Margaret Small is an American lesbian activist and was noted for teaching Lesbianism 101 with Madeline Davis at the State University of New York Buffalo. [1] This is the first lesbianism course in the United States. [1] Small was also a civil rights activist. Laughlin, Kathleen A.; Castledine, Jacqueline (2011). Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985. Oxon: Routledge. p.235. ISBN 978-0-415-87397-0. All in all, this is a book that is heartrending and heartwarming at the same time. If you want to read the touching story of a loveable old lady, definitely give this a go.

When reading, the locations mentioned were very vivid to me - largely in part to the fact that just last week I binge-watched the second season of "Whitstable Pearl" on Netflix. Marga was one of the first people I met on campus when I moved here from the US in 2016. She was kind then and was consistently so throughout the time I knew her, even when my mood or personality does not always invite kindness. I work with my door open and Marga would pass it on the way to her office. Increasingly over the last couple of years, she would stop in just to say hi and we would chat about work or family. She was so proud of her children, who I also met some years ago at a Christmas party. I was so impressed with them when I met them – their creativity and intelligence, their kindness and openness – and was convinced that this was the product of a combination of their own intrinsic loveliness and their upbringing by caring, loving parents. Marga and I would also talk about cycling, about trying to manage our workload, and, increasingly, about our experiences with Covid and long Covid. Marga joined Birmingham in 2007 as Lecturer in Europe and the Wider World and achieved a much-deserved promotion to Senior Lecturer in 2021. In addition to her world-leading monograph Framing the World: Classical Influences on Sixteenth-Century Geographical Thought (The Boydell Press, 2020), Marga’s many publications included a prize-winning article in Renaissance Studies and another in Sixteenth-Century Studies – two of the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in her field.I first met Marga in 2007, when I was the external on an interview panel for a lectureship in History. Even in the stressful circumstances of a job presentation and interview, Marga was warm and instantly likeable, and she showed an impressive ability to weather the challenges of dodgy technology and somehow keep smiling. I was delighted when she joined the University a few months later, just at the time when, with the launch of the interdisciplinary CREMS seminar, early modernists in History and my own department, English, were developing new opportunities to work together. But someone is sending her notes with cash, signed with “C x”: she believes it’s Cilla but, except for the one read to her by the young man in Sainsbury’s, she has no idea what they say, and she’s reluctant to ask Wayne, because he will probably think she’s lost it. She likes the life she has now, her routine and the people in her life, and the last thing she wants is to be put away again. Shortly after the death of her musical idol, Margaret begins receiving anonymous sums of money in the post – signed simply “C” – and is convinced it is Cilla. She must uncover secrets from her past to solve the mystery of her benefactor. Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures We lost an incredible friend and colleague and my thoughts are with Joel, Clara and Douglas, who lost so much more.

I was taught by Margaret in my 2ndyear of undergraduate study, when around 10 of us would cram into an academic’s office for our seminars. The module was ‘Blood and Steel’, about the conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires, and sparked a passion that later took me on an adventure to Peru. In no small part this was fuelled by Margaret’s gentle enthusiasm and the images she conjured through her teaching. When filming for an MA project two years later with a fellow UoB History grad, she bumped into us in the city centre and willingly gave her opinions on Marmite to camera with no qualms, as did her husband. Her kindness was always evident, not least when I returned to the Arts Building as an employee, based in what was then the ACS office on the 4 thfloor, as we would often bump into each other and she always made the time to say hello and chat about family as well as work. In 2015 I told her that, inspired by her teaching, I was finally going to Machu Picchu and she excitedly requested photo from the trip on my return. While I can’t claim to have known Marga well, I will miss our cheery, intermittent meetings, and I send my sincere condolences to her family and friends. She was lovely. Alexander, who has had poems published in Magma , The Interpreter’s House and Southbank Poetry , said: “ The Vanishing of Margaret Small has been 15 years in the making, so I am delighted it has finally found a home with Jane and the wonderful team at Embla Books. MY THOUGHTS: What an amazing read (listen) this was! I love being blindsided by the unexpected, and Neil Alexander manages to do this with his debut novel! Definitely a writer to watch. I found myself reading widely about it as I flew through the book, and I am thrilled to welcome Neil to the Embla list,” she said. “The combination of his experience at Mencap and his prodigious talent and warmth as a writer and storyteller are truly exciting. We believe his début has the potential to be for learning disability awareness what Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (Penguin) was for dementia.” a b Pohl, Nicole (2001). "Review of Circles otf Power: Shifting Dynamics in a Lesbian-centered Community". Utopian Studies. 12 (2): 301–303. ISSN 1045-991X.Yet she also made it her duty to ensure that we were also able to bond together outside of work. Many of the cohort had come from different institutions and Margaret recognised how difficult it may be for a lot of students given that in-person experiences remained limited. So, Margaret tookit upon herself to organise games evening so that we could get to know each other better. Overall this was a quirky kind of read with lovable characters and a gut wrenching story. If I could hug Margaret I would. The Vanishing of Margaret Small is a story that tore at my heart, had me shedding tears in places, but also had me laughing out loud in others.

Where do I even begin? Everyone and I mean everyone needs to read this book! I defy anyone to not fall in love with Margaret Small, she is the most loveable character you could ever meet and once you know her history you can’t help but love her more. This story is told in a dual timeline. We have present-day Margaret who is struggling to understand why she keeps receiving letters from someone called ‘C’ and Margaret as a child/teen/ young woman telling us her story inside the walls of St Mary’s. Alexander is a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course, and much of the inspiration for The Vanishing of Margaret Small came from the voices and stories he heard during the many years he worked as artist liaison manager for the charity Mencap. Thank you to Bonnier UK Audio, Embla Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own. To lose a good friend and wonderful colleague so suddenly is overwhelming, and it feels unbearably cruel that we are here again.Like all of us, I have been thinking about Marga a lot over the past few weeks.I have remembered our conversations about bicycles and cycling holidays. I have remembered how much I enjoyed reading or listening to her talk about her work - her learnedness, her scholarship, her range, her passion.Above all, I have thought about the sheer vitality, energy, kindness, and importance of her presence within the department - about what we gained from having her as a colleague, and what we have now lost.

Margaret Thatcher (born October 13, 1925, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England—died April 8, 2013, London) British Conservative Party politician and prime minister (1979–90), Europe’s first woman prime minister. The only British prime minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms and, at the time of her resignation, Britain’s longest continuously serving prime minister since 1827, she accelerated the evolution of the British economy from statism to liberalism and became, by personality as much as achievement, the most renowned British political leader since Winston Churchill. She was a role model for a later prime minister, Liz Truss. Early years Waseem Ahmed, former History BA and Early Modern History MA at University of Birmingham, presently History PhD, UCL a b Myers, JoAnne (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Lesbian and Gay Liberation Movements. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. pp.xl. ISBN 978-0-8108-7226-4. Margaret's current story is interspersed with the story of her life in St. Mary's, a residential home for the intellectually challenged and mentally disturbed.

Margaret tells her story over two timelines. She is now in her 70s and living in a flat and supervised by her support worker, Wayne. Wayne is a lovely, caring person, fully invested in enabling Margaret to live her best possible life. We need more Waynes in this world. THE AUTHOR: Much of the inspiration for Neil Alexander's debut novel, 'The Vanishing of Margaret Small', came directly from the voices of people with a learning disability, and the incredibly moving first person accounts of living in long stay institutions, which he heard while working for the UK charity Mencap. Neil, who has a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Kent at Canterbury, began his career working in health journalism. Originally from Northern Ireland, he now lives in the seaside town of Whitstable in Kent. He currently teaches English part-time and is working on his second novel. I gave in under this heavy interrogation. Who wouldn’t? And Marga, in turn, offered an empathetic ear, listened, shared stories, and reassured me that what I was going through, well, it happens and I’ll get through it. I had been going through weeks of feeling like every conversation was so stilted and fake because I was talking with my colleagues – my friends – about everything other than the most important thing going on for me. Somehow, by the end of this relatively brief conversation with Marga, it just felt … normal. Like maybe I could talk with people about my crisis, mention it, even if just in passing, after all. I have reflected a lot on what a kind thing it was that she did for me and how courageous it is to press someone like that – I don’t think I’d have it in me to do it, to be honest. At work I came to know Marga best through things like open days and OVDs and the long committee meetings involved with things like the curriculum review working group. Those unsung and unseen things which people often try to avoid but to which Marga seemed to instinctively gravitate. And so I have thought about what it means to be a good citizen, what it is that keeps our work going, and how we value those things.I did not always agree with Marga's answers on issues around assessment and pedagogy, but I have always known that she was asking the right questions - however difficult or challenging or unwelcome I might have found those questions at the time. It is a small example, but I don't think we would have made the progress we have with our DL programmes if it had not been for Marga's tenacity and insistence on lifting the bonnet to see exactly what was going on. Importantly, I have always known that those questions have been underpinned by Marga's unswerving commitment to doing the right thing by our students and our community.We are diminished by Marga's loss - in ways that are incomprehensible right now - but we have been privileged to know and learn from her. Over the last few years, we met frequently at the University’s west gate. Pushing her foldable bike through the crowd (never cycling when there were too many pedestrians around her), that came out of the train station, donning her high viz-west and deep in thoughts – until she saw a familiar face; this is when her unique smile came on, a smile that felt like a ray of sunshine on a cold day, a smile that always made me feel good. This is how I will remember her.The main impact of her first term was economic. Inheriting a weak economy, she reduced or eliminated some governmental regulations and subsidies to businesses, thereby purging the manufacturing industry of many inefficient—but also some blameless—firms. The result was a dramatic increase in unemployment, from 1.3 million in 1979 to more than double that figure two years later. At the same time, inflation doubled in just 14 months, to more than 20 percent, and manufacturing output fell sharply. Although inflation decreased and output rose before the end of her first term, unemployment continued to increase, reaching more than three million in 1986.