Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
@agnesjuliet.bsky.social
Writer, Historian, Researcher | NHS Reform, Birth, Policy |The Health Foundation | NOSTALGIA published by Picador | Repped by Oli Munson | Views own | She/her
Pinned
Review | Nostalgia was once a disease. Now we’re all infected.
New books examine the emotion’s long history and the politically diverse movements it has served
www.washingtonpost.com
A review of nostalgia in @washingtonpost.com !
“Her book is not a forbidding tissue of citations but a humane document populated by memorable characters”… “excellent and engrossing”…”research is meticulous and her prose is inviting” ❤️
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/1...
“Her book is not a forbidding tissue of citations but a humane document populated by memorable characters”… “excellent and engrossing”…”research is meticulous and her prose is inviting” ❤️
www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/1...
My baby was finally discharged from the NICU after six weeks, we spent just over a week at home before he was readmitted with bronchiolitis, collapsed lung & suspected sepsis.
He’s in the PICU and is really poorly & all I can say is that RSV is a horror and if you’re pregnant please get vaccinated
He’s in the PICU and is really poorly & all I can say is that RSV is a horror and if you’re pregnant please get vaccinated
November 10, 2025 at 7:19 PM
My baby was finally discharged from the NICU after six weeks, we spent just over a week at home before he was readmitted with bronchiolitis, collapsed lung & suspected sepsis.
He’s in the PICU and is really poorly & all I can say is that RSV is a horror and if you’re pregnant please get vaccinated
He’s in the PICU and is really poorly & all I can say is that RSV is a horror and if you’re pregnant please get vaccinated
It’s our fifth week in the NICU and I’ve had to invest in noise cancelling earphones for the sake of my sanity
Anyway here’s a tiny baby
Anyway here’s a tiny baby
October 21, 2025 at 2:04 PM
It’s our fifth week in the NICU and I’ve had to invest in noise cancelling earphones for the sake of my sanity
Anyway here’s a tiny baby
Anyway here’s a tiny baby
I had a terrifying placental abruption at 32 weeks and had to have a c-section under general anaesthetic. Almost a month later, my baby boy, Casper, is still in the NICU but one silver lining of this whole ordeal is that the gvt introduced new statutory NICU leave in April of this year…
October 11, 2025 at 12:47 PM
I had a terrifying placental abruption at 32 weeks and had to have a c-section under general anaesthetic. Almost a month later, my baby boy, Casper, is still in the NICU but one silver lining of this whole ordeal is that the gvt introduced new statutory NICU leave in April of this year…
More tales from the NICU: someone was vaping yesterday
October 4, 2025 at 6:19 AM
More tales from the NICU: someone was vaping yesterday
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
New season of "In the Same Vein" has launched!!
My wonderful (graduated) master's student Jan and I interview @agnesjuliet.bsky.social about surgical myths and stereotypes & why a historian's perspective is vital in health policy and practice, among other topics!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
My wonderful (graduated) master's student Jan and I interview @agnesjuliet.bsky.social about surgical myths and stereotypes & why a historian's perspective is vital in health policy and practice, among other topics!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
S2: On Surgical Stereotypes with Agnes Arnold-Forster, PhD
Podcast Episode · In the Same Vein · 10/01/2025 · 44m
podcasts.apple.com
October 1, 2025 at 2:49 PM
New season of "In the Same Vein" has launched!!
My wonderful (graduated) master's student Jan and I interview @agnesjuliet.bsky.social about surgical myths and stereotypes & why a historian's perspective is vital in health policy and practice, among other topics!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
My wonderful (graduated) master's student Jan and I interview @agnesjuliet.bsky.social about surgical myths and stereotypes & why a historian's perspective is vital in health policy and practice, among other topics!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
Society has reached such a state of disrepair that people are watching TikToks with no headphones in the NICU
As if having a very premature baby isn’t stressful enough
As if having a very premature baby isn’t stressful enough
September 25, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Society has reached such a state of disrepair that people are watching TikToks with no headphones in the NICU
As if having a very premature baby isn’t stressful enough
As if having a very premature baby isn’t stressful enough
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
September 16, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
I'm speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Monday 13th October with novelist Georgi Gospodinov and psychologist Catherine Loveday!
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/nosta...
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/nosta...
Nostalgia: A Dangerous Emotion? | Cheltenham Festivals
Once diagnosed as a deadly illness, nostalgia now shapes everything from personal memory to political movements. Novelist Georgi Gospodinov, historian Agne
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org
September 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I'm speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Monday 13th October with novelist Georgi Gospodinov and psychologist Catherine Loveday!
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/nosta...
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/nosta...
And! We bought a house today! Completed on this 1970s gem in South London
September 12, 2025 at 10:44 AM
And! We bought a house today! Completed on this 1970s gem in South London
Off to do some filming for German TV about nostalgia!
The German cover might - among stiff competition - be my favourite
The German cover might - among stiff competition - be my favourite
September 12, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Off to do some filming for German TV about nostalgia!
The German cover might - among stiff competition - be my favourite
The German cover might - among stiff competition - be my favourite
I love these illustrations from a 1980s pamphlet on pre-term labour so much
September 5, 2025 at 11:14 AM
I love these illustrations from a 1980s pamphlet on pre-term labour so much
It’s pouring with rain, but I just ate a ripe fig off a tree in south London
September 4, 2025 at 7:33 AM
It’s pouring with rain, but I just ate a ripe fig off a tree in south London
Living temporarily with my mum while we’re between houses, and these are the kind of gems she comes home with 🌿
September 3, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Living temporarily with my mum while we’re between houses, and these are the kind of gems she comes home with 🌿
We're reading @jennycrane.bsky.social's fantastic article on the history of public consultation and health policy in our policy team's analysis/reading group at the Health Foundation this week! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Why the history of public consultation matters for contemporary health policy
Contemporary policy debates construct public involvement in England’s National Health Service as “new,” or as a practice dating back only as far as th…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 1, 2025 at 8:55 AM
We're reading @jennycrane.bsky.social's fantastic article on the history of public consultation and health policy in our policy team's analysis/reading group at the Health Foundation this week! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
This is a really excellent, well-argued piece from @jenniferthf.bsky.social on the unresolved "dualities" which plague English health policy - and how far we (still) are from any settled view on how the NHS should be run.
www.health.org.uk/features-and...
www.health.org.uk/features-and...
August 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
This is a really excellent, well-argued piece from @jenniferthf.bsky.social on the unresolved "dualities" which plague English health policy - and how far we (still) are from any settled view on how the NHS should be run.
www.health.org.uk/features-and...
www.health.org.uk/features-and...
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
There's a LOT of tragedy going on here, but can't help feeling the purest horror for poor Mrs Thackeray
🤰 Giving birth in 1818, full stop
🩺 Your Dr is widely blamed for the death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth weeks earlier
💀 Your Dr then SHOOTS HIMSELF while you are in labour
🤰 Giving birth in 1818, full stop
🩺 Your Dr is widely blamed for the death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth weeks earlier
💀 Your Dr then SHOOTS HIMSELF while you are in labour
August 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM
There's a LOT of tragedy going on here, but can't help feeling the purest horror for poor Mrs Thackeray
🤰 Giving birth in 1818, full stop
🩺 Your Dr is widely blamed for the death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth weeks earlier
💀 Your Dr then SHOOTS HIMSELF while you are in labour
🤰 Giving birth in 1818, full stop
🩺 Your Dr is widely blamed for the death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth weeks earlier
💀 Your Dr then SHOOTS HIMSELF while you are in labour
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
Following the decision to abolish NHS England, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social and @hughalderwick.bsky.social analyse the history of changes to NHS management, identify unresolved tensions that underpin them and set out implications for the latest round of reform.
Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9
Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9
August 26, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Following the decision to abolish NHS England, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social and @hughalderwick.bsky.social analyse the history of changes to NHS management, identify unresolved tensions that underpin them and set out implications for the latest round of reform.
Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9
Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9
My non-history job allowed me to write some history! (and its policy implications, ofc)
Following the decision to abolish NHS England, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social and @hughalderwick.bsky.social analyse the history of changes to NHS management, identify unresolved tensions that underpin them and set out implications for the latest round of reform.
Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9
Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9
August 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM
My non-history job allowed me to write some history! (and its policy implications, ofc)
I once set out to walk from my airbnb in a Nashville suburb to a coffee shop 14 minutes away and four (4) separate (very nice, well-meaning) people in their cars stopped to ask me why I was walking and if I was okay.
Bicycling in Nashville can be really demoralizing sometimes.
But at least we don't have to do this every day
But at least we don't have to do this every day
August 21, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I once set out to walk from my airbnb in a Nashville suburb to a coffee shop 14 minutes away and four (4) separate (very nice, well-meaning) people in their cars stopped to ask me why I was walking and if I was okay.
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
My first piece in the TLS — a review of a fantastic and pioneering new study of the Paris Commune’s afterlives in Britain and Ireland by @lauracforster.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/the-...
www.the-tls.com/history/the-...
The experiences of Communard refugees in Britain and Ireland
In 1886, Paschal Grousset, once a member of the executive committee of the Paris Commune, found himself troubled by Victorian Dublin’s food options.
www.the-tls.com
August 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
My first piece in the TLS — a review of a fantastic and pioneering new study of the Paris Commune’s afterlives in Britain and Ireland by @lauracforster.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/the-...
www.the-tls.com/history/the-...
How can the feet have already disappeared when I still have three months to go?
August 20, 2025 at 12:40 PM
How can the feet have already disappeared when I still have three months to go?
Researching "natural" childbirth in 1990s Britain and just enjoying it so so much
August 19, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Researching "natural" childbirth in 1990s Britain and just enjoying it so so much
I've written a fair bit about Henry Marsh's narrativization of his professional self, and how he confirms old myths, while also updating them for the more emotionally expressive cultures of the present day.
Will be watching, but maybe not enjoying
doi.org/10.7765/9781...
Will be watching, but maybe not enjoying
doi.org/10.7765/9781...
August 19, 2025 at 9:17 AM
I've written a fair bit about Henry Marsh's narrativization of his professional self, and how he confirms old myths, while also updating them for the more emotionally expressive cultures of the present day.
Will be watching, but maybe not enjoying
doi.org/10.7765/9781...
Will be watching, but maybe not enjoying
doi.org/10.7765/9781...
Reposted by Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster
'Feeling blue: Colour and the modern British hospital' is out! And it's free online (or a relatively affordable £25 hardback if you prefer print)! Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the research for this, from supporting site visits to reading drafts. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
www.manchesterhive.com
August 19, 2025 at 8:51 AM
'Feeling blue: Colour and the modern British hospital' is out! And it's free online (or a relatively affordable £25 hardback if you prefer print)! Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the research for this, from supporting site visits to reading drafts. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...