Robert Bickers

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

Cover of book Statelessness After Arendt edited by Kolleen Guy and Jay Winter

It's arrived! 'Statelessness After Arendt: European Refugees in Asia and the Pacific during the Second World War' has been marshalled into print at @manchesterup.bsky.social by Kolleen Guy and Jay Winter

I think this is a kind of ritual: in the square hole of the coin there's a bell. the public is encouraged to throw coins at the bell, and if they succeed at hitting it they will have a year of good luck.

I have seen a similar thing done at a temple , as part of a wishing well

The central (pontoon) part of the Guangji Bridge (广济桥 or 廣濟橋), Chaozhou (潮州), 1870-1900

Bridge of boats.

Maxwell Family Collection
Mx01-142
hpcbristol.net/visual/Mx01-...

#bridge #chinesehistory #chaozhou #guangdong #boats #chinesearchitecture #oldbridges #oldchina #history #historyinpictures

‘Nothing mattered more.’ Bill Kirby. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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

It's great to see Simeon Koole's wonderful and important book Intimate Subjects: Touch and Tangibility in Britain's Cerebral Age reviewed in @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4....

I really can't recommend Sim's book highly enough - it's a stunning piece of historical scholarship.

A 1930s novel of manners with evocative descriptions of Old Beijing offers surprisingly timeless observations about what it means to be an expat in China.

Read @jeremiahjenne.com's archive pick of the month: Peking Picnic by Ann Bridge
buff.ly/YzW8ei3

A British right wing culture war magazine, The Critic, has published an attack on me for the objections I make to historical misinformation. Here’s my response:

alanlester.co.uk/blog/a-lesse...

First view of my article has just been published open access with Itinerario for our forthcoming special issue on race, identity, and imperial belonging in East Asian port cities. Keep an eye out for articles as well by Catherine Ladds, Catherine Chan, and Bernard Keo!

Happy St Patrick's Day! 💚

To celebrate, Dr Lucy Wray (@uobrishistory.bsky.social) has curated an exhibition on College Green exploring what it means to be Irish in Bristol

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, read more about the exhibition which runs until 31 March 👉 bit.ly/4icgn8C

a fascinating the tuneful new thread from @jonhowlett.bsky.social

Today's photograph is from the Malcolm Rosholt Collection. Rosholt (1907-2005) lived in China from 1931 to 1937. He was a reporter in Shanghai, covering the Sino-Japanese wars in Shanghai in 1932 and in 1937. If you'd like to find out more, see:

hpcbristol.net/collections/...

Ro-n0047; Ro-n0310

A nice surprise to wake up today to the news that Modern China in Flux is out online ahead of print, and that it's been made open access!

Modern China in Flux collects essays that explore Chinese society through the underlying framework of network analysis, leveraging digital methods to do so.

Our friends at OutStories Bristol are holding an LGBT+ history day at M-Shed on February 22nd! #LGBTHistoryMonth #LGBTHistoryMonth2025

More information here: outstoriesbristol.org.uk/2024/12/22-f...