Helen McCarthy
@historianhelen.bsky.social
Cambridge Historian, London-dweller, author of Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood, now writing the social history of retirement for Penguin/Allen Lane. https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/people/prof-helen-mccarthy
An evening on Southbank with the peerless Zadie Smith. She talked about needing love - as opposed to critical attention and good faith - from readers as antithetical to honest writing, but we loved her anyway.
November 2, 2025 at 9:31 PM
An evening on Southbank with the peerless Zadie Smith. She talked about needing love - as opposed to critical attention and good faith - from readers as antithetical to honest writing, but we loved her anyway.
The foyer at the National Archives is currently home to a Slow Horses/Netflix tie-in MI5-themed display, but honestly there aren’t sufficient numbers of empty whiskey bottles or discarded takeaway containers to be truly convincing.
October 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
The foyer at the National Archives is currently home to a Slow Horses/Netflix tie-in MI5-themed display, but honestly there aren’t sufficient numbers of empty whiskey bottles or discarded takeaway containers to be truly convincing.
Really enjoyed talking to alumni yesterday about my not-yet-but-very-soon-to-be-written book, Living the Dream: The Rise and Fall of Retirement. As ever, the topic sparked the sharing of some fascinating personal and family stories about later life. (Am I a historian or just incredibly nosey?)
October 12, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Really enjoyed talking to alumni yesterday about my not-yet-but-very-soon-to-be-written book, Living the Dream: The Rise and Fall of Retirement. As ever, the topic sparked the sharing of some fascinating personal and family stories about later life. (Am I a historian or just incredibly nosey?)
Today, in the company of my youngest daughter, I sketched Gainsborough and Matisse at the National Gallery. I have no talent, no technique, but it was a glorious hour of quiet, self-forgetting creativity. I highly recommend it.
September 21, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Today, in the company of my youngest daughter, I sketched Gainsborough and Matisse at the National Gallery. I have no talent, no technique, but it was a glorious hour of quiet, self-forgetting creativity. I highly recommend it.
I don’t know much about Maria Caulfield and others are better placed to judge the significance of her defection to Reform, but this statement gave me a little jolt (as I was - am? - one of those people)
September 16, 2025 at 11:16 AM
I don’t know much about Maria Caulfield and others are better placed to judge the significance of her defection to Reform, but this statement gave me a little jolt (as I was - am? - one of those people)
Husband and self’s current bedtime reading.
September 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Husband and self’s current bedtime reading.
Read WG Sebald's Austerlitz (2001) for the first time. Wow. Hard to think of another contemporary novel whose pages shimmer with such profound feeling and insight. Of course, it is a book about many things: one is how what we think of as 'history' impedes our deeper understanding of the past.
August 20, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Read WG Sebald's Austerlitz (2001) for the first time. Wow. Hard to think of another contemporary novel whose pages shimmer with such profound feeling and insight. Of course, it is a book about many things: one is how what we think of as 'history' impedes our deeper understanding of the past.
Nicely played by the Royal Shakespeare Company gift shop.
August 16, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Nicely played by the Royal Shakespeare Company gift shop.
My mother, 79, has knitted my daughter, 12, a replica of the iconic cardigan worn by Harry Styles. Let this day henceforth be known as HARRY STYLES CARDIGAN DAY.
August 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
My mother, 79, has knitted my daughter, 12, a replica of the iconic cardigan worn by Harry Styles. Let this day henceforth be known as HARRY STYLES CARDIGAN DAY.
Thanks to my daughter, I have means of retaliation. I shall think on it.
August 2, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Thanks to my daughter, I have means of retaliation. I shall think on it.
Who IS this person by whom my opposite neighbour believes I should be greeted every time I look out of my bedroom window? Are they famous? Should I recognise them?
August 2, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Who IS this person by whom my opposite neighbour believes I should be greeted every time I look out of my bedroom window? Are they famous? Should I recognise them?
In 1908, means-tested, non-contributory Old Age Pensions were introduced in Britain, payable from the age of 70. Here, incredibly, are photographs of two of the first citizens to claim them (plus a dog).
August 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
In 1908, means-tested, non-contributory Old Age Pensions were introduced in Britain, payable from the age of 70. Here, incredibly, are photographs of two of the first citizens to claim them (plus a dog).
Also, these (reader, I did not buy them):
July 19, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Also, these (reader, I did not buy them):
Interesting comparison that Irvine Welsh draws between chain-smoking and phone addiction: will the latter look as curiously self-destructive to us when depicted on screen in 50 years?
July 11, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Interesting comparison that Irvine Welsh draws between chain-smoking and phone addiction: will the latter look as curiously self-destructive to us when depicted on screen in 50 years?
Daughter brought this home. Hard to know what to say, other than: M&S, how could you?
July 8, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Daughter brought this home. Hard to know what to say, other than: M&S, how could you?
A pensioner gives her verdict on an organised excursion to Cambridge, early 1960s: the colleges were dirty, she disliked the fish and chips, but the cemetery was fun.
July 2, 2025 at 7:13 AM
A pensioner gives her verdict on an organised excursion to Cambridge, early 1960s: the colleges were dirty, she disliked the fish and chips, but the cemetery was fun.
And here's my final one (and favourite): this beady-eyed gentleman is drawing his old age pension at Shipbourne Road Post Office in Tonbridge, 1935
June 30, 2025 at 8:10 PM
And here's my final one (and favourite): this beady-eyed gentleman is drawing his old age pension at Shipbourne Road Post Office in Tonbridge, 1935
Meanwhile intense scenes at the counter at Crawley:
June 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Meanwhile intense scenes at the counter at Crawley:
Oh golly, the Sixties have arrived: it's a DRIVE-THROUGH Post Office in Leicester (1961)
June 30, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Oh golly, the Sixties have arrived: it's a DRIVE-THROUGH Post Office in Leicester (1961)
It's all smiles at Mount St Post Office, London
June 30, 2025 at 7:59 PM
It's all smiles at Mount St Post Office, London
Also Bromley. How much excitement can you take?
June 30, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Also Bromley. How much excitement can you take?
Crazy party girl that I am, this evening I have been mostly looking at photographs of Post Office interiors from the post-war decades. This is Bromley, 1956. You're welcome.
June 30, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Crazy party girl that I am, this evening I have been mostly looking at photographs of Post Office interiors from the post-war decades. This is Bromley, 1956. You're welcome.
A decade later, the BPTUAA was increasing the pressure on government to stop the 'winter slaughter' of the elderly through action on heating costs.
June 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
A decade later, the BPTUAA was increasing the pressure on government to stop the 'winter slaughter' of the elderly through action on heating costs.
In 1982, older Britons picketed gas and electricity showrooms and the British Pensioners Trade Union Action Association delivered a petition bearing 1m signatures to Downing St calling for an end to standing charges for this group.
June 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
In 1982, older Britons picketed gas and electricity showrooms and the British Pensioners Trade Union Action Association delivered a petition bearing 1m signatures to Downing St calling for an end to standing charges for this group.
Very much enjoyed My Master Builder. Outstanding performances from Kate Fleetwood & Elizabeth Debicki. Reviewers are correct that Ewan Macgregor underwhelms as the titular architect; but once you realise that the play isn’t really about him, his pedestrian talent seems fitting for the role.
June 4, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Very much enjoyed My Master Builder. Outstanding performances from Kate Fleetwood & Elizabeth Debicki. Reviewers are correct that Ewan Macgregor underwhelms as the titular architect; but once you realise that the play isn’t really about him, his pedestrian talent seems fitting for the role.