Sarah Elizabeth Cox
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oispooky.bsky.social
Sarah Elizabeth Cox
@oispooky.bsky.social
🥊 1880s boxing+wrestling historian
📕 THE DEVIL'S DANCE FLOOR (Duckworth, 2027)
✍🏻 Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe, Sugar Goodson, Wannop, Smith, Ball &c.
🤜🏻 Advisor #AThousandBlows
👩🏻‍💻 PR @britsciassoc.bsky.social
🏖️ Clacton 💚

www.grapplingwithhistory.com
😺🌊☀️
January 31, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Took a nice photo of some cats eating brunch (some sort of rice and curry dish) on the beach in Jaywick. A lovely day! 😺😺🍛
January 31, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Hope this chicken that my child made yesterday cheers you up as much as it did for me 😂🐓

It was drawn from life shortly after he met an actual chicken!!!
January 29, 2026 at 1:37 PM
It's nice to be niche! 💁🏻‍♀️🥊

Been asked to give the keynote opening talk at the DAM and Collections Management for Cultural Heritage 2026 conference.

I will, of course, be chatting about Hezekiah Moscow. From archive to prime time! 📦⏩📺

More to come:

henrystewartconferences.com/events/dam-c...
January 29, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Historical Job of the Week.

Ethel Bainbridge - Fancy Fox Making Foreswoman!

Sadly a typo. 21-year-old Ethel from Shoreditch actually managed fancy boxes. Very well, I'm sure.
January 27, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Join us for a night of discussion about Black American boxer Tom Molineaux (1784-1818) - a man who came close to being English Champ - and boxer turned business owner Bill Richmond. Plus, true histories behind Bridgerton and #AThousandBlows! 15 April. UCL. Free:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/champion-b...
January 27, 2026 at 4:45 PM
December 1887. English Heavyweight Champ Jem Smith (right) and the American Jake Kilrain enjoy each other's company after a two-and-a-half-hour bare fist fight in which "the muscular giants pounded each other into pitiable and bloody helplessness".

Sketch from 'Jake Kilrain's Life and Battles'.

👊🏻
January 27, 2026 at 9:01 AM
A silly thing but you know what cheers me up when things aren't cheery at ALL? Wine, yeah. But ALSO my absurd 1961 Primrose Yellow bathroom suite and tiles. Peeling vinyl floral wallpaper couldn't be saved, sadly. I painted the walls and ceiling, the floor tiles were a cheapo DIY. Please enjoy 💛🍌🍋
January 26, 2026 at 7:37 PM
"THIS IS A VERY GOOD BOOK, SO WHY DON'T YOU TRY IT?"

Just found something in the British Newspaper Archive which means I can now legitimately say I've been a published historian, writer and critic for 32 years, despite being 'only' 39-years-old 😆

Ahahaha!!!!

My first book review:
January 24, 2026 at 12:44 PM
I would put a purse of gold on any one of these lads for the win 🤜🏻🤛🏻
January 23, 2026 at 10:36 PM
Baby Rodney's mum Cassandra 🥹
January 23, 2026 at 11:01 AM
Meet local Clacton celebrity Rodney. Full name, Rodney The Plonker. RODNEY THE PLONKER. I would vote for him as MP, go into battle for him (or on him), and sacrifice all my worldly goods and probably life. An honour to have crossed paths (I was looking for WiFi, he was having a puppachino).
January 23, 2026 at 10:48 AM
Needed a speaker headshot for a forthcoming professional conference that wasn't quite obviously taken at 9pm on Clacton High Street after three wines like my other one. Ended up looking like, uh, Dolly Parton and Lemmy Kilmister's bastard child? Oh well. This is what a historian looks like etc 😂🖤🦂🤘🏻💋
January 23, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Celebrating the forthcoming blue plaque to Tom Molineaux and Bill Richmond at the National Gallery, I'm proud to be joining a panel with Tony Warner (Black History Walks), Roberto Nigro, Luke G. Williams & S.I Martin at UCL! 👊 Apr 15 - FREE tix #AThousandBlows

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/champion-b...
January 22, 2026 at 9:42 AM
£14.99 each 😂
January 21, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Returning this week to working on Jem Smith for my book, and it's funny how many times boxing journalists 100+ years ago referred to him as having stubby short little arms (not ideal for a boxer, post-bareknuckle era). I've studied his photo many, many, times... can't say I even noticed. Hmm.
January 20, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Big well done to me for forgetting the Alt Text on the picture illustrating a story about a blind boxer. Sorry, it was 6am posting. Now with:
January 20, 2026 at 6:45 AM
An 1890 National Police Gazette woodcut of Illinois-born boxer (& baseballer, race-walker) Albert Pearce, a man @cycologies.com and I believe to be the first Black cyclist in UK competitions after arriving in 1882. He was blinded boxing in his 30s and died in middle age at Fulham Workhouse, London 💔
January 20, 2026 at 6:22 AM
Well done to all concerned 😂

#AThousandBlows 🥊
January 18, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Glad to be at a point in my life where I no longer feel the need to eat soup and exercise a lot to meet society's standards, the male gaze, the Skinny Tok (?), or the Zara concept of a Medium.

It's so I don't get stuck in these bastards.
January 18, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Yesterday around 11am 🐔

As an aside, CHRIST that suit 😂
January 18, 2026 at 12:27 PM
Who do you reckon won between these two?
January 18, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Jaywick is sadly a bit notorious for fly tipping. At least sometimes, however, it's also art. Definitely did a double take! 😳😂🦵🏻
January 17, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Sad to report that I missed Farage opening Flappy Joe's chicken shop in Jaywick because, well, I forgot. Know you were all desperate for it. Have a photo of the beach and my mate (King of Jaywick) instead. It's a lovely day! No coat needed or anything! Still some Farage lackeys here in flatcaps.
January 17, 2026 at 11:36 AM
This house is SO gorgeous and neat from the outside and the inside is just... um... 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 Who doesn't want a dodgy Sex Bath Conservatory though!!!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/8...
January 17, 2026 at 10:37 AM