Ruth Davidson

Congratulations Katrina and really looking forward to reading this. And it is a lovely cover.

📅 Save the Date!
🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social!

🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026
📍 Senate House, University of London

Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities!
💡 Want to contribute? 👉socialhistsoc@gmail.com

More info coming soon!

A banner advert for Matt Houlbrook’s new book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London

There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.

I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.

1/15

"I am reading your book slowly, letting each chapter dwell. I woke up this morning thinking about the way your work might be understood as a love story, not genre love story of course, but one that articulates 'forgiveness', perhaps as necessary moments in recognition."

One of my favourite responses to my book so far, from a wise and insightful friend. I love it when someone else's reading of your work helps you understand it in new ways...
#AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems

@ihrlifecycles.bsky.social strikes again with another rising star! Huge congrats to @berrypillot.bsky.social for winning the 2025 @ihr.bsky.social Pollard Prize for: 'No Place to be a Child? The Persistence and Peculiarities of Children’s Play during the Second World War in London and Liverpool.'🏆🙌🎉

Front cover of 'Housing the People of Leicester: a History of Social Housing in Leicester 1900-2000'

I'm very pleased to have received my copy of Ned Newitt's thoroughly researched and finely illustrated history of social housing in Leicester. I recommend it not just to locals but to anyone interested in our housing history. waterstones.com/book/housing...

We're excited to announce the call for papers for #MBS26, the next Modern British Studies conference, at Birmingham in June 2026. We'll be launching the #MBS Association at this event, to support further regular conferences in Modern British Studies.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

Congratulations Charlotte

Bravo, many many congratulations on this well-deserved accolade!

Delighted to see my article exploring how Britons planned for retirement in the mid-to-late 20th century out in the world! It tries to capture the mixed feelings prompted by ageing & retirement whilst connecting those themes to wider histories of social democracy, selfhood & financialisation.

Moral Panic in the Industrial Town: Teenage ‘Deviancy’ and Religious Crisis in Central Scotland c. 1968–9 Abstract. This article argues that Falkirk—a medium-sized industrial town in Central Scotland—became the scene of a localized, yet typical moral panic abou

The prequel, of sorts: academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

The Girls Are in Town: Purdah, Emotions and Everyday Resistance in Urban Pakistan Pakistan, mid-1950s. Many upper-class women had already left or were about to leave purdah (or its remnants). This article investigates how these women challenged seclusion, redefining relations of p...

Delighted that latest article from forthcoming Special Issue of @genderandhistory.bsky.social is now available, co-edited by @writinghelena.bsky.social, Lisa Hellman, Rachel Jean-Baptiste & me! Elisabetta Iob explores purdah & resistance in 1950s Pakistan 🌟

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

'Grandad is one of 9,000 buried in Epsom's derelict Horton Cemetery' The Friends of Horton Cemetery wants the site to be a memorial to those buried there.

See the fantastic work of our colleague Alana Harris @dralanagharris.bsky.social on the history of Horton cemetery #Epsom #London
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#WorldMentalHealthDay

With the publication of our book 'In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956' next month, @manchesterup.bsky.social are offering a 30% discount using the discount code below!

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/

Are you interested in local history? @vch-home.bsky.social @hackney-society.bsky.social @history.dulwichsociety.com

In this free workshop, you will be taught how to produce a short video from the material you have collected to share the stories you are uncovering. www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Looking forward to this!
If you missed me at the Women's History Conference it's a welcome chance to discuss the world of activism and collecting digital #archives ✊

Public space and popular protest in 20th century England: enclosure, resistance and commoning This session draws from the book, Contested Commons: a History of Protest and Public Space in England

On Weds we welcome @katrinanavickas.bsky.social to IHR @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar

Katrina will talk abt "Public space + popular protest in 20thC England: enclosure, resistance + commoning"

In-person/hybrid. All welcome, register here!
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

@ihr.bsky.social

Closing dates for next application rounds: Mondays 13 October and 15 December 2025 The Royal Historical Society represents the interests of historical researchers in universities, libraries, archives, museums, heritage and broadcasting, as well as those engaged in public, community and family history research.

The RHS is a membership organisation of 6500+ historians. We welcome applications to join us at any time. Our next closing dates are 13 October and 15 December.

We offer categories for all kinds of historians and at all stages of research, from Postgraduate to Fellow: bit.ly/46V8WOQ #Skystorians

Me standing in front of a majestic stone building with green lawn

Over an image of Mari Takayanagi and her book is text that reads: 'Book your tickets for: Necessary Women: The Untold History of Parliament’s Working Women with Mari Takayanagi, Thursday 9th October 4-5pm, Tickets: £10,

I have arrived at @gladlib.bsky.social ! Very much looking forward to spending the next week here thanks to the Daisy Ronco Scholarship. If you’re in the area on Thursday come and hear my #NecessaryWomen talk!

A topic close to my own heart; this looks brilliant.

Looking forward to attending launch of #Saothar50 in Dublin next week 😀. This is a jam packed edition & was delighted to be asked to write article about #Irishhousewives in 1960s & 1970s, featuring a Swedish newspaper interview from 1968 on their everyday experiences, with my mum ❤️. #familyhistory.

Really enjoyed recording this with the @historyworkshop.org.uk podcast about the podcast we made about the Islington Nursery Strike, released on the Childcare Voices podcast

Book Prize 2026 Open We are delighted to announce that the Social History Society annual Book Prize has reopened and is seeking nominations. The prize is now in its eighth year and is awarded to the best book in Social…

📢 The Social History Society Book Prize 2026 is now open for nominations!

Now in its 8th year, the prize celebrates the best books in social history & cultural history✨

More information here: socialhistory.org.uk/2025/09/24/b...

Great programme. Hope to make some of these.

We are so much looking forward to this conference. Do share widely

Nice surprise to see my article on Capenhurst Women’s Peace Camp is out today - have a read if interested in space, the weirdness of the Wirral, local feminisms and anti-nuclear activism in Merseyside, and global solidarity movements in the 1980s academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

Very much this. The IHR really is open to everyone and this includes our common room and our library as well as our wonderful seminars. All free, all welcome!

A picture of characters from the production posed in various ways. The bar in the background

Last night I saw Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell, a dance production inspired by the characters of Patrick Hamilton’s novels (including Hangover Square). I thought it was wonderful & mesmerising to see the interconnected stories of the down-and-out, lovelorn & lonely punters of a 1930s Soho pub.

This isn’t helpful for you now but having kids so close together is lovely later but brutal now. Sending lots of sympathy

About to kick off here at #PostCivilWarSocieties symposium in Helsinki & looking forward to our panel later with @tiinalintunen.bsky.social @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social & @profingrid.bsky.social. @ucddublin.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu