Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Samira Ahmed @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social · 2d

On tonight's BBC Front Row: Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow on A House Of Dynamite and the strange days of modern America, Kiran Desai, the decline in university humanities course & we remember Jilly Cooper 715PM R4 or link after: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone else going Cambridge people?

Dr Victoria Bateman @vnbateman.bsky.social · 4d

In #Cambridge this Thursday? Want to hear how women made the global economy? Do come along to #Heffers to hear me talk about my new book, #Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth & Power (@headlinebooks.bsky.social). Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/economica-...

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John Attridge @johnattridge.bsky.social · 2d

Literary prizes are a cheap distraction from the true purpose of reading great books, which is making people who haven't read them feel bad about themselves

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Backlisted Podcast @backlisted.bsky.social · 2d

And here is that episode, on Imogen by Jilly Cooper, with guests Daisy Buchanan and Ian Patterson. In Jilly’s own words, “it was all such terrific fun”. RIP. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/84-...

Andy Miller @iammilliam.bsky.social · 2d

RIP lovely Jilly Cooper, the only subject of a @backlisted.bsky.social episode to write us all thank you letters afterwards. ❤️

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals and Riders, dies aged 88

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Andy Miller @iammilliam.bsky.social · 2d

RIP lovely Jilly Cooper, the only subject of a @backlisted.bsky.social episode to write us all thank you letters afterwards. ❤️

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals and Riders, dies aged 88

The author of 18 ‘bonkbuster’ novels including Riders, Rivals and Bella has died following a fall Jilly Cooper has died at the age of 88, her agent has confirmed. The author, whose 18 novels include Riders and Rivals, “defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago,” said her agent Felicity Blunt. “You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things - class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.” Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 2d

Best titles of autobiographies?

Starting with:

- Vic Reeves, Me: Moir
- Dennis Waterman, Reminder (thanks @whenisbirths.bsky.social)
- AA Gill, Pour Me
- Gene Simmons, Kiss and Make-Up
- Julian Clary, A Young Man's Passage

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Terri Windling @terriwindling.bsky.social · 2d

In the aftermath of the weekend's storms, it's a bright and beautiful day here on Dartmoor. Following my dog through the autumn hills, I am reminded of all that is good in the world; and all that is worth the long work of preserving.

Photograph: Lottie, our young brown spaniel, sits in a field close to my work studio. The slope of Meldon Hill is behind her, with the rise of open moorland beyond.

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 2d

Beautiful, Terri!

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Rachel Charlton-Dailey @rachelcdailey.bsky.social · 3d

SHEFFIELD (and West Yorks.) I will be at Off The Shelf Festival talking about my book Ramping Up Rights and the ongoing fight for disability rights on October 19th with my amazing pal Laura Elliott (@tinywriterlaura.bsky.social). It's a Sunday lunchtime, but I promise it'll be worth it.

Rachel Charlton-Dailey‘s book is a groundbreaking history of 100 years of disability activism in the UK. 1 in 5 people in the UK are disabled yet disability activism remains overlooked in history books, media, and politics. Blending investigative journalism, social history and a call to action the book looks at protest – from disabled suffragettes to debates about genetic screening. This powerful, timely book shows how often disabled people, and their allies, have fought and won, and the need to keep fighting.

offtheshelf.org.uk

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Emily Midorikawa @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social · 5d

'But Winnie decided that "no woman (it is not my business to consider a man’s life) has any excuse for living a life that is not worth living".' A sad & ultimately inspiring essay by @akennedysmith.bsky.social on 19th-century women's education, female solidarity & the importance of good teachers.

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 6d

I wrote about this moving biography of Winnie Seebohm, who fought to have the right to study at Cambridge in 1885. ‘Do not be misled into thinking that because it is history it has nothing to do with you' Victoria Glendinning writes. '1885 is yesterday. It is probably tomorrow too.’

A life worth living

Winnie Seebohm and the marvellous Mrs Marshall

akennedysmith.substack.com

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you Emily! Victoria Glendinning's slim biography of Winnie Seebohm is wonderful.

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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 6d

Amazed to discover that this poem was singled out for praise by the poet Douglas Oliver in 1970: 'This five-year-old from West Suffolk has said all that needs to be said about his breakfast. Peter Hazel's poem offers a slice of experience as warm as breakfast toast...' 1/2

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 6d

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

A printed poem which reads:

I hav for breakfast Weetabix

I hav for lunch some meat

I have for tea 2 sosajis and thats enuf to eat

Peter Hazel, 5

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Nicholas Allen @dedalusdenaries.bsky.social · 6d

I am at a lecture and the speaker keeps saying ‘as far back as the nineties’ and I‘m like

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 6d

I wrote about this moving biography of Winnie Seebohm, who fought to have the right to study at Cambridge in 1885. ‘Do not be misled into thinking that because it is history it has nothing to do with you' Victoria Glendinning writes. '1885 is yesterday. It is probably tomorrow too.’

A life worth living

Winnie Seebohm and the marvellous Mrs Marshall

akennedysmith.substack.com

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 7d

‘Muriel Spark wanted to be the inventor of the world while knowing that she was its creature, which gave her a good – and perhaps, from the viewpoint of those around her, excessive – supply of the egoism that all writers need.’

Colin Burrow in the new issue, online now
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Colin Burrow · World-Beating Buster-Upper: Muriel Spark’s Wickedness

The characteristic flavour of Spark’s writing was that of a Catholic ironist, for whom the terrible and the laughable...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 7d

I'm hugely honoured and very excited to be giving this year's Historical Research #Lecture at @ihr.bsky.social, on 'Can popular #history be radical? Historical research and writing for the #public'. Tuesday 4 November, all welcome. More info in AltText. Book here: www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

In this lecture, Catherine Clarke will re-visit the question of what makes history radical, asking what kind of radical history we need in our public life and contemporary context today. In particular, she’ll explore ways in which popular history – trade publishing for a wide public audience – has the capacity to be radical, drawing on experiences and examples from her own new book A History of England in 25 Poems (Penguin Allen Lane, September 2025). Catherine’s lecture will move towards a manifesto for how research-led, scholarship-driven popular history can and does make necessary, vital public interventions – from opening inclusive conversations and confronting the rise of AI, to modelling radical empathy and imagination.

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 9d

Mary was also one of the signatories supporting the first women candidates contesting local elections in Cambridge in 1908. In those days you had to be a property owner - which ruled out any married woman. lostcambridge.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/j... Julia Kennedy & Rosamund Philpott stood.

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks Antony - always grateful for any extra information about Mary. She was a quiet force to be reckoned with on behalf of women!

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 9d

As the new academic year starts here in Cambridge, my thoughts turn towards libraries... I wrote about the extraordinary Mary Paley Marshall, who co-founded the Marshall Library of Economics in 1925, and worked there until her 90s.

How to use a library

Mary Paley Marshall, political economist, author and librarian

open.substack.com

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 9d

Really enjoyed this, and it might even tempt me back to Murdoch (the process began with the excellent group bio, Metaphysical Animals – which isn't about her novels at all).

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Dennis Duncan @djbduncan.bsky.social · 9d

I really enjoyed answering @mathewlyons.bsky.social's questions about my favourite books, which brought out patterns I hadn't noticed in the things I like. I'd recommend to anyone having a think about how you'd answer. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...

The writer's bookshelf: Dennis Duncan

Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…

open.substack.com

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Joanna Pocock @joannapocock.bsky.social · 13d

This! 👇💙👇💙

Fitzcarraldo Editions @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social · 15d

To celebrate the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah from prison, the ebook edition of YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN DEFEATED, tr. an anonymous collective, is available to download for free for the next week via all ebook platforms, including Kindle and Apple Books, until 30 September.

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Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 13d

So pleased to hear that!

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 14d

Intriguing, would love to hear more

Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 14d

Good to be in touch, Sarah – enjoyed your talk at the UL when you were Munby fellow.

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