Will Tullett

@willtullett

He/him. Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at University of York. Books on 'Smell in Eighteenth-Century England' and 'Smell and the Past'. Sniff: A History of Smells out 8th September #smellhistory #smellstudies #sensoryhistory

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Will Tullett@willtullett· 29d

My article in the @scottishhistreview.bsky.social on the smells of the Glasgow Subway is free for an undefined period of time! It begins with the immortal lines you can read in the image/alt text accompanying this post www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/...

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jul 11

Isn’t it wonderful to be able to wax sarcastic rather than pulling your finger out and doing something genuinely productive.

In her response, skills minister Jacqui Smith was keen to note that she was yet another Oxford alumna and went on to observe that in her two years in the job “it has become very obvious to me that there is nothing that the House of Lords likes more than a debate about higher education”.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jul 7

Big thanks to David Hendy, @cathamclarke.bsky.social, and @rummage.bsky.social for their kind words on Sniff: A Hidtory of Smells, out 8th September and pre-orderable from all good bookshops. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Black text on white background that reads ‘"A deeply researched, revelatory and hugely entertaining sensory odyssey.
Sniff hopscotches nimbly across centuries and
continents to take us to some wonderful and terrifying places
—ancient Rome, medieval
China, the Shakespearian stage, the Victorian city, the trenches of the Great War, a modern funeral home-and reveals the myriad ways that smells evoke danger, pleasure, memories, places, bodies, in fact are the very stuff of life. Brilliant."-David Hendy, author of Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening’

Black text on white background that reads: "Tullett invites us to follow our noses into history, discovering the fascinating stories behind smells past and present. This is a stunning book full of
surprises and revelations-and always alive to the politics of scents and stinks across history and today."—Catherine Clarke, author of A History of England in 25 Poems

Black text on white background that reads: "Sniff explores sensory landscapes, evoking newspaper ink, old books, and the chemical tang of new cars. This profound, sweeping history reveals how powerful scents have defined human
experiences."—Emily Cockayne, author of Penning Poison: A History of Anonymous Letters

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jun 23

the implication being that when Andrew Marr travels to an orgy he does so naked, ready to hit the ground running, and doesn’t bring any drinks or snacks? www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jun 22

The slight problem with the ludicrous media circus around Burnham is that the public may get sick of him before he’s even in office…

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jun 19

perhaps it could lead to Dunblobbin getting the listed status it both deserves and needs

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jun 16

Got hard copy proofs a week or so ago, which was fun, so Sniff is slowly but surely getting closer to publication on September 8th. It's nice to hold something physical with all the words in (but the hardback cover will be shinier and more colourful looking!). Struggling to index it at the moment...

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jun 1

Tried AI mode and I am worried more people are going to find out about my secret second career. I've pretended to be bad at football my whole life but I guess soon the jig will be up

Will Tullett@willtullett· May 27

anti-car protestors in 1995 using stink bombs to protest the launch of a new Alfa Romeo model. Obviously they didn't know the car brand's reputation when it came to quality - a poke with a stick would probably have been enough to make the doors fall off and the engine blow up

Will Tullett@willtullett· May 2

amazing new work by computer scientists claims ‘this is the face of the real Anne Boleyn’.

A child’s drawing of their mother. The face is shaped like a thumb and curly brown hair goes all the way around the sides and top. What appears to be a foot is depicted at the bottom with what looks like brown string tied in a bow around it. The face itself is dominated by a grin, teeth bared, with lipstick around the mouth and what appears to be a lit cigar dangling from them. The nose, high up the thumb head, is small and potato like (a light brown colour) and the head has tiny, blue, eyes topped with carrot like eye browns. An air of menace emanates from the expression.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Apr 26

This is what we’re up against in UKHE…

Will Tullett@willtullett· Mar 26

(1/2) being a big old nerd but also interested in the way nostalgia features in contemporary culture it feels like Games Workshop have gone for a deliberate invocation of the 2nd edition 1990s box art and theming for the new edition of 40k, which is giving me a warm fuzzy feeling and recalling the

Will Tullett@willtullett· Mar 8

COVER REVEAL. Really excited to show off the fantastic cover for my new book Sniff from @yalebooks.bsky.social. It’s a history of smells across time and space and hits the shelves on the 8th September. Pre-order from Yale, your local bookshop, or the usual suspects! yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Will Tullett@willtullett· Mar 6

Have noticed point below with history where lots of people boosting from instagram/tiktok or podcasts into books. But I do wonder how the 'fiction = escapism' versus non-fiction = depressing pans out for history. Would love more granular breakdown of non-fiction www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

text reading 'Another author says part of the problem is too many books being commissioned because of follower counts rather than ideas. “A lot of the nonfiction being commissioned at the moment is essentially people capitalising on those with large followings,” she says. “It feels very Instagram-coded. Did this need to be a book? Or could it have been a caption?”'

Will Tullett@willtullett· Mar 5

Delighted my collaboration with Industrial Museums Scotland @shacklington.bsky.social ‘Sniffers in Residence: Using Smell to Engage Intergenerational Audiences with Industrial Heritage' is one of the projects to be funded under this scheme! Look out for industrial smelly things from April onwards!

Will Tullett@willtullett· Mar 4

Will Tullett@willtullett· Feb 6

when a commercial magazine/ website emails you asking you to write a piece for them for free

Will Tullett@willtullett· Feb 3

Hey hey eighteenth-century people - look out for this!

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jan 31

Copy of same print from MET here www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... collectionapi.metmuseum.org/api/collecti...

Will Tullett@willtullett· Jan 1

I’ll take that.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Nov 24

this is the 'SHAPE: Involve and Engage' small grants in case anybody is wondering.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Oct 9

used to be a proper country debating the real issues in our parliament

A clipping from hansard that reads 'I think the hon. gentleman should have asked. What is an average sausage?'

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 30

My timeline this morning in the wake of that Nature piece.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 26

Trying to dissuade people from engaging with Chat GPT increasingly feels like being Dwight in that episode of The Office where he tries to outsell the computer.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 21

God knows what this could mean.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 21

Check out this super cool learning toolkit out in October. www.nai010.com/en/product/c.... It's been put together by the leaders of the Dutch 'Senses-Based-Learning' network (sensesbasedlearning.org) to try and get more sensory learning into education inside and outside academia #sensorystudies

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 11

Me every time I see a new news piece that ignores the data on how good history graduate careers are.

A close up of Phil Mitchell from Eastenders (a bald, slightly pink headed man wearing a dark blue shirt) look upwards at somebody standing in front of him wearing a light blue or grey long sleeved top. The caption says ‘Please don’t do this’.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 7

Also at the (free!) North Hertfordshire museum is a fun little exhibition of Martin Brown’s work (he of Horrible Histories books fame).

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 7

Fun smell draw and light-up sign setup at the North Hertfordshire museum linking historical (largely Victorian) uses of materials with their smells.

Will Tullett@willtullett· Aug 6