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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 1d

The Blasphemy Machine - how to sell banned books without getting nicked in the 1820s, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

12th October 1819:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 5d

Reviews of Jo Cunningham, Mick Herron, Harriet Fox, Chris Hammer in this month's Morning Star crime fiction column: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/crim...

Crime fiction with Mat Coward: October 7, 2025

UNA the anxious actuary is back, in A Calculated Murder by Jo Cunningham (Constable, £10.99). The insurance company she works for has her investigating whether keeping a pet increases life expectancy....

morningstaronline.co.uk

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 8d

Chalking the walls with "bluemould" - the pre-digital way of getting people ready for the Battle of Bexley Square, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

October 1st 1931:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 15d

Trotskyist plotter, Knight Bachelor, Commander of the British Empire, inmate of Wormwood Scrubs, world-famous composer: the several lives of Sir Michael Tippett, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

30th September most years:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 22d

The Cotswolds tobacco riots of 1652, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

19th September 1667:

rebelbrit.substack.com

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 29d

The revolutionary who tried to assassinate Oliver Cromwell - and again ... and again ... If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing incompetently and repeatedly: in this week's Rebel Britannia rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

September 17th 1656:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · 29d

@amendlocke.bsky.social

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Sep 10

Reviews of Don Carpenter, Jo Jakeman, Martin Edwards, Harry Whitehead, in the Morning Star crime fiction column: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/crim...

Crime fiction with Mat Coward: September 9, 2025

A STILL admired US crime novel of the 1960s, Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter (Penguin Classics, £10.99), tracks the fortunes of a group of lost boys from the 1940s to the 1960s, from teenage hustli...

morningstaronline.co.uk

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Sep 8

In 1979 a British woman made news worldwide when she was elected to an important political office. No, not Maggie Thatcher - this was a Communist schoolteacher called Annie, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia:

8th September 1906:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Sep 2

The jurors said Not Guilty, so the judge sent them to jail - no food, no water, no chamber pots. The origins of the "perverse verdict," one of our most important liberties, in this week's Rebel Britannia rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

1st September 1670:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Aug 25

In 1918 bus conductors got a 5 shilling war bonus. "Conductorettes" didn't. The resulting equal pay strike left London with an atmosphere "suggesting a deserted village." This week's Rebel Britannia rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

26th August 1918:

rebelbrit.substack.com

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Aug 18

"Honest Tom" Wharton, a founder of the Treason Club, author of a viral 17th century song lyric, crucial figure in the evolution of the British constitution, but mostly famous for urinating in a church - in this week's Rebel Britannia:
rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

15th August 1682:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Aug 14

Reviews of Yasuhiko Nishizawa, Jo Piazza, Philip Gwynne Jones, MW Craven, in the latest Morning Star crime fiction column: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/crim...

Crime fiction with Mat Coward: August 12, 2025

WEALTHY businessman Reijiro gathers his family together for a seasonal celebration — and to torment them as he constantly changes the terms of his will according to his whims — in The Man Who Died Sev...

morningstaronline.co.uk

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Aug 11

Meet the General Union of Clickers and Rough-stuff Cutters, The Cardroom Amalgamation - and many other long-vanished trades unions, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

8th August 1919:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Aug 4

The 82-year-old accountant arrested as a terrorist for shouting "nonsense!" at a politician - remembering Walter Wolfgang, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

3rd August 2006:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jul 28

Starving, freezing to death - but they still wouldn't sign "The Document." London's great building trades lockout of 1859, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

27th July 1859:

rebelbrit.substack.com

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jul 21

The "Rape of the Mace," a punch-up in the House of Commons, and the Labour rebel who became a Blackshirt - in this week's Rebel Britannia:
rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

17th July 1930:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jul 14

Hatpins and fire hoses - among the weapons used by the "girl workers" of #ReadingBerks in the great biscuit strike of 1916. This week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

14th July 1916:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jul 9

Reviews of Stuart MacBride, Ben Aaronovitch, Ashley Flowers with Alex Kiester, Megan Abbott, in this month's Morning Star crime fiction column: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/crim...

Crime fiction with Mat Coward: July 8, 2025 | Morning Star

morningstaronline.co.uk

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jul 7

Rebecca and her daughters - all men, of course, following a fine British tradition of cross-dressing - and the war against the turnpikes, in this week's Rebel Britannia:
rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

6th July 1843:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jun 30

Woodbine Willie - the patriotic padre who bought 800,000 cigarettes for the troops in WW1, then spent the rest of his life as a pacifist preacher - in this week's Rebel Britannia:
rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

27th June 1883:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jun 23

Learie Constantine was one of the best-loved cricketers in the country and the London hotel that barred him for being black soon found they'd picked a fight with the wrong man - in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jun 16

An aristo animal rights activist and a suffragette-turned-fascist - the unlikely founders of Britain's first female police force, in this week's Rebel Britannia:

rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

12th June 1873:

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rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jun 14

Reviews of A.A. Dhand, Robert Holtom, Chris Pavone, in this month's Morning Star crime fiction column: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/crim...

Crime fiction with Mat Coward: June 10, 2025 | Morning Star

morningstaronline.co.uk

rebelbrit.bsky.social @rebelbrit.bsky.social · Jun 9

Can you prove you're not a prostitute? If not, you're nabbed: the Contagious Diseases Act 1864 and the long, strange fight for its repeal, in this week's Rebel Britannia: rebelbrit.substack.com/p/rebel-brit...

Rebel Britannia

11th June 1866:

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