Today I’m cosily ensconced reading for the @womensprize, while my trusty companions nap and fart besides me.
Today I’m cosily ensconced reading for the @womensprize, while my trusty companions nap and fart besides me.
Today I’m cosily ensconced reading for the @womensprize, while my trusty companions nap and fart besides me.
Very exciting that the new podcast Step into the Past launches today, which I worked on in partnership with the expert team at @findmypast I’ll be diving into the hidden tales behind some of the fascinating @nationaltrust properties across the UK and exploring the family tree of a new guest as part of each episode. My family’s story is up first and I discovered a lot of surprising – and emotional – information along the way. Listen now across all podcast platforms. I’d love to hear what you think about the stories and see your pictures of walking in your ancestors’ footsteps – simply share using the hashtag #StepintothePast
How do we solve the problem that 50% of those who have ever lived feature far less in the historical records than the other half? Is there any way to restore women to history? What techniques can we use and, if we do, what might we find out? In this four-week course – four filmed lectures, four live sessions, and a reading list – I’ll be exploring these questions. See the video for details of where to go for more information.
How can we tell the stories of historic women – women who were accused of witchcraft, survivors of sexual assault, and those who were enslaved? My course with HistFest dives deep into the evidence we have and how we can use it to tell the lives of women hidden in history’s dominant narrative. Starts October 2nd. Sign up now.
I’ve written for @seenunseenmag about Henry VIII’s toxic masculinity. Apologies for linking to the wrong Insta account before…
I’ve written for @seenunseenmag about Henry VIII’s toxic masculinity. Apologies for linking to the wrong Insta account before…
It was only six years out-of-date but I finally decided the time had come to refresh my website (link in bio). I’m very grateful to Luke Rogers of epiphany-uk.com for creating it for me.
SNEAK PEEK… The National Portrait Gallery @npglondonevents in London is opening a new exhibition called Six Lives, examining the portraits of Henry VIII’s queens. Having written for the catalogue, I got early access. It is an absolute treasure trove. But my favourite is the newly re-discovered and conserved portrait of Queen Kateryn Parr late in Henry VIII’s reign. In an extravagantly bejewelled gown (those massive black stones are diamonds!), she displays her wealth and status. But, discreetly, in enamel around the jewels in her bracelets, the picture also proclaims ‘LAUS DEUS’. Noting that this was incorrect Latin grammar, I tracked the expression down to the Latin Vulgate, where it only appears once, in Psalm 64. The full phrase is ‘Tibi silens laus Deus’ – ‘Remaining silent praise to you, O God’. The painted Kateryn remains silent and praises God, but the actual Kateryn was doing the same. At the time this was painted she had just survived an accusation of or was about to be accused of heresy. She was writing the personal and Protestant Lamentations of a Sinner, which would be published only after Henry’s death. She was remaining silent, but praising God in her secret heart, even as her outward appearance proclaimed magnificence. Find out more in a film coming soon from @historyhit.
This tiny door leads into the east end of my village church. The earliest part of the church dates to about 1200, the chancel was built 100 years later, and aisles in the late 14th century. It has not changed much since, although it was much restored in the 1870s and 1970s. I walk past this beautiful medieval building every single day.
Everyone needs a book nook.
Proof that historians can count to ten. Thank you to those who joined me for my (our!) Restoring Women to History course tonight. (And thank you to Deborah for this picture!) Tonight we were just clearing our throats. Next week, we really start to sing. And maybe do some jazz hands.
‘For the receiving of a Queen out of a strange land and the coronation of her’
One night, two launches, two fabulous and very different books: Ros Atkins, The Art of Explanation – clever, practical, and very clear; I think this is going to be phenomenally useful to me Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures – a glorious magical world (that reviewers have compared to the creations of Lewis and Tolkien) rendered in delicious prose (I had to include an extra photo of the beautiful fore-edge painting)
One night, two launches, two fabulous and very different books: Ros Atkins, The Art of Explanation – clever, practical, and very clear; I think this is going to be phenomenally useful to me Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures – a glorious magical world (that reviewers have compared to the creations of Lewis and Tolkien) rendered in delicious prose (I had to include an extra photo of the beautiful fore-edge painting)
One night, two launches, two fabulous and very different books: Ros Atkins, The Art of Explanation – clever, practical, and very clear; I think this is going to be phenomenally useful to me Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures – a glorious magical world (that reviewers have compared to the creations of Lewis and Tolkien) rendered in delicious prose (I had to include an extra photo of the beautiful fore-edge painting)
One night, two launches, two fabulous and very different books: Ros Atkins, The Art of Explanation – clever, practical, and very clear; I think this is going to be phenomenally useful to me Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures – a glorious magical world (that reviewers have compared to the creations of Lewis and Tolkien) rendered in delicious prose (I had to include an extra photo of the beautiful fore-edge painting)
One night, two launches, two fabulous and very different books: Ros Atkins, The Art of Explanation – clever, practical, and very clear; I think this is going to be phenomenally useful to me Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures – a glorious magical world (that reviewers have compared to the creations of Lewis and Tolkien) rendered in delicious prose (I had to include an extra photo of the beautiful fore-edge painting)
Delighted by this write-up of my podcast, Step into the Past, made with @findmypast experts and at @nationaltrust sites. It was fun and moving to record. I do hope you’ll take a listen.
Very excited that the second episode of my podcast, Step into the Past, from @findmypast drops today! Join me as I travel back in time with my guest, David Higginson, to trace his fascinating family story at @nationaltrust Quarry Bank in Cheshire, an historic textile factory dating back to the Industrial Revolution. David’s family has links to the weaving industry here dating back over 400 years. Listen to find out more about the lives of those who lived and worked at the mill; there are a few surprises for David along the way! Available now across all podcast platforms: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/page/podcast Oh, and make sure to download the walking guide for the podcast to walk in our footsteps on your own visit to the site.
The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024 has been quite the event in my life. Or, rather, series of events. My fellow judges and I read for it from August 2023, met from October, announced our wonderful longlist of 16 books in February and our shortlist of six superb books a month later. And this week, as chair of judges, I had the honour of announcing the inaugural winner of this important new prize. So here’s the journey in pictures: – with my brilliant fellow judges @venetialamanna @profnicolarollock @kshamsie @annesebba – judges with the shortlisted authors: @lauracummingart for Thunderclap @naomiaklein for Doppelganger @noreen_masud for A Flat Place @tiyamiles for All That She Carries @madhumitav for Code Dependent @safiyasinclair for How to Say Babylon – on stage as the shortlisted authors received flowers – announcing the Winner of the inaugural @womensprize for Non-Fiction: @naomiaklein, for Doppelganger
What remarkably evergreen sentiments.
Taking Perspective From History It’s clearly a challenging time, with wars in Europe and the Middle East, the cost of living crisis, the climate emergency and political instability home and abroad. Having a sense of anxiety about the current state of affairs is both understandable and commonplace. And yet, without in any way belittling anything that people are currently going through around the world, you can find some solace by looking to the past. When Professor Suzannah Lipscomb told me that when she is asked what period of history she would choose to live in, and her answer is now – it is somewhat reassuring. As she points out – we don’t have the plague every 16 years, as well as things like influenza and syphilis. We don’t starve when the harvests fail, as they frequently did. It wasn’t that long ago that infant mortality was through the roof, with 1 in 4 children dying before the age of one. A very high proportion of mothers died in childbirth too, plus for a few hundred years there was a fascination and trend in torturing and murdering ‘witches’. So, in many ways, humanity has never had it so good. As Suzannah put it, history can provide both a sense of perspective and empathy. She is this week’s guest on the Life Lessons podcast, in which she also shares some of her own nuggets, not least about focus, digital minimalism and getting in flow – as a prolific author (seven books and counting), TV broadcaster and host of the Not Just the Tudors podcast from @historyhit Have a listen – and feel free to give it a share. LINK – https://podfollow.com/tllp
