Laura Tisdall

Positive humanity, when? Is masculinity worth saving? Women have demanded their humanity as full human beings; perhaps it is because this is a women’s demand that so much policy aimed at saving men and alleviating men’s suffering is instead focussed o...

Stop focusing on masculinity & masculine role models & start focusing on humanity & personhood, stop limiting the outline of what sort of people men can be, step outside the lines www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Gordon Burn Prize, 2026 I don’t normally follow the Gordon Burn Prize, even though it’s administered by New Writing North and always awarded in Newcastle! This year, however, the longlist caught my eye. The Go…

Wonderful to be at Northern Stage last night to see the Gordon Burn Prize awarded to a visibly thrilled Maria Reva for her debut novel ENDLING! I wrote about the ceremony here, as well as my thoughts on the six books from the longlist I've read: drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/t... #booksky

This is an intriguing longlist packed full of small presses, but I'm especially delighted to see Sheena Kalayil's brilliant THE OTHERS on the list, & I also v much enjoyed Elaine Castillo's MODERATION. And congrats also to Rozie Kelly whom I met via Arvon last autumn! #booksky

This is an intriguing longlist packed full of small presses, but I'm especially delighted to see Sheena Kalayil's brilliant THE OTHERS on the list, & I also v much enjoyed Elaine Castillo's MODERATION. And congrats also to Rozie Kelly whom I met via Arvon last autumn! #booksky

The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz Age-verification systems require collecting sensitive data to support the biometric information. In no time, the internet will become a fully surveilled digital panopticon, says technology journalist Taylor Lorenz

The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz

I'm speaking at this History UK event on second projects in Leeds on Monday 16th March if anyone's interested - free, but registration required ahc.leeds.ac.uk/events/event... #skystorians

@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social members are proud to teach students from around the world 🌍. But @northumbriauni.bsky.social plans to slash staff pay and pensions affect them too, as these words of fire 🔥and solidarity ✊from a student show. Happy staff = happy students: ucu-unn.org.uk/blogucu/327-...

The US and Israel are bombing Iran. Anyone reporting it as “preventive” is engaging in propaganda, by definition. There is no interpretation of what’s happening as anything else than a crime.

You don’t have to like the Iranian regime to understand why this is bad.

✊✊👉@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social are back on strike next week, all week. No-one wants to be, and no-one is asking for more than keeping what we have. For our communities, colleagues, and students, we will never accept the pay and pension injustice planned by management at @northumbriauni.bsky.social

... - although I continue to believe that good lit spec fic is possible! #booksky #sff 2/2

Super interesting - especially the section on different genres, which helps to explain why I so often find literary speculative fiction, focused on its characters' internal, symbolic journeys rather than the real possibilities of its world building, disappointing... 1/2

so will the greens get equal media coverage with reform now...

I’m under no illusions about the greens (you can’t write #EnvHist otherwise!) but my god we needed this - every election that proves you can win without being a raging transphobic xenophobic antisemitic islamophobic bigot is a huge win for all of us.

I'm speaking at this History UK event on second projects in Leeds on Monday 16th March if anyone's interested - free, but registration required ahc.leeds.ac.uk/events/event... #skystorians

Politics, Media, and the Representation of Chinese Youth Suicide and Melancholy (1930–1937) In the 1930s, Chinese media extensively reported on youth suicides, commonly attributing them to patriotism, academic pressure, and economic hardship. Adult commentators overwhelmingly condemned th...

Congratulations 🎉 to @jianhaoxu.bsky.social whose article below is available in @cultsochistory.bsky.social ahead of publication as #openaccess
I help supervise Jianhao with Joseph Lawson and @lauratisdall.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1080/1478...

Well done Jianhao!

Silence and Plurality: Emotions of Adolescent Suicide under 1930s Chinese Political Culture Jianhao Xu, Newcastle University. This blog accompanies Xu’s forthcoming article in Cultural and Social History.  The historical context examined in this study is the profound social and poli…

Jianhao has also written a short introduction to his article on the @socialhistsoc.bsky.social blog here: socialhistory.org.uk/shs_exchange...

Politics, Media, and the Representation of Chinese Youth Suicide and Melancholy (1930–1937) In the 1930s, Chinese media extensively reported on youth suicides, commonly attributing them to patriotism, academic pressure, and economic hardship. Adult commentators overwhelmingly condemned th...

Great to see my PhD student @jianhaoxu.bsky.social's first article out in @cultsochistory.bsky.social! It's a fascinating analysis of media reporting of young people's suicides in 1930s China & how young people themselves responded to this www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #histchild #skystorians

Reading Diary, January 24th to February 25th, 2026 Another overlapping Reading Diary, this time entirely due to The Starving Saints taking me So. Long. V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. One narrative strategy I love in speculative fic…

Reading Diary! Weird medieval horror in a locked-castle setting, a girl who can't be remembered, and some messy Gen X litfic. Guess which I liked best... drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/02/26/r... #booksky #sff #horror

A double bind? Our Better Natures by Sophie Ward Warning: academic feminist ranting Sophie Ward’s Our Better Natures is essentially three separate novellas doled out in pieces. Its central thread follows Phyllis, an ageing woman in Illinois…

New blog post! academic feminist ranting ahead! drlauratisdall.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/a... #booksky #fiction #amreading

*25% off even

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

The book is out! Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth Century Britain is on the shelves. Get yourself a 20% discount and use code GRANDY26 at www.cambridge.org/9781009650939

Hooray I've been waiting to read this for years! Ever since I heard your talk at the SHS conference back in maybe 2019? Congratulations!

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.

And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

100%!

*25% off even

And I obviously mean 25% off. Even better!

Thank you!

We Have Come to Be Destroyed by Laura Tisdall | Waterstones Buy We Have Come to Be Destroyed by Laura Tisdall from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

Waterstones link here: www.waterstones.com/book/we-have...

Waterstones flyer explaining the offer

Another chance to get 15% off WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED if you pre-order via @waterstones.bsky.social between 17 and 20 February using the code FEB26 at checkout. Takes the price down to just over £20! Also there are loads of other fab books in the pre-order offer #booksky #histchild