Catherine Fletcher

Hello Bluesky! My new book, THE FIREARM REVOLUTION, is out on 14 April. It’s about how a new technology changed society, and how hard it was to control. Here’s a little thread of what’s inside:

Next week, Sunday 8th November, @catherinefletcher.info will be at Hay Festival Arequipa in conversation with Juan Esteban Constaín. www.hayfestival.com/p-26025-cath...

went on Ocado to do some middle-class stockpiling and yes, this is just the sort of tinned fruit I will need in a crisis

excited to learn that the US has an entire chain of restaurants for cheesecake, my favourite dessert

Tonight at 7.30pm on Radio 3, I’m talking to Dr Rachel Johnson and Lt-Col Lauren Petritz-Watts about music and the military

The BBC routinely mentioning their "editorial guidelines" as an excuse for erasing any queer symbols but like... when (AND WAY) did that become a thing divas? Because this was last year

He should really be made to teach some generic second year skills module that all the students hate, AND do extra admin, ideally a particularly tedious target-driven bit

Amid all the various horrors of ai in publishing, I am pouring one out for the agents who are being flooded with AI submissions. My worry about that is partly that we'll get MORE nepotism, as people might be more tempted to trust their networks in the face of the deluge.

I would rather we did not have more cuts to higher education, but if they’re going to happen, UEA UCU have some good thoughts here on how to avoid (more) cold spots in provision

Excited by the "distinctively British" approach to AI, presumably we'll be nicking the bots from some other part of the world and allocating them by social class

did they hire Thomas Cromwell as consultant?

Preparing for Storm Austen by languishing on the sofa with a chill (true story)

You know how edited collections of academic essays can take a while to come out? Well, one of the contributors to this one died sixteen years ago.

Excited to welcome these brilliant scholars to our DU History Research Seminar this year: Prof @catherinefletcher.info, Dr @willpooley.bsky.social, Prof @jwhittle.bsky.social, Prof @emma-edin.bsky.social, Dr @shamaraw.bsky.social, Dr Holly Stephens, Dr @okhromeychuk.bsky.social & Prof Mark Bailey 📚

My essay on early firearms is now up @aeon.co

Opera North report: Rigoletto revival is excellent all round. Eugene Onegin okay but the production concept (80s Soviet) a bit half-baked and the leads though fine singers not entirely convincing as their characters.

For when you can't be bothered writing out your meme

I love it when institutions step up & face the challenges. And this is @ihr.bsky.social stepping up. Sure, will be directly helping only a few people, but what a solace to know clever people are trying to come up with support in the face of the overwhelming crisis. www.history.ac.uk/fellowships-...

The police are investigating. They will have their lines of enquiry. Please share this image widely so that everyone knows what it looked like.

New Society publication: 'Prostitution, Repentance and Social Welfare in Renaissance Florence. The Monastery of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite', by Gillian Jack bit.ly/4zEbv4B Gillian's monograph, published today @uolpress.bsky.social, is available free Open Access and in print #Skystorians

Great observation on the importance of human engagement in research (and read the whole thread for findings on why people leave academia)

Am quoted in this Times Higher piece on the closure of Free Thinking, where the AHRC also confirms that the New Generation Thinkers scheme is being paused.

Just incredible Renaissance reception going on here

Have had that horrible experience of being asked to change the briefest paragraph in one of my books so a particular foreign publisher could avoid arrest in that country’s massive LGBTQ+ crackdown. I had to decline and therefore not be published - you don’t negotiate with tyrants - but what a world.

the bay of frozen pigs invasion

emailing Princeton UP now with a special edition concept for The Firearm Revolution

On poison and ancient terrors We like to do things differently at Venice Noir. Yes, there are plenty of sessions discussing crime and thriller fiction with some top authors. But we also want to delve beneath the surface and investigate some of the things that set the world of dark fiction ticking…

NEW BOOK: my first children's book is out this week. It's an encyclopedia of Europe for 8-12s.

Publishing news