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Amy Gray

@amygraywrites.bsky.social

310 followers 430 following 450 posts

Red Duchess, my biog of the Duchess of Atholl MP, OUT NOW from The History Press. Freelance public affairs, small person wrangling, incurable reader, always trying to write. Also on IG.

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · Aug 28

She’s out today! The remarkable and unfairly forgotten Duchess of Atholl, Scotland’s first woman MP and the Conservatives’ first woman minister, turned the most unlikely rebel in British politics.

A book cover, the title RED DUCHESS in red lettering over a painted portrait of a woman reading a sheaf of paper.

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 6h

The weekly Thula Mama singing group I went to on maternity leave was my favourite baby group by far.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'It gave me my voice back': How group singing is helping new mums with postnatal depression

New research suggests singing can be clinically effective at treating the symptoms and cost effective for the NHS.

www.bbc.co.uk

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 19h

Thank you so much!

Reposted by Amy Gray

John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 1d

Turning up to the "No Kings" protest with my "Actually maybe you need a king" sign.

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 22h

This one? It was the bestselling Penguin Special to that point - 300k copies sold

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

When installed properly, it is the most effective though, as DESNZ’s own study found: www.gov.uk/government/p...

Demonstration of Energy Efficiency Potential (DEEP)

A research project to demonstrate the energy saving potential and risk from taking a whole-house approach to retrofit.

www.gov.uk

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

First Scottish event for #RedDuchess at the matchless Blair Castle in #Perthshire on 27th October. I spent many happy days in Duchess Kitty’s archive there, so I’m thrilled to be reading from my book and answering questions. @perthwomenwiki.bsky.social @perthandkinross.bsky.social

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

“An essential condition today for entry into the upper echelons of Conservative party politics is being willing to at least pretend that you think taking Britain out of the EU was a good idea. This is a never-ending lobotomy for the Tories.”

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

This is *such* an interesting take.

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

But seriously, the reason Conservatives have a proud memory of the late 1930s is bc of the dissenters like Churchill and the Duchess of Atholl who called out Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, not bc of the lobby fodder who didn't challenge it

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

If only there was a recent book exploring a precedent for a Tory PM kicking out MPs who dissent from his policy, but who turn out to have been right.... 😉

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 1d

How Brexit drained the Tories’ talent pool on.ft.com/4qarx21 | opinion

How Brexit drained the Tories’ talent pool

The party can’t keep expecting successful people to pretend that leaving the EU was a good idea

on.ft.com

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

That's the argument of the piece?

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 1d

Oh v good. In my acknowledgements I specifically thanked ppl who had helped with childcare & allowed me to get to archives. I have several ideas for research heavy books I want to crack on with - but my eldest is on a reduced timetable at school now bc ASD & so getting to archives is impossible 😭

Reposted by Amy Gray

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 1d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 2d

They're all listed here: www.archives.gov/presidential...

Visit and Connect

Presidential Libraries can be found across the country, from Massachusetts to California. Visit one soon, and give yourself and your family the opportunity to explore the history of our nation and the...

www.archives.gov

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 2d

Your point that it became unusable is really important. So many irrelevant ads and ppl you hadn't followed in your timeline, so much slop generated by bots. I still miss the Twitter of c2011-14, before the two referenda unleashed something horrid in British politics.

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 2d

I would quite like to do a road trip to visit all the US presidential libraries

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 2d

1 in 8 children in the UK does not own a book of their own. Over 1 million children have no bedtime story. Heartbreaking.
#GetBritainReading

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 3d

Social media was better when it was pinnipeds with buckets

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 5d

Milngavie. Worcestershire.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 6d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

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Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 5d

I used the BNA extensively when researching my own book and am delighted to hear this (though I was a little more focussed on Scottish local newspapers of the 1930s 😂)

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 6d

thank you!

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 6d

You can get private covid jabs if you look - see below

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 6d

There’s a search tool to find pharmacies offering it on the NHS website. The first one I went into didn’t offer a private option, but the second one did. Boots also offer it nationwide in many branches, though it’s slightly more expensive. www.nhs.uk/nhs-services...

Find a walk-in COVID-19 vaccination site

Find a walk-in COVID-19 vaccination site to get a COVID vaccination appointment without needing an appointment.

www.nhs.uk

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 6d

I couldn’t even find anywhere to get it done privately last winter. I do always get a flu jab now

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 8d

Before the Iron Lady there was the Red Duchess.
40 years before Margaret Thatcher got into a tank, the Duchess of Atholl took on communist hecklers in the streets of Aberdeen.
I wrote Red Duchess partly to restore this forgotten Conservative pioneer to her rightful place in the memory of her party.

Amy Gray @amygraywrites.bsky.social · 9d

Oh this is too too sad. She added so much to the jollity of life.