On 24 April 1941, 21-year-old Frank Joseph Gill was in the port of Piraeus, unimaginably far from his home in Liverpool, England. His sweat-stained uniform showed that he was a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Engineers. He was part of a band of servicemen from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand who had been ordered to evacuate from Greece, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of German troops. Along with hundreds of civilians and other servicemen, he boarded the yacht SS Hella

On Wednesday, 25 th March 2026, Elizabeth (‘Betsy’) Ettore and I sat down on Teams to discuss her research.     JB: Lovely seeing you, Betsy. Let’s start. You were born in Connecticut and educated at Fordham University in New York and then at the LSE in London, where you did your PhD. After posts in London (including the Institute of Psychiatry and my college Birkbeck, University of London in the 1980s), Finland, and Plymouth, you settled at the University of Liverpool wher

A friend once sent me a light-hearted reminder that it was her birthday in a few days. She does this every year. The problem is that she died a few years ago, and I simply cannot bear to block her (and her digital messages) from my account. I wouldn’t want to either: her satirical messages still make me smile. Like millions of other people, her continued digital life serves as a reminder of her unique identity. Her messages from the grave are a profound example of a contempor

A very enjoyable interview about 'Five Evil Women' with the wonderful Miranda Melcher on New Books Network. You can listen to it here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/five-evil-women . Why do certain women become icons of evil? My new book, Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker (Reaktion, 2026) is the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karl

On 1 March 2026, my new book will be published. It is called: Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker (Reaktion Books). So, I have decided to re-post a few talks I gave on 'evil women'. These are some of the women who did not make it into the book version. The woman for today is Eve. According to Jewish and Christian Creation myth, Eve introduced evil into Paradise, leading to the banishment of humanity (and, indeed, all life) from the Garden of Eden. There

On 26 January 2026, I spoke to Robert (‘Bob’) C. Fuller over Teams. It was an exhilarating experience. He is a charismatic figure, with a broad smile, wearing a black tee-shirt and jacket and sitting in front of a bright, geometric painting.   As part of my research on wine and female cultures of drinking, I read his wonderful book, Religion and Wine: A Cultural History of Wine Drinking in the United States , so I was not surprised that he exudes enthusiasm for human foibles,

On 28 January 2026, I sat down with Professor Robin Room over a Teams call to discuss his influential research on alcohol, which began in the early 1960s and continues today. He was speaking to me from his crowded, book-lined study in Melbourne. Despite decades in the U.S., his strong Australian accent, intellectual generosity, and warmth made talking with him a pleasure. His enthusiasm for the all-too-human propensity to enjoy alcohol, illegal drugs, and gambling was palpabl

‘A new motto: What have they done to you, poor child? But now enough of my filthy stories.’   (Sigmund Freud writing to Wilhelm Fliess on 22 December 1897).       Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint Phalle’s 1973 film Daddy is an angry retort to oppressive regimes, particularly that most destructive one of childhood sexual abuse. But its power lies equally in its ambivalence and, in the end, its profound negativity. While Whitehead and de Saint Phalle resolutely sought to free

Confession: I am not keen on spicy cocktails, but make an exception for this one. And my Greek friends like it, so that is a good reason to shake away!     4/10 Greek tsipouro or Italian grappa 4/10 pear liquor 2/10 lemon juice 1-2 drops of Bitter, depending on spicy levels (If you prefer sweeter flavours, add some sugar syrup)   Pop in cocktail shaker with ice.   Shake.   Stain into cocktail glasses.   Decorate with fresh mint leaves.   Enjoy.

Merle Thornton speaking about the protest in 1965. I am sad to hear of the death of Merle Thornton, Queensland feminist activist and academic, who died last year, aged 93. I never met her, but she appears in a book I am currently writing on wine and women. She achieved so many things in her life, but she came to my attention as one of the ‘bar suffragettes’.   In March 1965, Thornton (a philosophy postgraduate at the University of Queensland) and Rosalie ‘Ro’ Bognor (who was

This is a talk I presented at the 109 th  Rectors’ Assembly of Greek Universities on 10 th  July 2025.  (For the video-ed version of the talk, go to the 'Video and Audio section of my website: https://www.joannabourke.com/home-3 )   The high point of The University was from the postwar period (1940s) to the 1980s, a period characterized by the rapid expansion of Higher Education, coupled (albeit patchily) with a dedication to the value of knowledge and critical thinking. It w

My views on Open Play. The Case for Feminist Sport by Sheree Bekker and Stephen Mumford (Reaktion Books, 2025)     Sport is a feminist issue. We also know that it is highly gendered. But what if what we know about gender and sport is wrong?   Sheree Bekker and Stephen Mumford set out to show that physical differences between men and women are artificial ('socially constructed'), not ‘natural: they are the result of social and cultural forces including differences in opportu

A möbius strip: 'Which side of the strip are the ants walking on?'. (A 1963 poster of a woodcut by M. C. Escher) The concept ‘the human’...

Why aren’t gay, lesbian, trans, and queer people full citizens in law? This question enraged gay activists in 1990s Britain. The HIV/AIDS epidemic had fueled increasing levels of queerbashing; the age at which gay men could consent to sex remained higher than for heterosexual men; ‘Section 28’ not only branded same-sex relationships as ‘pretended families’ but also silenced LGBTQ speech. Routine exposure to insults, discrimination, and physical violence, together with legal i

The events I have enjoyed most in connection with the SHaME project were our two Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual...

For five and a half years, I have been privileged to work with the SHaME team at Birkbeck. It has been the most intellectually rewarding...

Audre Lorde changed the way generations of feminists throughout the world think about intersectional identities, social justice, and the...

Clare Shaw, Towards a General Theory of Love (Hexham: Bloodaxe Books, 2022)     Clare Shaw’s new, prize-winning poetry collection is...

On the 7 July 1916, Arthur Hubbard painfully set pen to paper in an attempt to explain to his mother why he was no longer in France. He...

William Manchester was a scared young American, flung down on the island of Okinawa during the Second World War and expected to act with...