NEW: 'How to be an SOE operative' - Russell Shanks finds lessons in a series of videogames: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2026/09/16/h...

How to be an SOE Operative – five lessons from videogames - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY

Russell Shanks on how SOE-related games suggest skills needed to be a successful SOE operative According to Adam Chapman, videogames offer players the opportunity to embody and play as historical figu...

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk

Delighted to be speaking at the Second World War Research Group's Global Seminar Series on 8 Sept. I'll be talking about the experiences of British servicewomen in SWW Egypt and Sri Lanka. Info here: www.swwresearch.com/post/gendere...

Gendered experiences of the Second World War - Global Seminar Series

We are delighted to announce the next event in our online global seminar series. Please join us for an online panel discussion on gendered experiences of the Second World War on Tuesday 8 September fr...

swwresearch.com

'S' turns the corner, 'B' takes the lead. 'A' watches 'B' till its safe to proceed. From a Second World War MI5 manual for 'Watchers'. Source: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1...

It’s the last week to see Emergency Exits at the Imperial War Museum, which explores decolonisation in Kenya, Cyprus and Malaya and which I was lucky enough to consult on as a part of a team of imperial historians. Go and see it if you can — it’s really great!

Emergency Exits: The Fight for Independence in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus

At the end of the Second World War, a wave of independence movements swept the British Empire. Emergency Exits focuses on three often overlooked independence movements. These were brutal conflicts bet...

iwm.org.uk

NEW on the project blog: Ash Percival-Borley visits the crypt at Saints Cyril and Methodius, Prague, an important site in SOE history: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2026/03/09/t...

The crypt at Saints Cyril and Methodius, Prague - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY

Ash Percival-Borley visits an important site in SOE history I recently had the opportunity to visit the cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague. My partner is Polish, and after visiting fami...

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk

NEW on the blog - @ashpercival-borley.bsky.social on the pioneering wartime intelligence officer Vera Atkins and the hidden role of secretaries in the secret war: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2026/02/25/v...

Vera Atkins: a custodian of Secrets - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY

Ash-Percival Borley on the pioneering wartime intelligence officer and the hidden role of secretaries in the secret war A woman in a tailored burgundy skirt-suit stepped off a bus on Baker Street, Lon...

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk

Hey! Scholars! If you're using someone's work in your class, sometimes it's nice to email them and tell them, because then they might feel good about their research instead of entirely crushed by the academic humanities' ongoing descent into the grave

spotted in Stockwell, London - plaque commemorating SOE's Violette Szabo

🎬 SSEES Film Festival! Vol 1: "Resistance" will bring a powerful lineup of films that explore courage, resilience and the fight for change. Screenings are free and open to all. 🗓️ 25 Feb - 25 March 📍 UCL Main campus ➡️ Register for free: www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...

join @modernistudies.bsky.social! 3 PGR Rep roles are available, see below for a blog post from @lilyvmartin.bsky.social & yours truly about our time as reps so far.

British Association for Modernist Studies (BAMS)@modernistudies.bsky.social · 8mo ago

This is also a good time to mention that nominations are open for *5* positions on the BAMS committee & *3* postgraduate representative roles. To apply see here bams.ac.uk & for an idea of what being a PGR Rep involves, see a blog from our reps here: modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2025/12/20/b...

NEW book by Guy Woodward: Imagining Yugoslavia in Mid-Century British and Irish Writing features chapter on special forces memoirs including accounts by Fitzroy Maclean and Jasper Rootham of their time in occupied Yugoslavia. Published today by OUP: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

How have History Workshop Journal articles been used to teach history over the past 50 years? From the French Revolution, to policing in early modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight the HWJ archive as a valuable resource within many different classrooms.

HWJ in the Classroom

From histories of the French Revolution, to policing in Early Modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight HWJ as a valuable resource across many different classrooms.

historyworkshop.org.uk

theconversation.com/doubts-about... I wrote a little something!

Doubts about women in combat don’t stand up to history

A person’s gender does not matter on the battlefield, and history agrees.

theconversation.com

From the Archives of the Political Warfare Executive, June 1943. Outline of Resistance Methods to be Encouraged amongst Belgian Workers in Germany: psywarorg.substack.com/p/outline-of...

Me entering class like ...

👑 The King's Dinner 🍰 will be out this June. It's our attempt at a truly digital history monograph. Our goal is to tell history. Our approach was to apply digital humanities methods to our historical questions. I think we've done a good job, and I hope you like it. uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...

The King’s Dinner

The King’s Dinner is about what it meant to be British at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on a large, open dataset of two royal household kitchen ledgers, the authors study the role and inf...

uclpress.co.uk

Academics outside the UK: If your undergrads are considering an MA degree, tell them about these int'l scholarships that Durham University offers! As co-Director of our 1-year program in English, I'm happy to answer questions. Deadline for scholarship: 16 January. 📚✨ www.durham.ac.uk/study/schola...

“Without @chekistmonitor.bsky.social's research, the literary works of Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence officers, and the tenacious anti-Western propaganda purpose behind them, would remain a shadow outside Russia.” Kevin Riehle, Brunel University London Learn more: bit.ly/3LALXBG #KGB

CFP - please share! 'The Hidden Second World War: Cultural Depictions of Irregular Warfare and Covert Action'. Abstracts by 1 February 2026 soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/cfp/

Hanna Szenes park (and cafe), Budapest. How many other locations or buildings are named after SOE figures?

NEW publication from Guy Woodward: Imagining Yugoslavia in Mid-Century British and Irish Writing features chapter on special forces memoirs including accounts by Fitzroy Maclean and Jasper Rootham of their time in occupied Yugoslavia. Coming January 2026 from OUP: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

CFP - please share! 'The Hidden Second World War: Cultural Depictions of Irregular Warfare and Covert Action'. Abstracts by 1 February 2026 soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/cfp/

CFP (please share!): Our digital literary heritage is rapidly being lost, from 1990s hypertext sites to 2010s digital humanities projects. _A Field Guide to Modernisms_ seeks to spread awareness, document at-risk projects, and brainstorm solutions. Abstracts by February 2: www.shawnaross.com/cfp/.

In person & online! A talk about our newly opened exhibition 'John Le Carré: Tradecraft': visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/... Co-curators Jessica Douthwaite & Federico Varese & the Bodleian's Head of Public Engagement will discuss JLC's archive & the development of this exciting exhibition

Tradecraft: The Exhibition

Join us at the Weston Library or online for a talk from the curators of the Weston Library’s latest exhibition, John Le Carré: Tradecraft

visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

NEW on the blog: Russell Shanks's top 5 clunkiest SOE videogames: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/10/09/5...

5 Most Disappointing SOE Videogames - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY

Russell Shanks chooses the clunkiest SOE-related games Adapting of historical episodes into videogames presents both challenges and opportunities. Scholars such as Adam Chapman and Esther Wright have ...

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk

THE SOE and British Culture@covertcultures.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW on the SOE and British Culture blog: Russell Shanks's Top 5 SOE Videogames: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/09/08/t...

📚 Congratulations to @rorycormac.bsky.social on the publication of his new co-edited book 'Covert Action: National Approaches to Unacknowledged Intervention' 📖 Read more here🔗 tinyurl.com/3cdbynaa ℹ️ Find out more about Rory and his research 🔗 nottingham.ac.uk/politics/people/rory.cormac

NEW on the blog: as MI6 chief Richard Moore retires, Guy Woodward on the troubled relations between MI6 and SOE: soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/09/30/a...

'Amateur, dangerous and bogus': SIS-SOE relations - THE SOE, COVERT ACTION, AND THE BRITISH CULTURAL IMAGINARY

Guy Woodward explores social media posts by the outgoing head of SIS and considers the fractious wartime relations between the agency and SOE Posting on X in July this year Sir Richard Moore, head of ...

soeandbritishculture.webspace.durham.ac.uk

Anything missing?

Move over, Miss Marple.

Hooray, my copy finally arrived! It’s the first attempt to compare states’ approaches to what our US friends call covert action My own personal conclusion is “covert action” is dumb and when talking about wider practice beyond US legal codes we should use “unacknowledged interference”