Good morning! It’s publication day for Double Lives, my history of working motherhood in modern Britain. If you’re interested in women, work, feminism, childcare, Shirley Conran or I Don’t Know How She Does It!, please read on (and retweet if you can) bloomsbury.com/uk/double-liv…

Very excited for @JamesChappel's keynote lecture, 12th Sep @ghilondon on Atlantic Aging: The Transnational History of Old Age, 1900 - Present. Register here: eventbrite.co.uk/e/atlantic-… @Eventbrite

And find me on Blue Sky too. (Henceforth I shall be checking my 'socials', plural)

I've joined Threads, so if you are over there feel free to say hello to the new girl. (Still HistorianHelen)

50 years ago this week, my father, Patrick McCarthy, made classical music history by doing this: royalalberthall.com/about-th…

What a rotten thing to do. (In Kew, our Banksy Goat is now protected by a perspex sheet and wooden frame - I guess the owners of the building are taking no chances)

I move back to Kew and Banksy follows…

Finished this excellent & important book by ⁦@TehilaSasson⁩ (review to follow soon). Anyone interested in the roots of contemporary global capitalism must read.

Some fantastic history summer reads recommended here by ⁦@TheEconomist⁩ but only one female author out of eleven? Women write History books too!

Have more cool French people dance around looking cool. That was working for me.

Sweden came with anoraks. 👍

No Simone de B?

I’m trying to decide whether this whole concept would have worked in glorious sunshine. Hmm.

Pump St chocolate has got to win the prize for most stylish confectionary. Look at the INSIDE of the wrapper!

The results are in: Cambridge academics voted in favour of retaining an employer justified retirement age but to raise it from 67 to 69.

I'm incredibly sad & angry to read this news. Both my kids attended Westfield Nursery & I held on to my career through those intense pre-school years thanks in large part to this employer-subsidized institution & its amazing staff. A terrible blow for working parents at QMUL.

Quelle dommage. I was living in east London in 2012 & had my doubts about the Olympics but the spirit of civic fun unleashed by the capital's transformation won me over quite unexpectedly.

I know that I’ve lost this battle but I still cannot abide ‘relatable’.

What are the random corporate/marketing emails that frequent your inbox but from which you can't quite summon the energy to unsubscribe? I get poems on my birthday from a small family-run hotel in Austria & I am very up-to-date on Cambridge-based indoor wall-climbing news.