#Onthisday in 1861 #AgnesBeckwith was born in #London (her father came from #Ramsgate). She went on to become Champion Lady Swimmer of the World, starting off with a record breaking #Thames swim at the age of 14. She's pictured here during a show at the Royal Aquarium. #championwomen #womenshistory

August 1851: #Dickens publishes 'Our English Watering Place', his ode to #Broadstairs, written while staying at #BleakHouse. ‘In the Autumn-time of the year, when the great metropolis is..so much more disturbing and distracting in all respects...a quiet sea-beach becomes indeed a blessed spot.’

what was a 'thunder stuffed pillow'? #suffragettes #hollowayprison

If you're enjoying #bookish on TV, set in #london in 1946 featuring a bookseller who helps solve crimes, you might enjoy the story of a REAL private detective from the exact same time and place, the one and only 'Mrs Sherlock Holmes', Annette Kerner 🔎 #femaledetectives #womenshistory #truecrime

Such a depressing sign 💩 #seaswim #seaswimthanet #seapollution #outdoorswimming #kentcoast #broadstairs

Strange question. Is domestic violence 'funny'?

Lots of compass #jellyfish washing up on #Broadstairs' beaches 🪼

Queen Victoria arrives at Broadstairs Dickens Festival, celebrating its 88th year today 🎩 #dickens #charlesdickens #broadstairs #dickensfestival #thanet

Fallen roadside flower

lovely chatting to #WritersRoutine about my...writing routine. And especially switching back and forth between #novels and #nonfiction. Podcast here www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dEy...

stairway down to heaven in the #algarve, if my knees were up to it ... #swimming

Queens of the Underworld @caitlindavies.bsky.social (History Press, '21) has just arrived in the post! I'm also really enjoying this delicious large book about the 1860s carte de visite craze, Cartomania - Photography and Celebrity in the Nineteenth Century - (September, '24) by Paul Frecker! 🌻📚

Dad displaying his winning #ChelseaFlowerShow entry - salad bow-tie #nearly90

Ramsgate Harbour with some of the Dunkirk Little Ships that took part in #OperationDynamo in May 1940, rescuing over 300,000 troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. In the foreground is a cockle boat from #Leigh-on-Sea, Essex #dunkirklittleships #ramsgate

#margates old #lido, originally the 1820s Clifton Baths, renamed in the 1930s, sadly disused since the 1970s

Lovely lump of #amber found on #broadstairs beach, lucky day!

Bee fly and primrose.

The Walpole Bay tidal pool is closed for maintenance until Friday 2 May. It is so unusual seeing the tidal pool almost empty of water! #walpolebaytidalpool #walpolebay #tidalpool #cliftonville #margate

North Foreland #lighthouse, #broadstairs looks particularly glorious today 💡

Vote for Joanne, a brilliant councilor (and to prevent Reform)

Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths, a bestseller & currently just 99p.... www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals?... #womenshistory #feministhistory #privatedetectives #privateinquiries #truecrime #femalesleuths #missmarple #sherlockholmes

Looking forward to talking about the history of #London's criminal women at SalonfortheCity, such as Lilian Goldstein aka the 1920s Bobbed Haired Bandit & a member of the 40 Elephants salonforthecity.blogspot.com #womenshistory #truecrime #athousandblows #queensoftheunderworld #feministcriminology

A petition started by Barry Stickings to keep the #Broadstairs lift open all year round - right now, when it's supposed to be open, it's closed for 'maintenance', preventing so many people from access to the beach chng.it/Kq84NLWNMZ #beachaccess #broadstairs

nothing as peaceful as the endless sea #broadstairskent

very handy letter template from The Authors Guild, for #writers who have had their hard work stolen #metabookthieves actionnetwork.org/letters/auth...

high tide has been very high recently #broadstairs #louisabay

Dickens House Museum #broadstairs reopened for the season today, ready to once again welcome visitors from all over the world 🔥 These Dickens baubles are hand-painted and decoupaged onto ceramic - one of many items in their very busy gift shop...🎁 #dickenshousemuseum #dickensgifts #charlesdickens

authors need the power to permit and be paid, exactly! it's hard enough to earn a living as it is, especially for those just starting out ✒️ #metabookthieves

Me too. I'm mad as hell and out for legal action.

You can make a change 📢 Protect authors’ livelihoods from the unlicensed use of their work in AI training by signing this open letter ✒️ authr.uk/sp40 #MakeitFair #MetaBookThieves #DoTheWriteThing

1pm Thursday. Granary Square, King's Cross. Join a peaceful protest against the #MetaBookThieves who stole millions of books to train AI. Authors and readers unite following the biggest abuse of British literary copyright in history. Lisa Nandy please say something. www.change.org/p/protect-au...

Meta appears to have got its hands on quite a few of my books - including ones in translation (Dutch) - according to the search box provided by The Atlantic. Tomorrow is a day of action - and hopefully everyday after that... 🔥 #metabookthieves #makeitfair #thewritinglife

Leonora Carrington: Avatars & Alliances is at Colchester until 9 March. Leonora was expelled from an Essex convent, and the county welcomes her back by mixing her work with local witchcraft relics, Mexican artefacts and pieces by her friends inc. Lee Miller and Max Ernst. Wow. tinyurl.com/2s4akd78

I'm excited to be taking up the post of Writer in Residence at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, as part of the Royal Literary Fund's brilliant social sector scheme which offers free, confidential writing skills help to NHS staff. #amwriting

If anyone's interested in the historical background to #athousandblows, #dopegirls or #acruellove, the real women on whom these series are based are all in #badgirls - the only comprehensive history of #hollowayprison - from #thefortyelephants to #katemeyrick and #ruthellis

These clouds look painted ☁️ #broadstairsbeach

I’m watching various documentaries for World Maths Day and Hank is utterly hypnotised by this film on infinity. Maybe he is assembling the relevant knowledge to build his spaceship back home.

How to spot when someone's got a good novel in them 👇 #amwriting

Victoria Claflin (1838-1927), was a leader in the women's suffrage movement and the first woman to run for president of the US in 1872. She was an advocate for the freedom to marry, divorce and bear children without social restrictions or government interference for women. #WomensHistoryMonth

Interested in the real story of female sleuths? The History Press are offering 40% off selected eBooks in celebration of Women's History Month 👍 🔎 thehistorypress.co.uk/collection/w... #womenshistorymonth #womenshistory #femalesleuths #privatedetectives #privateinquiries #agathachristie

What a lovely pink house - houseboat? boathouse? - in Folkestone Harbour #folkestoneharbour #pinkhouses

'Perfugium Miseris' - a 'refuge for those in need', carved into the beautiful Georgian lighthouse at Ramsgate harbour, a tribute to those who lost their lives at sea #ramsgate #visitthanet #lighthouses #kenthistory

Humpback whale 6 miles off #margate coast 🐳https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2025/02/26/nik-mitchell-a-very-special-sight-off-the-coast-of-margate/

the real historical characters behind #AThousandBlows 👇 #MaryCarr was a pickpocket & blackmailer (she didn't carry a gun or organise Harrods shoplifting), #AliceDiamond led the #40Elephants an all female crime syndicate in the early 1900s

Only a month until our next *free* online seminar! We'll be considering why we take our British #seaside resorts for granted and if we should recognise their value as (potential) world #heritage sites. seasideheritage.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/british-seaside-resorts-as-world-heritage-

Breastfeeding mums stage protest, brilliant. Not sure the 'hot baked treat' and some free breast pads makes up for being told you can't feed your baby 🤔thttps://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/breastfeeding-mums-stage-protest-in-greggs-320610/

Another set of teeth from the deep. Same beach as all the others. #Anthropocene #PlasticAge

Finally got round to counting all the plastic sunglasses/glasses (and fragments thereof) that we've picked up over the last few years. These are all from one beach. They don't float and have washed up from the seabed with the kelp after storms. How many do you reckon?

The curlews arrived this morning- woke up to hear them outside my window - just the best sound & feeling 🤎 Print: tea toned cyanotype on Japanese paper.