Kevin Brown
@kevin-brown.bsky.social
The man behind the book about the man behind the mould.
Historian, writer, lecturer, archivist, author of books on history of medicine, military & maritime history, & Curator of Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum.
Historian, writer, lecturer, archivist, author of books on history of medicine, military & maritime history, & Curator of Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum.
Pinned
Kevin Brown
@kevin-brown.bsky.social
· Apr 20
Titanic, Ship of Lost Illusions: A Floating Microcosm of Edwardian Society, my latest book now out, a study of attitudes to class, race, gender & the cult of manliness exposed on one night as a ship went down: a book to remember www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.”
(John McCrae)
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.”
(John McCrae)
November 11, 2025 at 6:54 AM
“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.”
(John McCrae)
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.”
(John McCrae)
Keeper of the flame is a role that can feel like a solitary struggle to keep something uniquely special alive through the years but wonderfully worthwhile if it has inspired & enthused thousands, yet just as important is passing the brightly shining torch on to other safe hands
November 10, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Keeper of the flame is a role that can feel like a solitary struggle to keep something uniquely special alive through the years but wonderfully worthwhile if it has inspired & enthused thousands, yet just as important is passing the brightly shining torch on to other safe hands
Remembrance through identification with the past & the realisation that the men who went to war in 1914 are not dissimilar from their modern counterparts in an age when it is still war not peace in our time & the modern young man may be tested like his professional predecessors
November 9, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Remembrance through identification with the past & the realisation that the men who went to war in 1914 are not dissimilar from their modern counterparts in an age when it is still war not peace in our time & the modern young man may be tested like his professional predecessors
When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
(Charles Hamilton Sorley)
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
(Charles Hamilton Sorley)
November 8, 2025 at 11:23 PM
When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
(Charles Hamilton Sorley)
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
(Charles Hamilton Sorley)
The Men Who Marched Away, a musical tribute to the fallen of the Great War in contemporary song & modern settings to war poems at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel of St Peter & Paul, Greenwich
November 8, 2025 at 11:22 PM
The Men Who Marched Away, a musical tribute to the fallen of the Great War in contemporary song & modern settings to war poems at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel of St Peter & Paul, Greenwich
Timely to remember the importance of medicine in keeping both the armed forces & civilians healthy in the wars of the twentieth century, & repairing the damage done by conflict. Yet, paradoxically, war was good for medicine www.amazon.co.uk/Fighting-Fit... www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Fittest-of-t...
November 8, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Timely to remember the importance of medicine in keeping both the armed forces & civilians healthy in the wars of the twentieth century, & repairing the damage done by conflict. Yet, paradoxically, war was good for medicine www.amazon.co.uk/Fighting-Fit... www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Fittest-of-t...
Friend of members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, Joseph Wright of Derby used his mastery of tenebrism to depict the mystery, romance, wonder & even horror of the new science associated with the Age of Enlightenment
November 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Friend of members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, Joseph Wright of Derby used his mastery of tenebrism to depict the mystery, romance, wonder & even horror of the new science associated with the Age of Enlightenment
The number of times over my long career I have been referred to or addressed as “alchemist” rather than “archivist” is a reminder that I have never managed to extract gold through my labours though I have worked with unique & priceless archives & produced precious enlightenment
November 7, 2025 at 3:22 PM
The number of times over my long career I have been referred to or addressed as “alchemist” rather than “archivist” is a reminder that I have never managed to extract gold through my labours though I have worked with unique & priceless archives & produced precious enlightenment
Some visitors to the Alexander Fleming Laboratory (& some of the volunteer guides) see me as an exhibit in myself & part of the exhibition experience to bring the past alive
November 6, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Some visitors to the Alexander Fleming Laboratory (& some of the volunteer guides) see me as an exhibit in myself & part of the exhibition experience to bring the past alive
“A young man has strong imagination but poor judgment, so that he imagines others to be as big as he is but considers himself to be very small. He has unbounded trust in the universe but is constantly unsure of himself” (Marcel Proust). Do we become any less vulnerable with age?
November 6, 2025 at 6:41 PM
“A young man has strong imagination but poor judgment, so that he imagines others to be as big as he is but considers himself to be very small. He has unbounded trust in the universe but is constantly unsure of himself” (Marcel Proust). Do we become any less vulnerable with age?
“The Makropulos Case”, Janáček’s exploration of the realisation of the tedium & isolation of immortality evoking the Prague of Rudolph II into the composer’s own time, does not need the Royal Opera House addition of a 2025 narrative layer of lesbianism, murder & gimicky text messages
November 4, 2025 at 10:44 PM
“The Makropulos Case”, Janáček’s exploration of the realisation of the tedium & isolation of immortality evoking the Prague of Rudolph II into the composer’s own time, does not need the Royal Opera House addition of a 2025 narrative layer of lesbianism, murder & gimicky text messages
Pleased to receive an invitation to Hertford College gaudy on 28 March 2026 & then I realised it is the day I fly back from Japan after guest lecturing on Celebrity Millennium. A frantic black-tie-clad dash from airport to college in time for dinner seems unrealistic so sadly one I’ll miss.
November 4, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Pleased to receive an invitation to Hertford College gaudy on 28 March 2026 & then I realised it is the day I fly back from Japan after guest lecturing on Celebrity Millennium. A frantic black-tie-clad dash from airport to college in time for dinner seems unrealistic so sadly one I’ll miss.
“How can we know the dancer from the dance?” (W.B. Yeats). The difficulty of distinguishing between performer & performance applies to all creative work & its interpretation
November 4, 2025 at 7:02 AM
“How can we know the dancer from the dance?” (W.B. Yeats). The difficulty of distinguishing between performer & performance applies to all creative work & its interpretation
Industrial buildings in the nineteenth century had an elegance related to their function as at Kew Bridge Waterworks, displaying a pride in progress, industrial technology & design of the age
November 2, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Industrial buildings in the nineteenth century had an elegance related to their function as at Kew Bridge Waterworks, displaying a pride in progress, industrial technology & design of the age
"Hither the heroes & the nymphs resort, to taste awhile the pleasures of a Court; in various talk th' instructive hours they past … interprets motions, looks, and eyes; at every word a reputation dies". (Alexander Pope)
November 2, 2025 at 2:32 PM
"Hither the heroes & the nymphs resort, to taste awhile the pleasures of a Court; in various talk th' instructive hours they past … interprets motions, looks, and eyes; at every word a reputation dies". (Alexander Pope)
I challenge stereotypes of the role of women on Titanic with a talk on dutiful wives & heroic women in a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read more on the subject
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
November 2, 2025 at 11:24 AM
I challenge stereotypes of the role of women on Titanic with a talk on dutiful wives & heroic women in a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read more on the subject
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
Find out how a shy bibliophile emerged from the sinking of Titanic as a new kind of hero in one of a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read about Harry Widener first www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
November 2, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Find out how a shy bibliophile emerged from the sinking of Titanic as a new kind of hero in one of a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read about Harry Widener first www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
Victor Peñasco’s iconic smoking suit of 1912, kept as a relic after the young dandy was lost on Titanic & now a museum exhibit, would still look stylish & elegant today but is perhaps too flamboyant to be reimagined as an inspiration for the modern man’s evening wear
November 2, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Victor Peñasco’s iconic smoking suit of 1912, kept as a relic after the young dandy was lost on Titanic & now a museum exhibit, would still look stylish & elegant today but is perhaps too flamboyant to be reimagined as an inspiration for the modern man’s evening wear
I will return to a consideration of manliness & heroism on Titanic with a talk on a hero in a tuxedo in a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read more on the subject www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
November 2, 2025 at 11:21 AM
I will return to a consideration of manliness & heroism on Titanic with a talk on a hero in a tuxedo in a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read more on the subject www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
The stories of the shattered illusions of some of the lesser known passengers on Titanic explored in a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read about them first www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
November 2, 2025 at 11:15 AM
The stories of the shattered illusions of some of the lesser known passengers on Titanic explored in a series of enrichment lectures at sea, on ‘Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions’, Celebrity Millennium, Japan 16-28 March 2026. Read about them first www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship...
Sad to hear of the demolition of West Stanley Board School. My grandfather was a pupil there in the early 1900s. I was only there for a year but I have some happy memories of it, even though the 1891-99 buildings were outdated even then in the early 1970s.
November 2, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Sad to hear of the demolition of West Stanley Board School. My grandfather was a pupil there in the early 1900s. I was only there for a year but I have some happy memories of it, even though the 1891-99 buildings were outdated even then in the early 1970s.
At an ENSA concert A Naval Occasion at Drury Lane broadcast by the BBC Forces Programme on 25 June 1940, the singing of “Land of Hope & Glory” by Evelyn Laye, chairman of the Naval Section of ENSA, was emotionally charged on the day of the Fall of France with invasion now feared
November 2, 2025 at 7:47 AM
At an ENSA concert A Naval Occasion at Drury Lane broadcast by the BBC Forces Programme on 25 June 1940, the singing of “Land of Hope & Glory” by Evelyn Laye, chairman of the Naval Section of ENSA, was emotionally charged on the day of the Fall of France with invasion now feared
There is an ethical difference between the display with the consent of his family of Victor Peñasco’s smoking suit, not with him when he was lost on Titanic, & the salvaged soiled suit of an anonymous victim though it seems intrusive & voyeuristic to exhibit such personal effects
November 1, 2025 at 10:38 AM
There is an ethical difference between the display with the consent of his family of Victor Peñasco’s smoking suit, not with him when he was lost on Titanic, & the salvaged soiled suit of an anonymous victim though it seems intrusive & voyeuristic to exhibit such personal effects
The closer visitors get to Fleming’s laboratory, the greater the build up of a sense of wonder on a journey through amazing spaces & time to a very special & unique place which changed the world of health & medicine
November 1, 2025 at 7:56 AM
The closer visitors get to Fleming’s laboratory, the greater the build up of a sense of wonder on a journey through amazing spaces & time to a very special & unique place which changed the world of health & medicine
After giving a seminar for them on the discovery of penicillin, I was asked by postgraduate microbiology students whether I was a historian or bacteriologist. My jokey answer was I must be bad at both, but I have had to learn & understand the science involved to communicate it.
October 31, 2025 at 8:47 PM
After giving a seminar for them on the discovery of penicillin, I was asked by postgraduate microbiology students whether I was a historian or bacteriologist. My jokey answer was I must be bad at both, but I have had to learn & understand the science involved to communicate it.