Dr Fern Riddell
@drfernriddell.bsky.social
Historian. Author. On your TV/Radio.
**Victoria’s Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen OUT NOW**
Expert: Suffragette Terrorism, Music Hall, 19thC Sex + Culture, Queen Victoria & John Brown.
www.fernriddell.com
https://lnk.to/victoriassecretbook
**Victoria’s Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen OUT NOW**
Expert: Suffragette Terrorism, Music Hall, 19thC Sex + Culture, Queen Victoria & John Brown.
www.fernriddell.com
https://lnk.to/victoriassecretbook
Pinned
Victoria's Secret
Go to Victoria's Secret.
lnk.to
Thank you for the lovely reaction to ‘Queen Victoria: Secret Marriage, Secret Child?’. It’s not easy to distill a 140,000 word book into 58 mins, but Impossible Factual did a fantastic job. And if you want to know EVERYTHING I’ve found, Victoria’s Secret came out today: lnk.to/victoriassec...
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
It takes an obscene amount of hubris to lecture the BBC when you have The Telegraph’s record on truth-telling.
Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
The Telegraph’s BBC hypocrisy
A paper that knows a thing or two about editorial f*ck-ups...
writesbright.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:48 PM
It takes an obscene amount of hubris to lecture the BBC when you have The Telegraph’s record on truth-telling.
Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
i feel like this is a reasonable take that i would have held pre-2024 (the BBC did screw up therefore there should be accountability) but the fact that this trivial editing mistake should have such terrible consequences, while right wing media lies with impunity constantly, makes my head explode
Exactly, so the BBC didn't need to shoot themselves in the reputation by editing it that way. But they did, and here we are
He explicitly encouraged the Capitol riot
November 10, 2025 at 9:29 AM
i feel like this is a reasonable take that i would have held pre-2024 (the BBC did screw up therefore there should be accountability) but the fact that this trivial editing mistake should have such terrible consequences, while right wing media lies with impunity constantly, makes my head explode
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
For the story of Kitty Marion and a detailed picture of the extent of such ‘Suffragette Outrages’ see @drfernriddell.bsky.social's ‘Death in Ten Minutes’.
November 11, 2025 at 8:03 AM
For the story of Kitty Marion and a detailed picture of the extent of such ‘Suffragette Outrages’ see @drfernriddell.bsky.social's ‘Death in Ten Minutes’.
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
11 November 1913 In the early hours, a bomb destroyed the cactus house at Alexandra Park Manchester, planted by Suffragette Kitty Marion. This was part of an escalating, violent campaign of bombs, arson, and chemical attacks, by the WSPU under the direction of Christabel Pankhurst.
November 11, 2025 at 8:02 AM
11 November 1913 In the early hours, a bomb destroyed the cactus house at Alexandra Park Manchester, planted by Suffragette Kitty Marion. This was part of an escalating, violent campaign of bombs, arson, and chemical attacks, by the WSPU under the direction of Christabel Pankhurst.
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
I mean, what kind of legal action would this be exactly? Defamation? I would truly love to see it. 'They made it look like I instigated a coup during my very well recorded coup attempt.'
The US president has sent a letter to the corporation threatening legal action.
Donald Trump Preparing To Sue BBC Over Panorama Speech Row
The US president has sent a letter to the corporation threatening legal action.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM
I mean, what kind of legal action would this be exactly? Defamation? I would truly love to see it. 'They made it look like I instigated a coup during my very well recorded coup attempt.'
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
Excellent essay here on the slow strangling of mass literary culture in the West - most clearly in the US, but it's obviously happening here too
November 9, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Excellent essay here on the slow strangling of mass literary culture in the West - most clearly in the US, but it's obviously happening here too
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
At her first interviews in 1906, 6ft 2 Lady Wrestler Miss Juno May huffed that she wished people would "stop asking if she was a woman suffragist" - confirming she wasn't.
V. fun that she may have JUST missed meeting Kitty Marion (see @drfernriddell.bsky.social Death in Ten Minutes) in 1907! 💥
V. fun that she may have JUST missed meeting Kitty Marion (see @drfernriddell.bsky.social Death in Ten Minutes) in 1907! 💥
November 8, 2025 at 10:42 AM
At her first interviews in 1906, 6ft 2 Lady Wrestler Miss Juno May huffed that she wished people would "stop asking if she was a woman suffragist" - confirming she wasn't.
V. fun that she may have JUST missed meeting Kitty Marion (see @drfernriddell.bsky.social Death in Ten Minutes) in 1907! 💥
V. fun that she may have JUST missed meeting Kitty Marion (see @drfernriddell.bsky.social Death in Ten Minutes) in 1907! 💥
Proud to see @meghamohan.bsky.social commitment to important LGBTQ+ & women’s stories has upset the telegraph. Read her determined coverage of the horrific murder of Agnes Wanjiru here: www.bbc.com/news/article... and preorder Megha’s debut book, Herlands, here: www.penguin.co.uk/authors/3047...
Megha Mohan
Megha Mohan is the BBC’s first global gender and identity correspondent. She covers issues concerning women’s rights, LGBT communities, race and ethnicity, for the BBC’s 43 language services worldwide...
www.penguin.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Proud to see @meghamohan.bsky.social commitment to important LGBTQ+ & women’s stories has upset the telegraph. Read her determined coverage of the horrific murder of Agnes Wanjiru here: www.bbc.com/news/article... and preorder Megha’s debut book, Herlands, here: www.penguin.co.uk/authors/3047...
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
Fresh from The Traitors, David Olusoga’s new series about the British Empire starts on BBC2 in 10 minutes
November 7, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Fresh from The Traitors, David Olusoga’s new series about the British Empire starts on BBC2 in 10 minutes
So I’ve been working in TV for nearly 14 years, and for the first time yesterday (on a shoot) I had to bring my passport to prove my right to work in the UK.
Does anyone have any more info on why this is, I was told there’s ’new legislation’?
Does anyone have any more info on why this is, I was told there’s ’new legislation’?
November 8, 2025 at 9:58 AM
So I’ve been working in TV for nearly 14 years, and for the first time yesterday (on a shoot) I had to bring my passport to prove my right to work in the UK.
Does anyone have any more info on why this is, I was told there’s ’new legislation’?
Does anyone have any more info on why this is, I was told there’s ’new legislation’?
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
November 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
New episode coming tomorrow! Catch up with the first episode of UPRISING: THE CIVIL WARS now… play.megaphone.fm/quvuyhkqs66t...
November 3, 2025 at 5:17 PM
New episode coming tomorrow! Catch up with the first episode of UPRISING: THE CIVIL WARS now… play.megaphone.fm/quvuyhkqs66t...
I don't understand why this isn't front page news everywhere:
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Shame on Sheffield Hallam www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Shame on Sheffield Hallam www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I don't understand why this isn't front page news everywhere:
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Shame on Sheffield Hallam www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Shame on Sheffield Hallam www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
'To erase or distort history is not benign' ... this talk by Rev Dr Brown Douglas is chiming with the book I just finished by @drfernriddell.bsky.social about Queen Victoria.....
Destruction of history is a violent act
Destruction of history is a violent act
October 28, 2025 at 7:34 PM
'To erase or distort history is not benign' ... this talk by Rev Dr Brown Douglas is chiming with the book I just finished by @drfernriddell.bsky.social about Queen Victoria.....
Destruction of history is a violent act
Destruction of history is a violent act
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
Ps folks, if you haven't read 'Victoria's Secret: The private passion of a Queen' by the ever brilliant @drfernriddell.bsky.social, get that shit on your crimbo reading list, it is bloody brilliant, and a bit heartbreaking, but also AWESOME HISTORY DETECTING
October 28, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Ps folks, if you haven't read 'Victoria's Secret: The private passion of a Queen' by the ever brilliant @drfernriddell.bsky.social, get that shit on your crimbo reading list, it is bloody brilliant, and a bit heartbreaking, but also AWESOME HISTORY DETECTING
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
Worth saying that despite asking for more than 12 hours we’ve had nothing back from Labour on this
A Conservative MP tipped as a future party leader has been condemned for saying large numbers of legally settled families must be deported, in order to ensure the UK is mostly “culturally coherent”.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Tory MP criticised after demanding legally settled families be deported
Katie Lam said move would make UK ‘culturally coherent’ and that a large number of people ‘need to go home’
www.theguardian.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Worth saying that despite asking for more than 12 hours we’ve had nothing back from Labour on this
Absolutely obsessed with this, someone check in with Nicholas Cage immediately
October 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Absolutely obsessed with this, someone check in with Nicholas Cage immediately
*😱 in historian*
LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace says Prince Andrew to stop using titles and honors, including the Duke of York.
October 17, 2025 at 6:20 PM
*😱 in historian*
Charles Dickens is the worst thing to happen to the Victorian Novel. Mary Elizabeth Braddon for life.
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
October 13, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Charles Dickens is the worst thing to happen to the Victorian Novel. Mary Elizabeth Braddon for life.
Reposted by Dr Fern Riddell
I did not know that Glasgow played a pivotal role in Rocky Horror!
![Let’s talk about “Rocky Horror.” Can you describe how you created the look for Frank-N-Furter?
I didn’t really create it myself. I was grimly unaware when I read the role and started to rehearse it that the national costume of Transylvania was a corset and whatever else you put with it. But the costume designer, Sue Blane, had worked with me before in a remarkable repertory theatre in Glasgow, Scotland, called the Citizens Theatre, where we had done a production of “The Maids,” by Jean Genet. I played one of the rather grubby sisters, Solange. And Sue designed that outfit. For “Rocky Horror,” she went to a market in Glasgow called the Barras, where all kinds of crap was sold, and she found a Victorian corset for three pounds. I wore it back to front. [Laughs.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:shdw3l2h45azoktqglngl4yq/bafkreih5zy5hxv5ajv2jhdvh5houcriyijrcy72d6hrsbwtq7yxb5rjndi@jpeg)
October 13, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I did not know that Glasgow played a pivotal role in Rocky Horror!
Secrets of Cambridge 'porn' library revealed www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/...
October 13, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Secrets of Cambridge 'porn' library revealed www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/...