Doc Sarah Lonsdale
@sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social
Mostly books, history & nature. Politics, 48%. Lecturer, History of journalism at City University, London. My new book, Wildly Different, about women and the wild is out in the wild!
A Financial Times "Best Books" Summer 2025
Wrestling with another one
A Financial Times "Best Books" Summer 2025
Wrestling with another one
Pinned
Women's History Month - Evelyn Cheesman - Manchester University Press
To mark Women’s History Month and the publication of her new book Wildly different, we asked historian Sarah Lonsdale to profile the five pioneering women she focuses on, bringing their fascinating st...
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Who wants to read about the first woman keeper of insects at London Zoo, and how she cut her way out of a giant spider's web with her nail file? Evelyn Cheesman, the second of the five women in my book:
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/03...
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/03...
The right have always hated the BBC because, for all its faults, it isn't owned by a billionaire who would use it to get govt to do what he wants. Its founding principles, inspired by what dictators were already doing with radio in the 1920s, were to broadcast in the service of the British public.
November 10, 2025 at 9:56 AM
The right have always hated the BBC because, for all its faults, it isn't owned by a billionaire who would use it to get govt to do what he wants. Its founding principles, inspired by what dictators were already doing with radio in the 1920s, were to broadcast in the service of the British public.
Brexit: it was even worse than 'Project Fear' No wonder the UK is in such a mess.
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
November 10, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Brexit: it was even worse than 'Project Fear' No wonder the UK is in such a mess.
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …
November 10, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Archaeologists discovered a well-preserved stretch of a 14th century wooden road during excavation works at the Paardenmarkt in Antwerpen in Belgium.
📷stad Antwerpen
www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...
📷stad Antwerpen
www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...
November 9, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Archaeologists discovered a well-preserved stretch of a 14th century wooden road during excavation works at the Paardenmarkt in Antwerpen in Belgium.
📷stad Antwerpen
www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...
📷stad Antwerpen
www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...
The plane tree at the back of our house putting on a heart-stopping show this autumn
November 9, 2025 at 8:38 AM
The plane tree at the back of our house putting on a heart-stopping show this autumn
Secretly viewing neighbour's fireworks display through the trees. Hope they won't accuse me of stealing
November 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Secretly viewing neighbour's fireworks display through the trees. Hope they won't accuse me of stealing
It's just taken me five hours to make a pie. Along with everything else I'm losing culinary efficiency big time.
November 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
It's just taken me five hours to make a pie. Along with everything else I'm losing culinary efficiency big time.
Of course. Migrants tend to be young, energetic and ambitious. We could do with a bit more of all that here in the UK. I certainly could.
"Far from draining our welfare system, migrants are supporting the British state’s solvency."
New analysis by @lgilbert.co
ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...
New analysis by @lgilbert.co
ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...
November 8, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Of course. Migrants tend to be young, energetic and ambitious. We could do with a bit more of all that here in the UK. I certainly could.
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Pennine Way Tour Writings - Day 10 - Tan Hill to Middleton in Teesdale.
Earlier this year, I became the first person tour the Pennine Way. 17 shows, 19 days, 268 miles, carrying a guitar and performing along the route.
Read day 10, as we reach the halfway point 👇
www.patreon.com/posts/138725...
Earlier this year, I became the first person tour the Pennine Way. 17 shows, 19 days, 268 miles, carrying a guitar and performing along the route.
Read day 10, as we reach the halfway point 👇
www.patreon.com/posts/138725...
November 7, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Pennine Way Tour Writings - Day 10 - Tan Hill to Middleton in Teesdale.
Earlier this year, I became the first person tour the Pennine Way. 17 shows, 19 days, 268 miles, carrying a guitar and performing along the route.
Read day 10, as we reach the halfway point 👇
www.patreon.com/posts/138725...
Earlier this year, I became the first person tour the Pennine Way. 17 shows, 19 days, 268 miles, carrying a guitar and performing along the route.
Read day 10, as we reach the halfway point 👇
www.patreon.com/posts/138725...
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Publishers, publicity peeps, take note, I'm back in the saddle for Wigtown Book Festival 2026. Please send catalogues, AI sheets, proofs. Using Programme@Wigtownbookfestival.com email again (after a year off). Writers, please have publishers get in touch! www.wigtownbookfestival.com/blog/welcome...
Wigtown Book Festival | Welcome Return of Festival Programmer Lee…
Lee is a well-known figure in Scottish literature and media. Her role with will involve curating the 2026 Wigtown Book Festival programme.
www.wigtownbookfestival.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Publishers, publicity peeps, take note, I'm back in the saddle for Wigtown Book Festival 2026. Please send catalogues, AI sheets, proofs. Using Programme@Wigtownbookfestival.com email again (after a year off). Writers, please have publishers get in touch! www.wigtownbookfestival.com/blog/welcome...
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
This is what a New Era looks like.
November 5, 2025 at 11:57 PM
This is what a New Era looks like.
Found my frock for the grand opening of the East Wing Ballroom
November 6, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Found my frock for the grand opening of the East Wing Ballroom
Who's going to tell him that Anglo Saxons were part Danish, part German?
Another racism exclusive at @bylinetimes.bsky.social today
Reform's candidate for Mayor of Doncaster claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon ‘lineage’ and attacked ‘third world cultures’ in now-deleted posts
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/05/n...
Reform's candidate for Mayor of Doncaster claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon ‘lineage’ and attacked ‘third world cultures’ in now-deleted posts
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/05/n...
Nigel Farage's Chosen Reform Mayoral Candidate Suggested Black Britons Can’t Be English
The party's candidate for Mayor of Doncaster claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon 'lineage' and attacked 'third world cultures' in now-deleted posts
bylinetimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Who's going to tell him that Anglo Saxons were part Danish, part German?
You know you're getting old when your favourite pre-teen magazine you read as a kid is now available through the Social History Archive
November 5, 2025 at 10:56 AM
You know you're getting old when your favourite pre-teen magazine you read as a kid is now available through the Social History Archive
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Bloody foreigners coming over here and saving peoples lives.
November 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Bloody foreigners coming over here and saving peoples lives.
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Interested in the history of Seven Dials or London or the 1920s and 1930s? I'm doing some walking tours of the Dials with @stanfordstravel.bsky.social on Sat 15 Nov.
There's loads to see, but Seven Dials is so small you don't need to walk far.
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/songs...
There's loads to see, but Seven Dials is so small you don't need to walk far.
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/songs...
October 29, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Interested in the history of Seven Dials or London or the 1920s and 1930s? I'm doing some walking tours of the Dials with @stanfordstravel.bsky.social on Sat 15 Nov.
There's loads to see, but Seven Dials is so small you don't need to walk far.
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/songs...
There's loads to see, but Seven Dials is so small you don't need to walk far.
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/songs...
Spellbinding evening last night with Nature's Ghosts author Sophie Yeo, thanks to the Richard Jefferies Soc. We must reset our relationship with nature and welcome the wild back into our minds before it's too late. Unforgettable audio of how the wildwood sounded in the days of our distant ancestors
November 4, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Spellbinding evening last night with Nature's Ghosts author Sophie Yeo, thanks to the Richard Jefferies Soc. We must reset our relationship with nature and welcome the wild back into our minds before it's too late. Unforgettable audio of how the wildwood sounded in the days of our distant ancestors
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
This speech from Rachel Reeves is kind of frustrating because it shows that the Government can command the airwaves when it wants
That's something it has almost totally failed to do so far - over challenging racism, boosting the laws it has passed, tackling Reform, rebutting Tory ILR plans, etc etc
That's something it has almost totally failed to do so far - over challenging racism, boosting the laws it has passed, tackling Reform, rebutting Tory ILR plans, etc etc
November 4, 2025 at 8:21 AM
This speech from Rachel Reeves is kind of frustrating because it shows that the Government can command the airwaves when it wants
That's something it has almost totally failed to do so far - over challenging racism, boosting the laws it has passed, tackling Reform, rebutting Tory ILR plans, etc etc
That's something it has almost totally failed to do so far - over challenging racism, boosting the laws it has passed, tackling Reform, rebutting Tory ILR plans, etc etc
November, Snowdonia: nature and art
November 3, 2025 at 4:42 PM
November, Snowdonia: nature and art
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Will the RW media remember the driver and conductor of the Huntingdon attack, and how many lives they saved, the next time train companies try to eliminate staff and they strike, citing passenger safety?
November 3, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Will the RW media remember the driver and conductor of the Huntingdon attack, and how many lives they saved, the next time train companies try to eliminate staff and they strike, citing passenger safety?
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
#plants #history #botany #art 🌱
Erythroxylum coca - Coca (shrub)
🧵/1
And so here's the plant that's making my eye surgery possible. It gets a bad name but it's where most modern local anaesthetics originate. I've posted it before but I've a special interest this week.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
Erythroxylum coca - Coca (shrub)
🧵/1
And so here's the plant that's making my eye surgery possible. It gets a bad name but it's where most modern local anaesthetics originate. I've posted it before but I've a special interest this week.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
November 3, 2025 at 1:08 AM
#plants #history #botany #art 🌱
Erythroxylum coca - Coca (shrub)
🧵/1
And so here's the plant that's making my eye surgery possible. It gets a bad name but it's where most modern local anaesthetics originate. I've posted it before but I've a special interest this week.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
Erythroxylum coca - Coca (shrub)
🧵/1
And so here's the plant that's making my eye surgery possible. It gets a bad name but it's where most modern local anaesthetics originate. I've posted it before but I've a special interest this week.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.
November 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.
Shanawdithit's canoe and map, a short🧵: Shanawdithit was the last Newfoundland Beothuk, after Europeans hunted her people to extinction. Captured in 1823 and knowing she was dying ofTB, she spent her last years making artefacts to memorialise her people. I revisited her exquisite model canoe today 1
November 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Shanawdithit's canoe and map, a short🧵: Shanawdithit was the last Newfoundland Beothuk, after Europeans hunted her people to extinction. Captured in 1823 and knowing she was dying ofTB, she spent her last years making artefacts to memorialise her people. I revisited her exquisite model canoe today 1
Reposted by Doc Sarah Lonsdale
“As a non-climber I was surprised how much I enjoyed the vivid descriptions, cliff-hangers and humour as Andy leads the reader through his life’s ups and downs both in relationship with the mountains and personal ones too … a gem of a book”
#AYearOnTheEthels:ALifeInTheHills
#AYearOnTheEthels:ALifeInTheHills
November 2, 2025 at 8:40 AM
“As a non-climber I was surprised how much I enjoyed the vivid descriptions, cliff-hangers and humour as Andy leads the reader through his life’s ups and downs both in relationship with the mountains and personal ones too … a gem of a book”
#AYearOnTheEthels:ALifeInTheHills
#AYearOnTheEthels:ALifeInTheHills