Matt Houlbrook
@tricksterprince.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.3K following 1.9K posts
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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tricksterprince.bsky.social
The launch of my new @manchesterup.bsky.social book Songs of Seven Dials will be at 6pm, Tues 21 Oct, at Waterstones Covent Garden. I'll be in conversation with the wonderful @julialaite.bsky.social.

Please do come along. Free tickets, but register in advance

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/songs-of-s...
An advertising banner for Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials: An Intimate History of 1920s and 1930s London. The banner includes an image of the front cover of the book (a blue map on a pink background) and a blurb from the historian Julia Laite, which describes Songs of Seven Dials as 'a poetic exploration of London's most iconic neighbourhoods'.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
benwritesthings.bsky.social
“boys have pee pee, girls have bagina,” intoned the leading media of the husk of a fallen empire as its population fell into poverty, its once-leading universities lost their relevance and reputations, and its industries lost all competitiveness
benwritesthings.bsky.social
there are no words sufficient for the british press
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Happy #BookshopDay to all who celebrate!

And let’s be honest - everybody should: books and bookshops are great.
tricksterprince.bsky.social
A few (belated) photographs of a great day with
‪@manchesterup.bsky.social‬ delivering proofs of Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London to assorted London bookshops a couple of weeks ago.

#sevendials #history
A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London. A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London. A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London. A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Happy bookshop day to @stanfordstravel.bsky.social! I’m excited to be doing some walking tours of #20s30s seven dials with them in November. Watch this space!
stanfordstravel.bsky.social
Happy Bookshop Day ♥️

#bookshopday
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
matthewwhitfield.bsky.social
if we lived in a halfway normal country this wouldn’t make anyone nervous, it would simply form part of what we all collectively agreed was real life
theipaper.com
Rachel Reeves's Budget is expected to contain multiple tax rises, which is making many with large assets nervous

trib.al/Kwo4w6a
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
mthrjo.bsky.social
I have a feeling this isn’t going to end well.
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'prime minister Keir Starmer...confirmed that the University of Lancaster and the University of Surrey had been given approval to open new campuses in India while on a trade mission to Mumbai, joining six more institutions already in the country.' (Lancaster is mooting 20% academic redundancy) 1/3
resprofnews.bsky.social
Expansion of UK universities in India ‘like California gold rush’.

University leaders embrace transnational education but warn it will not be a “replacement income stream”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
davidandress.bsky.social
Especially when you remember that Dubai, like all its neighbours, is an undemocratic, authoritarian state with a well-documented economic base of forced labour.

It’s as if rich rightwing people are telling us who they really are.
katie0martin.ft.com
Some people don't super love Dubai but they get offered good money for a good job and they go for a couple of years. Wouldn't be my choice but I get it.
But a lot of people have made "slagging off the UK and going on about Dubai" their entire personality and it's quite dull
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
qmucu.bsky.social
*FIFTEEN THOUSAND JOBS LOST*.
If this were in a sector in which the PM could go and do a photoshoot looking like One Of The People, we’d have had a government intervention by now.
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Happy bookshop day to @stanfordstravel.bsky.social! I’m excited to be doing some walking tours of #20s30s seven dials with them in November. Watch this space!
stanfordstravel.bsky.social
Happy Bookshop Day ♥️

#bookshopday
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
stanfordstravel.bsky.social
Happy Bookshop Day ♥️

#bookshopday
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Oh god those awful plastic cut outs that are spreading like a rash these days...
tricksterprince.bsky.social
I was going to say exactly the same thing!
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
newadrian.bsky.social
Armistice Day dances. Throwback to the 1920s and I’m here for it! @tricksterprince.bsky.social
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Bring it back! Any excuse for Adrian to share that thread again.
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Happy #BookshopDay to all who celebrate!

And let’s be honest - everybody should: books and bookshops are great.
tricksterprince.bsky.social
A few (belated) photographs of a great day with
‪@manchesterup.bsky.social‬ delivering proofs of Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London to assorted London bookshops a couple of weeks ago.

#sevendials #history
A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London. A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London. A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London. A middle aged man with a white beard wearing a white t-shirt and jeans looks awkward holding a copy of his book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London in a bookshop in London.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'prime minister Keir Starmer...confirmed that the University of Lancaster and the University of Surrey had been given approval to open new campuses in India while on a trade mission to Mumbai, joining six more institutions already in the country.' (Lancaster is mooting 20% academic redundancy) 1/3
tricksterprince.bsky.social
I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that there‘s a #20s30s Seven Dials story here…
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
tomhulme.bsky.social
New article just published from the ‘Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality before Liberation’ project. Charlie lays out in brilliant (and often depressing) depth how the complex forces of psychiatry and religion shaped the responses to male homosexuality in the decades after WWII.
charlielynch.bsky.social
“I knew that homosexuality was a sin - I didn’t want to be homosexual. I went to my G.P and said I had read Freud’s book on dreams, that I suffered from homosexuality, and that I would like to change.”

My new article now out in Irish Historical Studies:

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Between sickness and sin: models of male homosexuality in Northern Ireland c.1960-1990 | Irish Historical Studies | Cambridge Core
Between sickness and sin: models of male homosexuality in Northern Ireland c.1960-1990
www.cambridge.org
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
charlielynch.bsky.social
A journal article about LGBTQ+ history in the North of Ireland, researched and written in Belfast, edited in Glasgow, and in the cafe on the Stena Irish Sea ferry, journal edited in Limerick, shortly to be published online worldwide.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
tomcutterham.bsky.social
If you want to read more about Aitken and his world, about the multiple crises of the age of revolution, and sometimes about the crises of our own time too, I'm starting a free newsletter (ok, it's a blog) and I'd love you to sign up: buttondown.com/cutterham
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
tomcutterham.bsky.social
Next year will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There'll be a lot published about the American Revolution. But most of it probably won't centre the perspectives of working people on both sides of the Atlantic, including the British workers who embraced the American cause.