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
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Remind me: was this the company that stole my work?
And the work of thousands of other writers?
And the work of thousands of other writers?
“She compares her work to the efforts of a parent raising a child. She’s training Claude to detect the difference between right and wrong while imbuing it with unique personality traits.”
This Philosopher Is Teaching AI to Have Morals
The tech company has entrusted the philosopher to endow its chatbot with a sense of right and wrong.
www.wsj.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Remind me: was this the company that stole my work?
And the work of thousands of other writers?
And the work of thousands of other writers?
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
This is why the regular engine idling from drivers at school pick up and drop off should not be happening. You might be keeping warm, but at what cost to all the other children who get the pleasure of breathing it in as they walk to school. Especially bad for young lungs. Please don't do it. 🙏
I inhaled traffic fumes to find out where air pollution goes in my body
BBC health correspondent James Gallagher gets his blood analysed to understand how air pollution is killing us.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 9, 2026 at 3:57 PM
#BirminghamHistory a new addition to Preservica Universal Access is a cine film of 1930s Moseley by Dr Colin Bradsworth - founder member of the Birmingham Clarion Singers who was a medical officer during the Spanish Civil War: tinyurl.com/MS-5210-Mose... Ref: MS 5210 #LibraryofBham
February 9, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Join us tomorrow to hear about political entanglements of prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe and world famous writer George Orwell, beginning with Childe's inclusion by Orwell on a secret government list of suspected crypto-Communists and Communist sympathisers. www.sal.org.uk/event/orwell...
February 9, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
For half-term, next Tuesday I’m doing a fun kids’ event at @southbankcentre.bsky.social in London — I’ll be doing a funny talk on the history of Roman Britain, and my ace illustrator @rikinparekh.bsky.social will do a live draw-along tutorial
Tix cheap!
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/tot...
Tix cheap!
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/tot...
February 9, 2026 at 12:19 PM
For half-term, next Tuesday I’m doing a fun kids’ event at @southbankcentre.bsky.social in London — I’ll be doing a funny talk on the history of Roman Britain, and my ace illustrator @rikinparekh.bsky.social will do a live draw-along tutorial
Tix cheap!
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/tot...
Tix cheap!
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/tot...
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
It's 6 years since I wrote this piece and got quite a reaction.
Anxiety is always circling, but I've found some methods for regulating it.
For me, close proximity to nature, proven practices (yoga, saunas etc) and drugs.
Loads of drugs.
www.theguardian.com/books/2020/j...
Anxiety is always circling, but I've found some methods for regulating it.
For me, close proximity to nature, proven practices (yoga, saunas etc) and drugs.
Loads of drugs.
www.theguardian.com/books/2020/j...
'I was half-insane with anxiety': how I wrote myself into a breakdown
After exhausting himself with work, author Benjamin Myers was sent over a literal edge and into the River Derwent. He recalls his recovery and hunt for a cure
www.theguardian.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 PM
It's 6 years since I wrote this piece and got quite a reaction.
Anxiety is always circling, but I've found some methods for regulating it.
For me, close proximity to nature, proven practices (yoga, saunas etc) and drugs.
Loads of drugs.
www.theguardian.com/books/2020/j...
Anxiety is always circling, but I've found some methods for regulating it.
For me, close proximity to nature, proven practices (yoga, saunas etc) and drugs.
Loads of drugs.
www.theguardian.com/books/2020/j...
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Tomorrow on @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social at 3:20pm: “Something in City” (1950) where a city gent leads a double life as a bohemian artist. We featured it in ep 24 and art historian #DavidBoydHaycock talked about a real life Soho bohemian artist, #AugustusJohn sohobitespodcast.com/episode/24
Excerpt from Soho Bites episode 24
YouTube video by Soho Bites Podcast
youtu.be
February 9, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Tomorrow on @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social at 3:20pm: “Something in City” (1950) where a city gent leads a double life as a bohemian artist. We featured it in ep 24 and art historian #DavidBoydHaycock talked about a real life Soho bohemian artist, #AugustusJohn sohobitespodcast.com/episode/24
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Jeffrey Epstein of Epstein Island...
Peter Mandelson of the Epstein Files...
Wes Streeting of the Puberty Blocker ban...
Tim Allen of "Sex Matters"...
What lovely people!
Peter Mandelson of the Epstein Files...
Wes Streeting of the Puberty Blocker ban...
Tim Allen of "Sex Matters"...
What lovely people!
February 9, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Jeffrey Epstein of Epstein Island...
Peter Mandelson of the Epstein Files...
Wes Streeting of the Puberty Blocker ban...
Tim Allen of "Sex Matters"...
What lovely people!
Peter Mandelson of the Epstein Files...
Wes Streeting of the Puberty Blocker ban...
Tim Allen of "Sex Matters"...
What lovely people!
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Part of a classic sequence of photographs and film: 'Members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps carrying wreaths to place on the graves of British soldiers buried at Abbeville, 9 February 1918.' Photo: David McLellan. IWM Q 8471. www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
February 9, 2026 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
My dad said ‘What are you going to do with a history degree?’
Look at this, dad!
Look at this, dad!
Not at all surprised to learn that Bad Bunny has a historical adviser. His halftime show was a reminder that our history and culture are deeply intertwined with the rest of the western hemisphere. We should think of his performance as part of #America250. #SuperBowl
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.
Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
news.wisc.edu
February 9, 2026 at 12:05 PM
My dad said ‘What are you going to do with a history degree?’
Look at this, dad!
Look at this, dad!
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Just discovered Mandelson’s reaction to our first report he’d leaked government emails:
February 9, 2026 at 11:35 AM
Just discovered Mandelson’s reaction to our first report he’d leaked government emails:
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
February 8, 2026 at 10:23 PM
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
🏳️🌈 Gay Life during the Norwich Blitz by Piers Haslam. Join us for our next lunchtime talk marking LGBT+ history month, either in person or online.
📅 Wednesday 11 February 2026
⏲️ 13:00-14:00
🎫 Free, booking essential norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/events-novem...
#norwichintheblitz #lgbthistorymonth
📅 Wednesday 11 February 2026
⏲️ 13:00-14:00
🎫 Free, booking essential norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/events-novem...
#norwichintheblitz #lgbthistorymonth
February 9, 2026 at 9:02 AM
🏳️🌈 Gay Life during the Norwich Blitz by Piers Haslam. Join us for our next lunchtime talk marking LGBT+ history month, either in person or online.
📅 Wednesday 11 February 2026
⏲️ 13:00-14:00
🎫 Free, booking essential norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/events-novem...
#norwichintheblitz #lgbthistorymonth
📅 Wednesday 11 February 2026
⏲️ 13:00-14:00
🎫 Free, booking essential norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/events-novem...
#norwichintheblitz #lgbthistorymonth
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
It's been clear for some time that sustained use of AI for knowledge work de-motivates and de-skills. Even among academics, the last population I'd expect to allow such atrophy, folks are now reduced to playing cynical games with the language machine and justifying it via the grant hamster wheel.
NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson explores the growing evidence that AI isn't just changing what students produce – it's changing what their brains are ready to do, and asks whether HE can redesign itself around a question it has been avoiding for decades buff.ly/uHtisNU
February 9, 2026 at 9:17 AM
It's been clear for some time that sustained use of AI for knowledge work de-motivates and de-skills. Even among academics, the last population I'd expect to allow such atrophy, folks are now reduced to playing cynical games with the language machine and justifying it via the grant hamster wheel.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
A man, and evidently sick bastard, called Russell Edwards (Jack the Ripper Experience on FB, well known in press for nonsense identity takes) has used the post-mortem photo of Elizabeth Stride and AI-d it to make her look alive and talking. Too much, too far. What on EARTH is going through his head?
February 9, 2026 at 9:42 AM
A man, and evidently sick bastard, called Russell Edwards (Jack the Ripper Experience on FB, well known in press for nonsense identity takes) has used the post-mortem photo of Elizabeth Stride and AI-d it to make her look alive and talking. Too much, too far. What on EARTH is going through his head?
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Last year saw fantastic support for the move of GREAT GRIMSBY DAY, to the Charter Day of 11 March. This year we're looking for more of you to join in. Grimsby was made great by the ordinary men and women who made it to the end of each working day and we want to celebrate them.
February 9, 2026 at 9:23 AM
Last year saw fantastic support for the move of GREAT GRIMSBY DAY, to the Charter Day of 11 March. This year we're looking for more of you to join in. Grimsby was made great by the ordinary men and women who made it to the end of each working day and we want to celebrate them.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
How we say things in writing is a large part of *what we are saying*, and yes, that embraces the differences and delights of writing in a second language, using unfamiliar words and concepts, it embraces errors! All of it. It's us on a page and handing that over seems to me intellectually bereft.
I've pointed out before there's going to be a cost to pay for that sustained usage. People think the cost is expressed in energy use, or social capital. Nah, you're paying those too, but you're also handing a chunk of intellectual labour over to unthinking machines of loving grace, so, "GL".
February 9, 2026 at 9:22 AM
How we say things in writing is a large part of *what we are saying*, and yes, that embraces the differences and delights of writing in a second language, using unfamiliar words and concepts, it embraces errors! All of it. It's us on a page and handing that over seems to me intellectually bereft.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Last time I had my recycling collected, Joe Biden was still president
How is Birmingham's bin strike going to be resolved?
How is Birmingham's bin strike going to be resolved?
With no end in sight to the year long dispute the BBC looks at what has to happen for it to end.
www.bbc.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:19 AM
Last time I had my recycling collected, Joe Biden was still president
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
We’ve been warning about this since the start.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
The impacts of locking under 16 yos from their social media networks are now beginning to bite for those young people who relied on them for social connection
The impacts of locking under 16 yos from their social media networks are now beginning to bite for those young people who relied on them for social connection
‘I’ve lost my friends’: advocacy groups warn Australia’s social media ban risks isolating kids with disabilities
Despite the ban’s aim to protect young people, experts are concerned that those in marginalised communities or living with disabilities could lose vital support networks
www.theguardian.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:35 AM
We’ve been warning about this since the start.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
A Labour MP remarks: "Starmer will go down as the worst PM in Labour history ... He’s a coward who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions. He is a moral gravity-well from which neither decency, honesty or integrity can escape. A genuine disaster for this country and the Labour movement.”
February 8, 2026 at 10:13 PM
A Labour MP remarks: "Starmer will go down as the worst PM in Labour history ... He’s a coward who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions. He is a moral gravity-well from which neither decency, honesty or integrity can escape. A genuine disaster for this country and the Labour movement.”
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
Marc Bloch, historien et résistant juif, entrera au Panthéon le 23 juin
La date du 16 juin avait été dans un premier temps pressentie pour son entrée au Panthéon, mais la cérémonie a dû être décalée de quelques jours en raison du G7 à Evian-les-Bains.
www.lemonde.fr
February 8, 2026 at 7:02 PM
"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
Can’t wait for my swing through the UK to talk about queer women in Nazi Germany
Save the date! Sam Huneke @schuneke.bsky.social is coming to Glasgow to present his new book next month www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/ve...
Events | Goethe-Institut UK
Mon, 09.03.2026 – Samuel Clowes Huneke in Conversation
www.goethe.de
February 8, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Can’t wait for my swing through the UK to talk about queer women in Nazi Germany
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
I am also going to win, because I'm never going to wake up in the morning, stare into the empty eyes of the thing in the mirror, and realise I traded my soul and my children's world to make a small profit off slop.
I'm going to win.
February 8, 2026 at 4:21 PM
I am also going to win, because I'm never going to wake up in the morning, stare into the empty eyes of the thing in the mirror, and realise I traded my soul and my children's world to make a small profit off slop.
Reposted by Matt Houlbrook
I have spent the morning finding alternatives for our Amazon Subscribe & Save stuff.
I now need to find new services for audiobooks, music and TV. I'm determined not to renew our Prime subscription next month.
Non-fascist / planet-burning recommendations very welcome.
I now need to find new services for audiobooks, music and TV. I'm determined not to renew our Prime subscription next month.
Non-fascist / planet-burning recommendations very welcome.
February 8, 2026 at 1:57 PM
I have spent the morning finding alternatives for our Amazon Subscribe & Save stuff.
I now need to find new services for audiobooks, music and TV. I'm determined not to renew our Prime subscription next month.
Non-fascist / planet-burning recommendations very welcome.
I now need to find new services for audiobooks, music and TV. I'm determined not to renew our Prime subscription next month.
Non-fascist / planet-burning recommendations very welcome.