Michelle Gwynn
Falling off bikes, fighting men in swimming pools, history and rampant imposer syndrome. Undertaking a SGSSS funded PhD at University of Glasgow. Interested in space, conflict and 20C Britain.
wappingtransformation.wordpress.com
- In other news, my husband's work invited my famous ex (not famous at the time we were dating) to come to do a Meet, Greet and Picture and it is the most delightfully awkward picture I have ever seen. I asked if he said Hi from me and he mumbled "no, best not to mention." Very English. Quite Right.
- Writing out the bio for the main text of one of the armed robbers I interviewed. It has gone a bit LinkedIn. "..before eventually assuming a proven leadership role in full time Armed Robbery" ha ha. Not sure how you phrase it tbh.
- In the 1960s, Stepney had a proportionately huge number of grammar schools, but the local kids were an often marginalised minority. Most of the kids came down the trainline from Essex. I'm putting this here as there is literally no one else bar the dog IRL that will find this as interesting as me
- And it is a footnote that i am highlighting to myself. I am not ever sure the dog will be interested. She was apathetic to the whole Brinks Mat thing which dissapointed me.
- My 10yo son has quite the crush on Hannah Fry. I can't get him to watch anything other than football or Dr Fry explaining numbers/maths/household appliance science. Utter silence. My 10yo crush was Murdoch from the A team.
- god I hate writing. I love researching, I like writing notes. I enjoye every single other aspect of it, but writing is torture. Utter torture. Bunch of Bastards.
- Reposted by Michelle Gwynni renamed a document and added two paragraphs
- I know people think Brinks-Mat has been done to death but it is one of the most interesting, complex and instructive UK financial event in the 1980s. This is my hill, and I am digging in.
- Reposted by Michelle Gwynnjust choked on my beverage
- I didn't know gold bullion was exempt from CGT. Off I trot down the What Else is Exempt From CGT That Has Absolutely No Relevance To Me rabbit hole.
- In 1987, two 'deeply suntanned' men, one in his 20s, one in his 40s, wearing suits, clutching filofaxes and contactable by pager took £850 deposits on a newly developed flat in Wapping from 37 individual buyers who all turned up to move in on the same day. I can't stop thinking about Del Trotter.
- I get he wouldnt have done anything as bad as that, but it is the suits, suntan filofax and pagers that are sending me. I dont think they caught the guys. House wasn't for sale but was actually Housing Association. They wined and dined their prey at the local hotel. Must have happened a lot.
- Bloody Hell. Crimewatch is utterly terrifying. I have just watched one from June 1986 and I've locked all the doors, tooled up and made the dog rabid. So many murders of young girls and children and creepy reenactments. So many armed robbers. Off to sit with my shotgun in the dark.
- Reposted by Michelle GwynnIN OTHER NEWS, I will be speaking at this ONLINE event on 3rd March about a man we can reliably call A Proper Shit. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-cabinet-...
- £650 to fix the car window. No doubt plus vat. This where living in essex comes in handy and negociations start. My opening gambit is "£200 cash, 3 cartons of silk cut and the soul of my first born?" God knows how I am going to pay for even that. Cancel holiday and lose deposit but only way to go
- Tremendous morning. Small child being a dick, icy car, window snapped and fell into the panel. Drove and sat in ridiculous accident traffic for an hour with borderline hypothermia listening to Jonny Cash. Absolutely skint. No idea how to pay to make secure or fix damage.
- Reading a 1980s transcript of an interview with a Port of London Prosecuter active in the 1960s/70s and it reads exactly as the 13th Duke of Wybourne - right down to the comments about him walking past a girls school on his way to work. Of its time. It is of its time.
- A quote from one of the organising Printers yesterday's 40th Anniversary of the Wapping Dispute that has multiple ways to interpret, "You could be a working-class hero and a working-class coward in Wapping." Been bouncing around my head all day.
- Today is the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Wapping Print Dispute. The dispute changed the media, weakened (once more) the unions and laid bare the fractures and division within the communities on whose streets it played out. Honoured to have heard from some of those that were there today.
- Reposted by Michelle GwynnARTE
- One of the aforementioned young republican Americans has started to sing quietly and that has crossed a line for many. A man in a West ham scarf just politely asked her to 'please, shit the fuck up' and there is a collective release of tension.
- There are loud (I think that's just their normal volume) young republican Americans on the train talking politics and I have never, ever been on a train carriage so tense. They are missing all the cues of British silent seething, tuts and glares from all passengers. One stop to go. Tense.
- Reposted by Michelle GwynnPhD funding for early career historians completing a doctorate. Applications are invited for the Society's Centenary PhD Fellowships for the academic year 2026-27 bit.ly/49MzqmT. Two awards of £8500 per student, held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians
- Reposted by Michelle GwynnMy study day on 19th-century mental health history is on Sat 7 Feb @citylit.bsky.social Among the contested diagnoses/labels we’ll explore are: ‘moral insanity’, monomania, hysteria, melancholia, post-natal psychosis and ‘general paralysis of the insane’ Details: www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/an-i...
- Reposted by Michelle GwynnDo come along! www.ccw.ox.ac.uk/events/2026/...
