So grateful (& surprised) for this years @alcs.co.uk payment - so very welcome... Thanks to all those who have photocopied my work, and thanks most of all to the wonderful folks at @alcs.co.uk for collecting and redistributing the cold hard cash my way... Sign up now if you write & publish anything!

If you enjoy watching Dragons Den, or the latest series from SaraDavies #thebigideaworks, you might be interested to read my latest article, for the nostalgic Best of British Magazine, which looks at the BBC television series, TV Inventors Club, which ran from 1948-1956... www.bestofbritishmag.co.uk

SDE would like to make more friends on Bluesky 😀, so with that in mind, we're giving away one of these fantastic #NikKershaw box sets! 10CDs and a DVD! Please like and share and we'll pick a random winner in a week's time, on 28 Feb. Open to everyone! Good luck...

A brand new episode of The British Food History Podcast has dropped. My guest is food historian @drlindsaymiddleton.bsky.social and the topic is Alexis Soyer, arguably the 1st celebrity chef. Available on all podcast platforms inc this one: open.spotify.com/episode/44Em...

Hi everyone! I’m a PhD fellow from @UABBarcelona looking for a room to rent in Edinburgh from March 1st to May 1st during my visiting fellowship at @Uni_Edinburgh (Social Policy). Any tips & RTs are appreciated! 🙏 @ewanrobo.bsky.social @davidevampa.bsky.social l @philiprathgeb.bsky.social

I have celebrated the end of the year by paying my Tax bill, starting afresh for 2025! #HappyNewYear

'Bliss was it in that dawn of television to be alive, but to be writing about it for The Listener was very heaven.' Yesterday's OTD in early British television was a celebration of Grace Wyndham Goldie - and a plea for a contact for her Estate. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/otd-in-early...

Remembering TV cook Fanny Cradock who passed away today in 1994, age 85. Cradock was a critic, television cook and writer. She was usually seen with her husband, Major Johnnie Cradock, who played the part of a slightly bumbling hen-pecked husband. tvark.org/fanny-cradoc...

Fanny Cradock died on this day, 30 years ago 😱

#OTD - 27 Dec 1937 - “Dick Whittington and His Cat" - Television’s first grand Christmas pantomime, written by #ArthurAskey. This sequence opens with #PamelaRandall as Fairy Bow Belle, and ends with #CyrilFletcher as the Emperor of Morocco. Producer: #ReginaldSmith.

New Book Review - Trailblazing Women of Australian Public Broadcasting, 1945-1975 from @kylieandrews.bsky.social - a ‘group biography’ aiming to clearly perform an act of recovery to reinstate the ‘blind spot of gender in broadcasting’ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

OTD in early British television: spoiled for the eve of Christmas Eve choice today, I think we might attempt a double-header, celebrating 'Polite Wine Drinking' (pictured) on this day in 1937, and then 'The Director of Television in the Witness Box', shown on Friday 23 December 1938.

Recirculating this starter pack now it's got a few more people on it. And if you'd like to be added, just say the word. It started with the BAFTSS SIG but anyone is welcome. 'Room for one more inside, sir!', as Miles Malleson might say if he were on Bluesky... go.bsky.app/KD7kfpH

Post-doctoral #opportunities working in an archive - Women's Screen work. #WomenInFilm. 👇 britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blo...

Dougie is absolutely right, as always. If you don't pay heed to what he says there's a real & present danger that Fanny Cradock will be cross & write you nasty letters. Transform your Christmas byuuuu-feys in your own time & upset those neighbours you never really liked very much #ItsAllInTheBooklet

Spoiler - I thoroughly enjoyed this book #AcademicBookReview @cstonline.bsky.social doi.org/10.1177/1749...

Christmas past...

Smashing talk from @dranniegray.bsky.social on all things Christmas and the High Street, thanks National Archives 🧡

Bravo to the BFI for this stunning set, looking forward to diving in, and retiring my dodgy copies of this wonderful Vincent Price series... More television food and cooking history please! #CookingPriceWise

If you haven’t heard of mossgielfarm.co.uk, they’re a regenerative, cow with calf, organic dairy farm, producing the most delicious milk. They’re running a share based crowdfunder for new facilities to continue transforming dairy farming in Scotland. www.crowdcube.com/companies/mo...

Dear friends, could u please help us?We have curated a hamper with hand made 🇺🇦 things (🌻 oil, wool socks, d.ceps) but finding it difficult to sell (algorithms on IG are 👎🏽). There is also a £5 raffle for one of the hampers and all money goes to Molotok NGO. www.experienceukraine.co.uk/product-page...

Today’s early television OTD pays tribute to two wonderful resources which in conjunction open up a key element of the BBC’s Alexandria Palace service 1936-39; first Andrew Martin’s astonishing 7-volume ’Sound & Vision’ series, published by Kaleidoscope...

Something I wrote for the BFI website about Vincent Price's surprisingly diverse, mostly non-horror projects of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. www.bfi.org.uk/features/gou...

Dear colleagues, our @cstonline.bsky.social conference CFP is now available here: sites.edgehill.ac.uk/tvresearchgr... Please consider putting in an abstract for a contribution.

I've started a food history starter pack. It's mainly GB at the moment cos those are the people I know, but I'd like it to be wider please. If you'd like to be added, let me know. Otherwise the very short list is here go.bsky.app/RH4kTRU

A lovely evening in the company of @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social exploring the Invention of British Art with Topping Bookshop, at the Pilrig Church. My mind has been suitably expanded.

Sunday Vibes from Mabel

Putting the finishing touches to my final (for now? for ever? 😢) Television Studies Lecture tomorrow. We'll be evaluating a century of technological change & consulting our crystal balls to consider the future of television too. What will my students think? 📺 #TelevisionStudies

I am cock-a-hoop to say that I passed my PhD Viva today, with minor corrections... Yahoooooo!

Bright and beautiful Edinburgh morning, perfect to begin teaching - I am looking forward to meeting this year's Y3 Television Studies students, and the lectures, seminars, screenings and, erm, assessments (probably more than they are), in the coming weeks... 📺

Festive Fanny Fun! Well, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a bit of Fanny. I had a *BLAST* chatting to (ahem, award winning) podcaster Gilly Smith for her Cooking the Books series - shows.acast.com/cooking-the-... Grab your Mincemeat Omelettes, settle down and enjoy! Fanny Cradock Rocks...

I have a nostalgic festive run-down of Christmas Food Television Past (and Present) in this month's Best of British magazine... Featuring turkeys, nakedness, skinny-dipping and @nigella.bsky.social 👀

So, after five years, I SUBMITTED this today!

Next Wednesday (the 11th), I'm getting to interview Regula Ysewijn as part for Cheltenham Lit Fest. It should be a lot of fun (and her book is lush). Come along....tix via their website, £32 fir us and a full afternoon tea.

A new approach suggested by my Editor, just chew the pages which make no sense to remove them entirely from your work in progress...

Eek, I've compiled my 'work-in-progress' for my PhD on Television Cooking History into one document as a 'draft' submission. Now to decide which of the words to chop, which to re-write & which to re-arrange (most of them) so that it all makes sense. Target of 90k so a brutal-ish edit to come!

I don't recall posing for this advert... Also, where can I get some, please?

Early pest control at the BBC - Philip Harben's food was clearly irresistible...

Don't mind me, I'm just going to settle down with a nice boxset and munch on my Baked Bean Stuffed Peppers of many vibrant colours...

I had the absolute *best* time chatting to Dr Neil Buttery about early television cooking programmes in Britain, the powerhouse Philip Harben, the enduring Marguerite Patten and the fabulous Fanny Cradock (of course) and their connected cookbooks - have a listen, it's a good one!

How many products can you spot in this picture which Fanny Cradock was sponsored to promote? 📺

"A very simple assiette de fruits de mer.." Fanny Cradock 1966

I have LOVED reading this new, fabulously illustrated, book this weekend from Connor Spacey on the wonderful things you can create instead of binning food traditionally wasted... Can't wait to cook LOTS using it now. Thanks for another winner Blasta Books 💚🧡

My latest academic article “Accompanying the series”: Early British television cookbooks 1946-1976 has now found its permanent home in the latest Issue of the Food and Foodways Journal - all the articles in the issue are Open Access https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gfof20/31/3

gRapHic DesiGn iS My pasSioN (PadamPadam)

Publisher: So, Philip, we thought for the book cover we'd just shape some uncooked sausages into the title, you know, just quickly. What do you think? Harben: I am the senior television cook (since June 1946) so there is no need for anything else... Just put me on the back cover, that'll sell it.

I've got a wee article in this month's Best of British nostalgia magazine looking at a few of my very favourite, but slightly bizarre, television tie-in cookbooks...Think Molly Weir to Dick Emery, with some added Richard O'Sullivan, Larry Grayson & Crossroads - what were yours?

Hey BlueSky podcast lovers, I had a lot of fun recently chatting all things Fanny Cradock with Dean from the Well Seasoned Librarian - Spotify link below, also available on other lovely podcast platforms... Have a listen!