, one on visualisingchina.net/blog, on Shanghai's former First World War Memorial (shown below as it never was): visualisingchina.net/blog/2025/10...

Objectively the best Medieval Summer School out there 😉 Please consider sharing and, even better, applying! 🙂

On our blog, a new post Dr Yorgos Moraitis introduces his new book on Robert Hart: visualisingchina.net/blog/2025/10...

Andy West (1960-2025) I have written briefly in the Guardian recently about the life and work of my former classmate Andy West who died in the summer, or at least some of it. Andy has left a large archive of his work, a…

I've added some links in this brief blog-post to other appreciations of Andy's work and interests.
robertbickers.net/2025/10/13/a...

The student union at SSEES in London held an Andropov Pop Off Party to mark his passing.

Andy West obituary Other lives: Expert in encoding scripts for languages

I've written about the life and just some of the achievements of my former classmate Andy West aka 魏安, Ando, and BabelStone @babelstone.co.uk
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Dr Sijie Ren, who was supervised by @robertbickers and Adrian Howkins, was awarded the British Association for Chinese Studies 'Best Doctoral Thesis Prize' for their PhD “Science and Politics in Maoist China: The Synthetic Insulin Project and its Legacy."

Out now with @oxunipress.bsky.social @uobartsmatter.bsky.social with thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk .... Joseph Stalin banned it, but was it too sexy or just too noisy?

A day in the life of Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor

And then there was this

A woman holds a book with the title ‘Electric Wind:An Energy History of Modern Britain’. She is smiling.

A small ginger, white and tabby cat curls up in a box of books with the title ‘Electric Wind’. She looks happy.

Electric Wind is here! Thank you for the surprise post @manchesterup.bsky.social ! Available for pre-order and in all good bookshops from 14 October 🙂

🤩 Check out the shiny new website of Bristol's world-class Centre for Medieval Studies (@bristolcms.bsky.social), home to over 35 full-time medievalists and over 160 research students and research associates: medievalstudies.blogs.bristol.ac.uk 🤩 @uobartsmatter.bsky.social #medievalsky #skystorians

In Memoriam: Paul A. Cohen (1934-2025) - Association for Asian Studies Paul A. Cohen, who died on September 15, 2025 at the age of 91, made significant contributions to both the interdisciplinary field of Chinese studies and the discipline of history. The most obvious wa...

My tribute to Paul Cohen as historian & mentor to many www.asianstudies.org/in-memoriam-... cc @lmansley.bsky.social

Our Hong Kong History Centre @hongkonghistory.bsky.social is looking for a Senior Research Associate (postdoc) with oral history skills and a record of research in the history of Hong Kong: tinyurl.com/hkhcpostdoc2...

ted. In this context I feel obliged to state once more that - like the hundreds of protesters arrested last weekend - I too support Palestine Action. If this makes me a "supporter of terror" un- der UK law, so be it. My books, at least for now, are still published in Britain, and are widely available in bookshops and even supermarkets. In recent years the UK's state broadcaster has also televised two fine adaptations of my novels, and therefore regularly pays me residual fees. I want to be clear that I intend to use these pro-ceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on support-ing Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can. If the British state considers this "terrorism", then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as WH Smith and the BBC.

Wow Sally Rooney. Fair play.

‘I feel obliged to state once more that… I too support Palestine Action. … If the British state considers this "terrorism", then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as WH Smith
and the BBC.’

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we, the family of Andrew West, confirm his peaceful passing on 10th July 2025. The BabelStone legacy will be continued by colleagues and friends.
corp.unicode.org/pipermail/un...

Hello, quite new here, so introducing myself 👋 I’m a historian of #BlackBritishHistory @icws-sas.bsky.social, living in North Wales. My first book was #BlackTudors and my new one #Heiresses, is about nine British women who inherited enslaved people and plantations in the Caribbean.

The IHR is saddened by the death of Peter (P.J.) Marshall, historian of the British Empire, and a long-standing member of King's College London's History department. As a long-time friend, supporter, and Fellow of the IHR, he will be greatly missed and remembered for his kindness and courtesy.

Thanks to @eicathomefinn.bsky.social for notification of the death of Peter (P.J.) Marshall (1933-2025), a great historian of India and Empire, and a pioneering President of the Royal Historical Society. His last book is going to press so there is more of his work still to appreciate.

Manchester University Press - Electric wind Electric wind - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Electric wind by Marianna Dudley

I was excited to find out that my book is available for pre-order! One for anyone interested in energy, climate, and the history of Britain. Thanks to MUP for making it pretty and affordable 🫶 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/

Congratulations!

Bristol welcomes you to a day of talks and conversations about Hong Kong's history aorganised by @hongkonghistory.bsky.social : 6 September.

Emerging Paths in Hong Kong History: Graduate Conference 2025

25-26 June 2025

21 papers by PhD students and young scholars from Europe, North America, Asia and Britain and a keynote speech by Gina Tam. What a wonderful feast of ideas and research insights!

Full programme:
tinyurl.com/2sbzdkpu

Hello to Walthamstow-born Sidney George Reading (for it is he), once a furniture salesman. Sidney, possibly tiring of China ponies that were too small, left the force after 4 years and was later a tram driver in Brisbane.

Parading Memories Discover how parades are used to celebrate the Bristol Irish community through the creation of Mother Ireland.

"We wanted to use collective making to open up a space to acknowledge the challenges of migration, but to simultaneously explore a range of other stories."

Erika Hanna (@erikahanna.bsky.social) on the process of creating a new processional art piece for the 2024 St Patrick’s Day parade in Bristol.

SMP

I have so many policemen

Hannah Rose Woods · Tactile Dreams The British aversion to touching wasn’t limited to the Victorian era: comparative studies confirm that we continue to...

'Intimate Subjects includes some irresistible case studies that illustrate the myriad ways in which touch was navigated and examined in the period.'

Dr Simeon Koole's (@uobrishistory.bsky.social) book, Intimate Subjects, is reviewed in this week's @lrb.co.uk

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Uncounted: Statelessness and the Burden of Our Times Guest blog by Kolleen Guy and Jay Winter In her landmark 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt wrote that the stateless “are no longer human in any sense other than that they belon...

And Kolleen and Jay have blogged about it earlier this week refugeeweek.org.uk/the-uncounte...

Photograph of a man on a sofa from series Holly Street Residents' by Tom Hunter © 1998

My chapter 'Out of Shanghai' takes the journey of this man, photographed in 1998 in London by @tomhunterart.bsky.social as the prompt for a discussion of the end of the British presence in the city after the Second World War. Thanks to Jay and Kolleen, to Tom Hunter, and to colleagues on the project

Here's the table of contents