Matt Houlbrook
Cultural history, Britain, cities, sexuality & gender, #20s30s.
Now - Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London (MUP)
Next - The Self-Improvers: The people who remade themselves and made the modern world
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- Heartfelt thanks to Guy Garvey & to everyone who heard me on his show & responded so warmly to the announcement of our next two releases on Needle Mythology. The Musical Youth story is so extraordinary that we made a two part podcast all about it. Here's Part 1: shows.acast.com/697c8b74f1dd...
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- To be honest the only answer to self-driving taxis in London is for everyone who comes across one to let the tyres down.
- “Jaywalking is permitted in London. In 1966, the police tried to crack down on it, but gave up after three months.” People walk and cycle on roads by right, people drive under licence. Jaywalking is not a thing in English law and Waymo must not change that. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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- Yet another random bigot gets her own byline photo in the Telegraph for whining about nobody liking her.
- Not quite so random, once you start to notice the connections that let her tell this story in national newspaper after national newspaper.
- I wish I was silenced enough to have a literati parent with connections to major papers and publishers.
- Second lecture now available online - www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-l... - on how people learned the language of social science and how we historians learn what they learned. (1/2)
- First lecture now available online - www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/founda... - if you’re in Oxford tomorrow, 29th, come hear the second live with drinks reception afterwards.
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- There's an astonishing cruelty in trying to make the world even more hostile for trans kids by suing schools that want to include them. But that's where 'gender critical' Britain is. We're acting for a school that is being sued - and we could really use your help with funding.
- In the month of St Brigid and St Valentine - not to mention LGBT History Month - here's my favourite queer love story from @unibirmingham.bsky.social www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/th...
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- I'm excited to present some findings from my placement at the Norfolk Record Office. You can join remotely, so consider hearing about some sexy gay diaries over lunch!
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- Bolton: The Happiest Town on Earth? In the 1930s MO asked he people of Bolton "What is happiness to you and yours?". In this episode researchers knock on the doors of those who live in the same spot as the original correspondents, hearing their reflections on happiness www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
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- Epstein's predators were men. There are probably more rapists in the Epstein files than there are trans people in the UK. And yet the pearl-clutching TERFS are playing useful idiots to fascism by working to drive trans people out of public life, and worse.
- It's my aunt's funeral on Tuesday. She was housebound for the last decade and her hairdresser of 30 years came round every week to do her hair. I just found out that she did her hair one last time at the funeral directors. One of the most moving things I've heard in a long time. True everyday love.
- Interesting that the book writing politics professor has pivoted to Anti-Nerd while running for Reform. Absolutely no reason for drive by on MARY GODDAMN BEARD unless you want to oppose thought and nuance. She's been on Top Gear! #teammary
- You dont win 'em all! Reform's Matt Goodwin in Sunday Times: 'Most .. people criticising me are nerds.The last thing I want is to be at some dinner party table with Nick Robinson & Mary Beard. I'd rather shoot myself in the head'. Hang on, I'm not THAT bad!Nerds sometimes have a (thoughtful!) point.
- I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...
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- ‘This isn’t a library; it’s a catwalk, research lab, sourcebook, safari hide, playpen. It is home.’ @charlottemendelson.bsky.social on her love of the British Library www.ft.com/content/6c05...
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- Some drawings and the line from January
- I have spent fifty years rolling my eyes at conspiracy theories where all the elite rich people are in a secret evil gang, and thrillers where everyone remotely important has the same Dark Secret, and now sodding look.
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- My first book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, will be published by Yale University Press on 11 August (UK) and 8 September (US). Please help spread the word! 🙏 UK: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... @yalebooks.bsky.social 🏳️🌈📚🐵 US: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social 🏳️⚧️ 🗃️🦋
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