A year ago today, @HistoryHit launched my podcast #NotJusttheTudors. In that year, we've made 108 podcasts, which have been downloaded 4,721,943 times. Thank you for listening. Thank you to my brilliant guests and my amazing producer, Rob Weinberg.
In case you'd like to explore the backlist of #NotJusttheTudors, I've prepared a searchable list of all episodes recorded in the last year, complete with guests' names, and the original date of release. docs.google.com/document/d/1eR…
I love making the podcast and it takes work to prepare, record, and edit it (the latter not mine), but, above all, it rests on years of work by the scholars who grace it as guests. I feel privileged to spend time in their company.
Although not mentioned in the piece, I was being interviewed about the wonderful @wolfsonhistory prize, which reaches its 50th anniversary this year. This prestigious prize has brought attention to excellent and readable works of historical scholarship for 50 years. 2/13
The @wolfsonhistory has carried out a survey on the public attitudes to history. One heartening finding is that 81% of those questioned believed history is vital to understanding the future. 3/13
If you are wondering where to study History at university this September, may I suggest coming to study @RoehamptonUni with me and my colleagues? Here's 12 reasons why:
1. First up, the campus: Roehampton is a beautiful, leafy 56-acre campus on the outskirts of London. Access to all the city but without losing greenery, trees, and space. This is Grove House, where History is based. It's rather lovely.
2. The quality of contact hours as well as the quantity. We have a low staff:student ratio (1:10), which means small classes: no lectures of 150-200 students; we have groups of around 20-30. Seminars are smaller. We offer individual, one-to-one tutorials.
Morning Twitter, I have some great things to tell you about.
First up: #WeAreBess - a brand-new exhibition opening today @NThardwick (Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire), designed to make us think anew about both Tudor and modern women
Bess of Hardwick was an extraordinary success for a woman living in the Tudor period - she built 4 homes, married 4 times, and became the 2nd richest woman in the country after Elizabeth I - but she's been defamed throughout history
We remember her chiefly by what her estranged & embittered 4th husband said about her, which wasn't very nice - but historians have repeated these judgments through the centuries. It was time for a reappraisal based on evidence of her character.