Matt Houlbrook
@tricksterprince.bsky.social
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
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
Pinned
This is what publication day looked like.
I am buzzing but broken this morning. Thank you to everyone who made time to talk to me or came out to hear me talk about Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.
The book is out now with @manchesterup.bsky.social
I am buzzing but broken this morning. Thank you to everyone who made time to talk to me or came out to hear me talk about Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.
The book is out now with @manchesterup.bsky.social
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
‘A puppy and unlimited toilet paper’ make me wonder if she is trying to re-enact those Andrex advertisements from 1980s Britain. To what end?
November 19, 2025 at 1:44 PM
‘A puppy and unlimited toilet paper’ make me wonder if she is trying to re-enact those Andrex advertisements from 1980s Britain. To what end?
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
So excited to share the UK cover of my forthcoming book THE TRAVELLER ... which is about a quite remarkable human being. George Forster, a man who tried to find what connects us rather than what sets us apart - he saw unity behind our diversity, not discord and division.
November 19, 2025 at 1:17 PM
So excited to share the UK cover of my forthcoming book THE TRAVELLER ... which is about a quite remarkable human being. George Forster, a man who tried to find what connects us rather than what sets us apart - he saw unity behind our diversity, not discord and division.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Finally got hold of a copy of Tribune’s winter edition with Adelle Stripe’s marvellous review of Wild Twin. @adellestripe.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
And this one of my favourite bits!
And this one of my favourite bits!
November 19, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Finally got hold of a copy of Tribune’s winter edition with Adelle Stripe’s marvellous review of Wild Twin. @adellestripe.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
And this one of my favourite bits!
And this one of my favourite bits!
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Really enjoyable & informative tour around Seven Dials with @tricksterprince.bsky.social & @stanfordstravel.bsky.social. As a Londoner fascinating to overlay my personal history & memories of the area with the deeper past. Great cake & coffee & new book! @zefrog.eu
November 16, 2025 at 5:12 AM
Really enjoyable & informative tour around Seven Dials with @tricksterprince.bsky.social & @stanfordstravel.bsky.social. As a Londoner fascinating to overlay my personal history & memories of the area with the deeper past. Great cake & coffee & new book! @zefrog.eu
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Since Yesterday: the Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands bellacaledonia.org.uk/2025/11/19/s... by @carlajeaston.bsky.social
Since Yesterday: Nothing Has Changed
One year after the premiere of Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands, girl bands aren’t the problem – the system is. Making The Film I remember, quite clearly, the first …
bellacaledonia.org.uk
November 19, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Since Yesterday: the Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands bellacaledonia.org.uk/2025/11/19/s... by @carlajeaston.bsky.social
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Happy 5th birthday to my first monograph, The Last Ghetto! I am so grateful to all people who have read the book, cite it, assign to teach, but also those who read it because their relatives were imprisoned in Theresienstadt. I wrote it so that people like my brother or cousins could read it...
November 19, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Happy 5th birthday to my first monograph, The Last Ghetto! I am so grateful to all people who have read the book, cite it, assign to teach, but also those who read it because their relatives were imprisoned in Theresienstadt. I wrote it so that people like my brother or cousins could read it...
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
I'm getting increasingly cynical about land acknowledgements, but if you are going to do it, please make at least a slight effort to pronounce the name of the land you are acknowledging and its people correctly!
ps. I'm collecting critical readings on land acknow/welcomes to country. Do recommend!
ps. I'm collecting critical readings on land acknow/welcomes to country. Do recommend!
November 19, 2025 at 11:11 AM
I'm getting increasingly cynical about land acknowledgements, but if you are going to do it, please make at least a slight effort to pronounce the name of the land you are acknowledging and its people correctly!
ps. I'm collecting critical readings on land acknow/welcomes to country. Do recommend!
ps. I'm collecting critical readings on land acknow/welcomes to country. Do recommend!
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Very much this.
I’m not a great political analyst, but I do feel Labour have made a tactical error by opting to be cunts.
November 19, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Very much this.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
If you're interested in reviewing Songs of Seven Dials or getting hold of a review copy feel free to get in touch with me or @manchesterup.bsky.social.
If you do find something useful in Songs of Seven Dials, I’d be really grateful if you could find the time to leave a review on Amazon (you don’t have to have bought the book there). It makes a real difference in getting books like this noticed.
November 4, 2025 at 10:48 AM
If you're interested in reviewing Songs of Seven Dials or getting hold of a review copy feel free to get in touch with me or @manchesterup.bsky.social.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
First reader review just in from bookstagrammer canreadwillread www.instagram.com/p/DROqhJfDNy...
November 19, 2025 at 10:24 AM
First reader review just in from bookstagrammer canreadwillread www.instagram.com/p/DROqhJfDNy...
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
I'm glad to have signed this statement in support of queer and trans staff at the National Library of Scotland, who by the sounds of it are going through an awful time at the moment: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
November 19, 2025 at 10:15 AM
I'm glad to have signed this statement in support of queer and trans staff at the National Library of Scotland, who by the sounds of it are going through an awful time at the moment: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Spending International Men's Day writing about how Britain culturally represented men who returned from the First World War across the 20th century. Given there were over 4 million of them, the story is a bit more complicated than 'forgotten heroes' and 'cheerful cripples'. #fww #ww1 #amwriting
November 19, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Spending International Men's Day writing about how Britain culturally represented men who returned from the First World War across the 20th century. Given there were over 4 million of them, the story is a bit more complicated than 'forgotten heroes' and 'cheerful cripples'. #fww #ww1 #amwriting
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
this is true and it’s shameful, so please go do some reading about the Great Migration
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long...
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long...
November 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
this is true and it’s shameful, so please go do some reading about the Great Migration
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long...
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long...
Between this and the faux rage over the Tesco 'evergreen tree' I'm starting to think we've really lost the fucking plot. Some people need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Asylum seekers aren't crying and terrified all the time and that makes the Daily Express mad
November 19, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Between this and the faux rage over the Tesco 'evergreen tree' I'm starting to think we've really lost the fucking plot. Some people need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Asylum seekers aren't crying and terrified all the time and that makes the Daily Express mad
November 19, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Asylum seekers aren't crying and terrified all the time and that makes the Daily Express mad
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Union Hotel, Manchester, 1974, photo by Martin Parr (Magnum).
November 19, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Union Hotel, Manchester, 1974, photo by Martin Parr (Magnum).
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
How to normalised state murder under the banner of freedom of speech at universities [cries]:
See also Curtis Yarvin's remarks in a recent Oxford lecture:
"Say what you want about MBS, he's quite an effective king I think in a lot of different ways. Um love the Ritz thing, the whole Saudi embassy thing, I don't know, but I mean he was a journalist". [Giggles]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXYl...
"Say what you want about MBS, he's quite an effective king I think in a lot of different ways. Um love the Ritz thing, the whole Saudi embassy thing, I don't know, but I mean he was a journalist". [Giggles]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXYl...
November 19, 2025 at 9:02 AM
How to normalised state murder under the banner of freedom of speech at universities [cries]:
My latest blog is some original research into art deco architect Gerald de Courcy Fraser (1873 – 1952) who was the company architect for Lewis’s department stores.
The department store architect: Gerald de Courcy Fraser
Gerald de Courcy Fraser (1873 – 1952) was an architect who worked mostly in Liverpool and Birmingham and was the company architect for Lewis’s department stores.
ailsaboyd.wordpress.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
When we talk about #StopDeKindermoord, we should also talk about Palestine.
Mobility Justice and the Big Ride for Palestine
With a focus on how anticolonial social movements can pose solutions to multiple contemporary problems, this essay takes up the Big Ride for Palestine. The principal argument – that the Big Ride co...
www.tandfonline.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:06 PM
When we talk about #StopDeKindermoord, we should also talk about Palestine.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Goodness Gracious Me! Vanished is also one of the best books of the year in the @financialtimes.com. This is especially delightful given the lovely original review of the book was the first out, and now features on the paperback cover.
on.ft.com/4o4IMzD (gift link for up to 3 non-subscribers)
on.ft.com/4o4IMzD (gift link for up to 3 non-subscribers)
November 18, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Goodness Gracious Me! Vanished is also one of the best books of the year in the @financialtimes.com. This is especially delightful given the lovely original review of the book was the first out, and now features on the paperback cover.
on.ft.com/4o4IMzD (gift link for up to 3 non-subscribers)
on.ft.com/4o4IMzD (gift link for up to 3 non-subscribers)
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Finally got my review of @kieranconnell.bsky.social's Multicultural Britain together for @midlandhistory.bsky.social - spoiler alert, I thought it was fab.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Multicultural Britain: A People’s History
Published in Midland History (Vol. 50, No. 2, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Finally got my review of @kieranconnell.bsky.social's Multicultural Britain together for @midlandhistory.bsky.social - spoiler alert, I thought it was fab.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Taught @momoulton.bsky.social's "Both Your Sexes" @historyworkshop.org.uk article twice today.
Man and woman, sex and gender, past and present: no binary looked the same at the end of each of the deep discussions about history and politics this brilliant work made possible.
Man and woman, sex and gender, past and present: no binary looked the same at the end of each of the deep discussions about history and politics this brilliant work made possible.
“Both Your Sexes”: A Non-Binary Approach to Gender History, Trans Studies and the Making of the Self in Modern Britain
Abstract. Using the life-writing of historian and playwright Muriel St. Clare Byrne (1895-1983), this article develops the concept of a non-binary historic
academic.oup.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Taught @momoulton.bsky.social's "Both Your Sexes" @historyworkshop.org.uk article twice today.
Man and woman, sex and gender, past and present: no binary looked the same at the end of each of the deep discussions about history and politics this brilliant work made possible.
Man and woman, sex and gender, past and present: no binary looked the same at the end of each of the deep discussions about history and politics this brilliant work made possible.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Indeed, that's initially what Birmingham cyclists thought they were for as well!
November 18, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Indeed, that's initially what Birmingham cyclists thought they were for as well!
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Essential alt-text read here ⬇️
Indeed, that's initially what Birmingham cyclists thought they were for as well!
November 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Essential alt-text read here ⬇️
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
I've had the privilege of helping two freelance journalists in Berlin on a project that historicizes the queer and transphobia we are seeing in our world today. In last week's @taz.de, I offer some words on the right wing thought patterns edging their way into the liberal centre.
archive.is/nWH8W
archive.is/nWH8W
November 18, 2025 at 10:49 AM
I've had the privilege of helping two freelance journalists in Berlin on a project that historicizes the queer and transphobia we are seeing in our world today. In last week's @taz.de, I offer some words on the right wing thought patterns edging their way into the liberal centre.
archive.is/nWH8W
archive.is/nWH8W