National Service Life Stories: Masculinity, Class, and the Memory of Conscription in Britain, by Peter Gurney, Matthew Grant and Joel Morley. As the title of this excellent book co-authored by Peter Gurney, Matthew Grant and Joel Morley suggests, its subject matter is not just national service, b

Laura Ugolini reviews 'National Service Life Stories: Masculinity, Class, and the Memory of Conscription in Britain', by Peter Gurney, Matthew Grant @mgrnt.bsky.social and Joel Morley @joelmorley.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

@academic.oup.com

History UK Research Event – Second Projects 13 January 2026, 14:30-17:00pm, in-person only;Wolfson NB01, Institute of Historical Research, London. What comes after the PhD or the first book project? Like bands struggling to craft that diffic…

History UK are running a fabulous looking event in ‘Second Projects’ at the IHR on 13 January. Details in the attached!
www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-uk-r...

My favourite is a collection of roads named after Churchill, Roosevelt, Montgomery, and - yes, still - Stalin, in Colchester.

The best Bee Gees tribute act in the world, bar none

At the risk of sounding sentimental, it's a bit of a dream come true to get to give this lecture. If family history, generational analysis or the ageing society is your thing, do consider signing up!

Lots of parallels being drawn with 2003, but the 1998 air strikes on Iraq might be a more relevant reference point

Morning swimming

Trident Seventy years ago, on an island off Australia, we started something we couldn’t finish. This is the story of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, Trident — why we have...

If you’ve ever wondered why Britain got a nuclear deterrent and why aren’t ever going to let it go, this episode of More Jam Tomorrow is for you.

morejamtomorrow.com/episode/trid...

Thanks! I ended up getting it through ILL…..

Validate User

New article!

'Seeing Women in the Early English and Dutch East India Companies' is now available as an Advance Article with Historical Research.

It's been years of work, but I'm proud of this one. I hope #earlymodern #skystorians enjoy it!

Some context below:

academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

Sacrilege! What would you want to do when you got of jail? You’d want to have some fun…

Niche political history question: Does anyone know if it’s possible to get the Tory policy statement ‘Britain Strong and Free’ from 1951 online. All I seem to be able to get is the piddly manifesto statement from Churchill….

Same!

Publication day!

National Service Life Stories is available via Oxford Scholarship Online NOW!

Print edition to follow in February.

I haven’t migrated as such, more wondering whether I might actually re-engage here….

'Personal' is fluid here, in a joint household with books spilling across rooms... We have fiction in an interrupted seam across our two studies; I have a flow of books between work and home that can never be anything than slightly off kilter.

Previously unknown cat in my garden

From Deborah Levy’s August Blue

I managed….

Knackered and ill after one of the most enjoyable welcome weeks I’ve ever had - I’m not sure I’m even up to a glass of fizz