Matthew Kelly
@matthewjkelly.bsky.social
Historian of Britain & Ireland at Northumbria University. Beginning new work on the history of ornithology in twentieth-century Britain.
Thought Anna Funder’s Wifedom brilliant. Perhaps the most effective dissection of patriarchy I’ve read. Here’s some reasons why I liked it as a historian.
November 11, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Thought Anna Funder’s Wifedom brilliant. Perhaps the most effective dissection of patriarchy I’ve read. Here’s some reasons why I liked it as a historian.
Exhibit A. Originally my aunt’s copy. Cover became detached quite recently. It’ll be somewhere…
Note published by Puffin and editor named.
Note published by Puffin and editor named.
October 16, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Exhibit A. Originally my aunt’s copy. Cover became detached quite recently. It’ll be somewhere…
Note published by Puffin and editor named.
Note published by Puffin and editor named.
Published 75 years ago today. These early 80s covers remain so evocative for me. The shaggy hair (Aslan’s too), the knitwear, and the gorgeous burnished colouring. I can see now the children represent a middle-class, mildly boho ideal. Who doesn’t want Peter’s jumper?
October 16, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Published 75 years ago today. These early 80s covers remain so evocative for me. The shaggy hair (Aslan’s too), the knitwear, and the gorgeous burnished colouring. I can see now the children represent a middle-class, mildly boho ideal. Who doesn’t want Peter’s jumper?
Read 1000s of pages of this guy & still can’t decide if he‘s any good. The thought essays are sophmoronic, & the supernatural aspects in this one tedious, but the quotidian banalities & anti-style style do compel, though Claire Lowdon’s take in the TLS hits a target. Is this reading as scrolling?
October 11, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Read 1000s of pages of this guy & still can’t decide if he‘s any good. The thought essays are sophmoronic, & the supernatural aspects in this one tedious, but the quotidian banalities & anti-style style do compel, though Claire Lowdon’s take in the TLS hits a target. Is this reading as scrolling?
Subsequent editions. I prefer the second, though lived with the Jack Yeats original for years.
October 10, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Subsequent editions. I prefer the second, though lived with the Jack Yeats original for years.
This is from the Addison Report on National Parks (1931).
He was not wrong.
He was not wrong.
October 6, 2025 at 10:36 AM
This is from the Addison Report on National Parks (1931).
He was not wrong.
He was not wrong.
Interesting / troubling. Not read the report. Are they claiming biodiversity gains bc brings some of that intensively farmed field into the development? Need cast iron guarantees no additional pollution impact on river, stretch falls within development. Much increased footfall, plus dogs & cats.
October 3, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Interesting / troubling. Not read the report. Are they claiming biodiversity gains bc brings some of that intensively farmed field into the development? Need cast iron guarantees no additional pollution impact on river, stretch falls within development. Much increased footfall, plus dogs & cats.
I wrong about this. Still the Big Garden Birdwatch, though the small
print is more inclusive.
print is more inclusive.
September 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
I wrong about this. Still the Big Garden Birdwatch, though the small
print is more inclusive.
print is more inclusive.
Great North Run is a major event in the portaloo calendar
September 5, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Great North Run is a major event in the portaloo calendar
Packaging. Product.
Thanks Apple.
Thanks Apple.
September 2, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Packaging. Product.
Thanks Apple.
Thanks Apple.
Scene from the epilogue to The King and Conqueror.
September 1, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Scene from the epilogue to The King and Conqueror.
Signifiers of empire, colonialism, national self-defence, squaddies, officers, food systems, timber security, deep time, & risk to the walker…
September 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Signifiers of empire, colonialism, national self-defence, squaddies, officers, food systems, timber security, deep time, & risk to the walker…
Just seen Close Encounters at the cinema. Fascinating to see the rookie Spielberg practising his tricks while showing his influences. Welles✔️Hitchcock✔️70s supernatural horror✔️Fellini’s 81/2 maybe, a Bond baddie’s lair surely… childhood innocence, yes, …
August 10, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Just seen Close Encounters at the cinema. Fascinating to see the rookie Spielberg practising his tricks while showing his influences. Welles✔️Hitchcock✔️70s supernatural horror✔️Fellini’s 81/2 maybe, a Bond baddie’s lair surely… childhood innocence, yes, …
Comms infrastructure 1975. Neat insight into range of public & private users of communications infrastructure. Positioning on the tower reflected political priorities.
July 31, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Comms infrastructure 1975. Neat insight into range of public & private users of communications infrastructure. Positioning on the tower reflected political priorities.
Prog rock album cover or image of rural dilapidation from the CPRE Annual Report 1970?
July 31, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Prog rock album cover or image of rural dilapidation from the CPRE Annual Report 1970?
So, you can hire a bike at Pentewan beach and follow the disused railway up the St Austell to…
June 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
So, you can hire a bike at Pentewan beach and follow the disused railway up the St Austell to…
Polish exit poll.
Not ideal.
🤞
Not ideal.
🤞
June 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Polish exit poll.
Not ideal.
🤞
Not ideal.
🤞
From the Author’s Note to Nussaibah Younis, ‘Fundamentally’.
Ha ha!
Ha ha!
March 23, 2025 at 9:22 AM
From the Author’s Note to Nussaibah Younis, ‘Fundamentally’.
Ha ha!
Ha ha!
In response to @tonydartmoor.bsky.social’s blog about the ecological issues raised by swaling on Dartmoor, here’s a brief clip of freshly burnt moor on Hameldown, above Widecombe.
March 8, 2025 at 12:34 PM
In response to @tonydartmoor.bsky.social’s blog about the ecological issues raised by swaling on Dartmoor, here’s a brief clip of freshly burnt moor on Hameldown, above Widecombe.
Giving a talk to the Plymouth branch of the @histassoc.bsky.social on March 4th.
‘Rural Subtopia? Regulating #Dartmoor in the 1950s and 60s.’
Come for illegal adverts, tipping & caravans, abandoned cars, ‘eyesores’, & the wirescape.
Details here: ha-plymouth.org.uk/index.php?id=2
‘Rural Subtopia? Regulating #Dartmoor in the 1950s and 60s.’
Come for illegal adverts, tipping & caravans, abandoned cars, ‘eyesores’, & the wirescape.
Details here: ha-plymouth.org.uk/index.php?id=2
February 20, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Giving a talk to the Plymouth branch of the @histassoc.bsky.social on March 4th.
‘Rural Subtopia? Regulating #Dartmoor in the 1950s and 60s.’
Come for illegal adverts, tipping & caravans, abandoned cars, ‘eyesores’, & the wirescape.
Details here: ha-plymouth.org.uk/index.php?id=2
‘Rural Subtopia? Regulating #Dartmoor in the 1950s and 60s.’
Come for illegal adverts, tipping & caravans, abandoned cars, ‘eyesores’, & the wirescape.
Details here: ha-plymouth.org.uk/index.php?id=2