Join the ‘Author Credibility Society’, folks. Desperate times call for desperate book scams.
Hallie Rubenhold
@hallierubenhold.bsky.social
Author of The Five, historian and a bit of TV. Story of A Murder: The Wives, The Mistress and Dr Crippen’s Crime of the Century on bookshelves March 2025. https://linktr.ee/hallierubenhold
Are you in Cornwall next week? I am! I’ll be at Waterstones Truro on the night of Monday the 10th discussing Story of a Murder. Please come along!
This comment wins the Most-British-Comment-Of-The-Day Award.
I know Tate are skint. But it's one thing not competing on salary with Louvre Abu Dhabi or the Met, and another not competing with a delivery gig at Papa John's pizza.
No matter what you think of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, it would never have been made without a load of people who valued and were trained in the arts and humanities.
On that note, how many of us came to love classical music through Bugs Bunny? My point is: you don't have to come to these subjects through traditional channels! There are many ways into art and history and music.
Dr Lindsey Fitzharris@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 2w agoSome academics turn up their noses at movie adaptations or popular history books, but I call them "gateway drugs" into deeper scholarship. How many of us fell in love with history because a movie (or book) sparked our curiosity first? For me, it was Amadeus - it sent me down an 18thC rabbit hole.
For those of you already planning into next year, I’ll be giving a special lecture on February 10th, 2027 at @greshamcollege.bsky.social on behalf of the #RoyalSocietyofLiterature about restoring lost voices to history and how it can be done. www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/big...
Big Little Lives: Recovering the Histories of Everyone Else
In the 21st century, we no longer see history as the ‘great deeds of great men’ but seek to understand the stories of the marginalised or ‘silent majority’. Yet how do we recover and tell these storie...
gresham.ac.uk
It's funny how no-one ever asks where the money is coming from when you announce a cut in immigration.
WE ARE THE DEAD Out Spring 2027 Preorder now...
Currently reading the diary of a French 11 year old in 1793 & loving it Summary: Hate having my portrait done, so boring Went to the palace and saw a really mangy rabbit, YUCK My tutor tells me I've got to stop picking my nose Also Marat has been murdered
I have huge news to share - Sea of Darkness will be my next book! The background research to write the proposal alone has taken me a year. Now the real work begins! The Bookseller goes on to say…
On graduating medical school, Arthur Conan Doyle drew himself waving a diploma over his head with a caption: "Licensed to Kill." My book SLEUTH-HOUND is about Doyle's professor, Joseph Bell, who became the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Available for preorder: linktr.ee/drlindseyfitzharris
There are many things I often find quite surreal about being a well-known author, but few match that slightly creepy feeling when a stranger (with the help of AI) has written your ‘biography’ and is selling it online. Never mind the AI generated photo on the cover that looks nothing like you.
Despite the heat playing havoc with my focus, 'Story of a Murder' kept 100% of my attention. I consumed (too much?) true crime as a teen, and I was steeped in the Belle Elmore was a terrible wife/harridan narrative. Just like 'The Five', @hallierubenhold.bsky.social has rewired my brain again.
The Farage spectacle is evidence that, for a certain type of person, the absolute worst thing you can do is make them declare income and possibly maybe pay some tax
Of course he was going to interfere in the World Cup. Win by any means. Tilt the table. Load the dice.
UK #DEAL ALERT! One clickers unite because STORY OF A MURDER @hallierubenhold.bsky.social is on #sale on #Kindle UK for today only! amzn.to/4oZLgRK #StoryofaMurder #ad #amazonuk
Story of a Murder: The instant Sunday Times bestseller by the author of THE FIVE
On 1 February, 1910, vivacious music-hall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.
amzn.to
Another week, another journey on an over-heated train without air conditioning, only 2 working toilets, no trolley service and broken plug sockets. The train before and the train after this one have been cancelled. Great work #EastMidlandRail. Making us all proud.
It’s paperback day for #StoryofaMurder ! In honour of that, let’s answer a few questions about the Crippen murder… hop aboard…
Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵
The bonfire of the humanities
150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences
technosphere.earth
After writing #StoryofaMurder I will never again be able to take Kwells without thinking of these two.
My advice to Andy Burnham as a fellow Humanities degree holder: before you take proffered advice (with which you will be inundated), use your degree’s critical skills. Which interests are being represented, with what evidence, intent and financial backing, for example? To whose benefit?
The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · last mo.My advice to Andy Burnham as a former head of the armed forces
Welcome aboard #southwesternrailways where the rolling stock is so old that the air conditioning breaks when it’s too hot outside (or so I’ve been told). Inside temp is at least 30. we’ve been given water. I’ve got a 2 hour journey ahead of me.
The Shedunnit podcast is nichey and wonderful, and this episode with the great Hallie Rubenhold is particularly fascinating. Give it a listen. @shedunnitshow.bsky.social @hallierubenhold.bsky.social pca.st/episode/e8ad...
pca.st
They seem to genuinely think that these jobs "don't count" because they're "posh" and therefore expendable. All while our university and creative sectors bring in billions 😡
I read a really interesting article that posited that humanities subjects are one of the main avenues to teaching critical thinking about narratives (and the best line of defence again propaganda)... and if you look at it thru that lens you could see why those in authority consider it "useless"
If young people are being taught by society/government messaging/their parents/schools that they won't be able to make a living if they study a humanities subject we are creating a vicious cycle. We must ask who does this messaging serve and why is our society buying into it?
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3
If you asked me, off the top of my head, to name a non-Oxbridge university in England synonymous with excellence in the Humanities - I would probably think of Exeter first. This feels like a very deliberate, targeted and ideological Bonfire of the Humanities
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3