Sadiah Qureshi
LightNews LightNews
banner
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Sadiah Qureshi
@sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
9.5K followers 540 following 1.1K posts
Little 🦈. Historian of race, science & empire. Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction (Penguin, 2025). Shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Trivedi Science Book Prize.🦤

Views own/No DMs
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/309254/vanished-by-qureshi-sadi
Posts Replies Media Videos
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Spot the difference.
Cover for Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction. Features an Asian man in a turban riding an elephant in the foreground with a Native and European figure to the side. Behind then stands a fossilised mastodon skeleton with tusks incorrectly placed facing outwards. A lone passenger pigeon is in the sky. The whole scene is depicted in an ornate frame with leaves intruding in the sky. In the top corner, where you would put a stamp, is the Penguin Books logo. The cover also features a quotation from the Financial Times review: ‘dark, persuasive, poetic’. Cover for the hardback version of Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction. Features an Asian man in a turban riding an elephant in the foreground with a Native and European figure to the side. Behind then stands a fossilised mastodon skeleton with tusks incorrectly placed facing outwards. A lone passenger pigeon is in the sky. The whole scene is depicted in an ornate frame with leaves intruding in the sky.
November 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
The strangest thing to have happened since Vanished arrived is that two finalists in Celebrity Traitors have read it! David wrote a lovely blurb while Nick read it as a Trivedi prize judge. Still amazed at where my roar has reached. 🐯

Expecting Alan or Cat to win tonight. To the roundtable!
Cover for Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction. Features an Asian man in a turban riding an elephant in the foreground with a Native and European figure to the side. Behind then stands a fossilised mastodon skeleton with tusks incorrectly placed facing outwards. A lone passenger pigeon is in the sky. The whole scene is depicted in an ornate frame with leaves intruding in the sky.
November 6, 2025 at 9:04 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Raymond Briggs used to address his fans as ‘horrible’ and sign off ‘with worst wishes’. As tempting as it would be to follow suit, odds are that most people would have no idea why it was such a huge compliment. Alas drearies. Alas.
Front cover to Fungus the Bogeyman. Fungus is dressed in an overcoat and checked scarf with slime oozing down the page below him.
November 5, 2025 at 1:45 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
After an utterly brutal week, I came across this jewel blooming from the roots of a dead tree. A much needed reminder of afterlives.
Very large fungus, with multiple blooms, growing tall in a lawn.
October 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
A far more critical review of a luxury fragrance brand than the ‘meh’ might suggest.

If you’d like to guess which one, I’ll post the answer in the morning.
Meh *** Good quality scents maybe suited to professors of literature or academics. Scents are serious but develop nicely.
October 15, 2025 at 9:29 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
A huge thanks to Chol Baker for this review. I’m honoured by all the people reading it and finding something worthwhile in my words. 🐯
chol baker ***** Verified Purchase Wonderful, elegant and wise Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2025 Format: Hardcover This is such a beautifully written book, fascinating, tragic yet hopeful. It drew me in from start to finish, it's depth is wonderfully thought provoking. Thank you.
October 13, 2025 at 8:31 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Surely an abomination 🤔
Pack of pecan and salted caramel blondies with a hint of Marmite.
October 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
In case you need some start of term motivation.
September 30, 2025 at 10:19 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Dr Whoot
A small toy owl in front of a model Tardis.
September 9, 2025 at 8:59 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
As a Brummie, I’m especially looking forward to speaking at the Birmingham Literature Festival in October. More information, and chance to book tickets, at the website below.

I’m also rather pleased by my placement here as the fount of writerly wisdom.

www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org
Poster with the text ‘Birmingham Literature Festival, Writers, Books, Ideas, 9-18 October, 2025’. The poster also features headshots of writers cascading down the page, like a river, with Sadiah Qureshi at the source of the river, and Kit De Waal at the forefront. One speaker has a tshirt with the words ‘Books Bab’.
August 1, 2025 at 11:22 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
The consequences of the ‘legitimate concerns’ fig leaf.
Two headlines from the Guardian. The first reads ‘UK riots More than 40% arrested for last summer's riots had been reported for domestic abuse’ The second reads: ‘Epping Before, I felt safe and the locals were nice': asylum seekers on how Epping protests have transformed daily life’
July 26, 2025 at 3:07 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Brown unicorn leaping with forelegs kicked up in the air.
July 19, 2025 at 10:41 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
An honour to give this keynote in the same lecture theatre where I used to have biology lectures as a 1st year undergraduate. A huge thanks to everyone, especially Helen.

Thanks also to a sister who could not be there, but was with me in spirit as she gave me this gift which I wore for my talk. 🐯
Tiny earrings depicting the front cover for Vanished. Features a nineteenth-century print with a fossilised mastodon skeleton, Asian elephant being ridden by a turbaned man, Native and colonial figures looking on. In the background is a mountainous landscape and there is also a single passenger pigeon in the sky. The whole scene is framed by an ornate frame and foliage.
July 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
CW: Rape

This story of a man recently convicted for a rape from 1967 contains a horrific detail. Jailed for life after two rapes in 1977, he was released after only 2 years when his lawyer said he was sexually frustrated due to an ‘ambitious and demanding’ wife.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘In 1977, he raped two women, aged 79 and 84, in their homes in Ipswich. He was convicted and originally jailed for life, but at an appeal doctors told the court the rapes arose due to sexual frustration arising from his marriage to an "ambitious and demanding" wife. The sentence was reduced and he spent only about two years in jail.’
July 2, 2025 at 10:55 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
One of those days.
A young tigress looking up and ahead at the sky against a backdrop of leafy green vegetation.
June 24, 2025 at 7:11 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Many years from now: Do you remember the first time you saw Pulp?

I was 25 years late to the disco, but it was in an arena full of ordinary people roaring, joyously celebrating, and singing themselves hoarse about being babies born into a different class. And I met a Tina there for her birthday. 🎂
Pulp in stage singing Tina, with a gigantic Tina sign in lights behind them on stage.
June 19, 2025 at 10:13 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Delighted to be home to find this gorgeous bouquet from Penguin to mark the publication of Vanished. This week has featured bereaved and recovering beloveds, the blessings of Eid and a packed book launch featuring David Olusoga and myself in conversation. Bearing the bad, and grateful for the good.
A bouquet of pink roses in full bloom, and other flowers in shades of pale green and white.
June 7, 2025 at 6:43 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Love’s Labour Launches with a roar! Thanks to many roarsome people I’ve gone from peasant to PhD, to Professor, and Penguin author with Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction out today. 🐅

Pls share, read, and help create a worthwhile world.
#WorldEnvironmentDay
#BookSky #HPS #Skystorians 🗃️
Book cover for Vanished. Features a nineteenth-century print with a fossilised mastodon skeleton, Asian elephant being ridden by a turbaned man, Native and colonial figures looking on. In the background is a mountainous landscape and there is also a single passenger pigeon in the sky. The whole scene is framed by an ornate frame and foliage. Below the book is the following text: A love letter to the astonishing ways of being that have survived past extinctions, and an exhortation to create a worthwhile world.
June 4, 2025 at 11:01 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
The last of the wisteria to add to the sustenance.
A small clutch of purple wisteria flowers against a background of green leaves.
June 4, 2025 at 2:48 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
🌱🌺🌸🌼🌱
A huge thanks to Penguin for giving me these seeded bookmarks to mark the publication of my book Vanished on Thursday. I’ll give them out at launch events to the first people buying the book, or bringing copies, so that they can grow wildflowers as they read about amazing ways of being.
🌱🌺🌸🌼🌱
Front and back designs for a bookmark. Front features the following text: ‘Extinction extinguishes ways of being: a coalescence of possibilities, a quickening of leaf, wing, scale, and bone into lives we call trees, bees, sharks, tigers, or human. Extinction isn't just a natural phenomenon: it's a political choice.’ Back features an image of the book’s front cover with the following text: 'A vital and important book’ DAVID OLUSOGA 'A marvellous, troubling, moving and important book lit with hope’ HELEN MACLONALD ‘Enthralling, devastating and yet empowering’ OLIVETTE OTELE Vanished An Unnatural History of Extinction Sadiah Qureshi Wildflower seeded bookmark. Plant and water me to grow.
June 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
As the blossoms fade, the bees are trying to make the most of spring abundance.
A bee visiting tiny white flowers on a tree.
May 28, 2025 at 10:41 AM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
This blossom faded a while ago, but it was gorgeous while it was here.
Pink cherry blossom in full bloom.
May 24, 2025 at 8:23 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction by moi (aka Professor Little Shark) is ready to land with a roar! 🦈

Grateful to roarsome David Olusoga, Helen Macdonald, and Olivette Otele for their kind words. 💚 🐯 💙

More info here. www.penguin.co.uk/books/309254...

#BookSky #Extinction #HistSci
May 21, 2025 at 5:16 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
Tiny me buying Puffin books would never have believed I would grow up to write a book for Penguin. I still have several puffin books in my library. Not only did I write a book for Penguin, but it has finally arrived in roarsome real life form.

Great time to preorder for 5 June launch (T-26 days).
An advance copy of the final hardback of Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction. Back cover featuring the following blurbs: Illuminating and disturbing in equal measure. A poignant and powerfully written account of the intellectual revolution that birthed the concept of extinction; a concept deployed to both justify and animate colonialism and even extermination. A vital and important book DAVID OLUSOGA AUTHOR OF BLACK AND BRITISH A marvellous, troubling, moving and important book lit with hope, Vanished is an intellectually acute history of both the idea and the reality of extinction. From the fates of entire peoples to the remains of a single bird in a museum, Qureshi illumines how our ideas of extinction have been forged and shaped by myriad things, from the intellectual debates of eighteenth-century naturalists to the brutal history of colonialism' HELEN MACDONALD, AUTHOR OF H IS FOR HAWK A compelling homage to living and extinct beings, Qureshi's masterpiece is a superbly written, urgent and heart-racing volume. Oftering a new path to understanding mass extinction is a stroke of genius. Vanished is enthralling, devastating and yet empowering OLIVETTE OTELE, AUTHOR OF AFRICAN EUROPEANS Page proofs and finished copies sitting together on a shelf.
May 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM
sadiahqureshi.bsky.social
TFW the inbox contains an ostensible ‘invitation’ that is nothing more than a transparent attempt to cover up awful nonsense.
Frasier, responding to a caller: ‘Roger, at Cornell University they have an incredible piece of scientific equipment known as the Tunneling Electron Microscope. Now, this microscope is so powerful that by firing electrons you can actually see images of the atom, the infinitesimally minute building blocks of our universe. Roger, if I were using that microscope right now, I still wouldn't be able to locate my interest in your problem.’
May 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM