iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Found this in a Clacton charity shop earlier. Who made it? What for? Many questions. And no it didn't say Ride a Cowboy on the back. Maybe it was part of a set though 🤷🏻‍♀️ That's a Vaseline lip balm in my pocket by the way, I'm not just pleased to see you.

A dishevelled 39yr old woman in sunglasses takes a selfie wearing a charity shop in a slightly too tight white t-shirt with large red letters reading SAVE A HORSE on it.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

And on the subject of boxing plays, the Almeida has a National Theatre Live screening of Golden Boy on 5th November if your local cinema does such things! Colchester Firstsite and Clacton Century do 🎻

Golden Boy poster. Josh O’Connor in a coat. Text reads NT Live, Golden Boy by Clifford Odets, directed by Sam Yates, a production from Almeida Theatre

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It's only taken two and a half years and £200k+ of salary as an MP but is this... a small hint that he's remembered what his job is? Or call me a cynic but... a small attempt to at least give us the impression he has...

A 'Tell Nigel' survey sent to my property with a free post envelope to return. Topped with a picture of friendly ol' good time boyo Nigel Farage in front of beach huts it asks questions like 'who did you vote for?' 'what local issues are most important to you?' 'have you considered voting for Reform?'. The back is left blank, giving ample opportunity to TELL NIGEL what one really thinks, but I really just can't be bothered at this point.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

One month (exactly) left of my thirties. Genuinely VERY excited for the next year, and next decade. Even more excited than I was in 1993 about this Mr Blobby Gets An Autopsy cake! 🤷🏻‍♀️🔪🩷💛

A seven year old girl with British Teeth wears a red Winnie the Pooh sweater and an I Am 7 badge. She grins while holding a Mr Blobby cake on a silver board. Blobby - a mutant pink and yellow creature - has a line of red jam running down the centre of his torso / corpse, for reasons unknown.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

All the world's a catwalk! Even Jaywick.

A friendly little tabby cat strolls down the seafront path in Jaywick. A light dusting of sand covers it. The sky is very blue.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Clacton in October - my front garden. Hard not to still feel happy here, really, despite it all ☺️

Calm blue water, blue sky, sand, perfect clouds, sun - Martello Bay in Clacton on the walk to Jaywick

Calm blue water, blue sky, sand, perfect clouds, sun - Martello Bay in Clacton on the walk to Jaywick. A goblin child can be seen on the beach.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This story about a 'viral chip shop' upsetting the neighbours with litter and crowds has a photo of one of the neighbours absolutely SERVING. Look at him! He should never be upset again.

Guardian headline, people eating chips, written by Senay Boztas, Photos by Judith Jockel

Thomas van Leeuwen, who lives near to Fabel Friet. An older white man with floppy white hair and a beard, he wears a dark suit and poses on a chair in a jaunty manner

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I have met a dog/lion the size of a car in a Colchester micro pub. I am madly in love with his giant soft foldy head.

Charlie, a French Mastiff, 5ft long with a colossal head of wrinkly gorgeous folds, flops on a grey laminate floor.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/gian...

The three researchers behind the present study are fond of music, and have therefore named the worm after a bassist in an American hard rock band, Alex Webster.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'm trying to work but the boyfriend has just come back from a charity shop with £1 Iron Man and Captain America walkie talkies. Allegedly they're for our child but also quite useful for requesting hot beverages from the next room 🤷🏻‍♀️

An adult woman holds a 30cm long Captain America to her ear and grins about how cool it is

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If there's anything I've learned as I approach 40, it's: just start crafting your author bio to make yourself laugh 😅

She once played the corpse at an award-winning murder mystery night, twice served Frank Bruno lunch, and is credited as Death Fighter 1 in low-budget British action film Death Pit (2023).
Sarah holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London and a BA Politics and MA in International Relations and Asia Pacific Studies from the University of East Anglia, alongside professional diplomas in Public Relations and Crisis Communications.
She has lived in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Norwich, East London, South East London, and a flat in the annexe of Allen Lane’s old house on a nature reserve near Heathrow. She now lives just off the beach in Clacton-on-Sea, for her sins.
Born in Luton in 1986, Sarah was the first woman in her family, and second person after a slightly older brother, to go to university. She is the daughter of local newspaper reporters, and the granddaughter of one man who was shot through the neck and survived and another who claimed to be the 1938 Welterweight Champion of Battersea High Street.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In April last year I published two articles about Barbados-born 1880s Liverpool, London, travelling, boxer Felix Scott. I wasn't the first, but I believe I'm the first to look at him in detail, and particularly at his personal life. His great, and now a great great, grandson have been in touch...

A very fuzzy badly scanned photo from a 1900s newspaper showing boxers in the ring at Liverpool International Hall - one Black (George White, S. Africa) and one white (Johnny James, Liverpool) - and several trainers/cornermen including Felix Scott. Caption notes he is well-known and once met Dick Burge and Lachie Thompson

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Back in the day when boxers in international heavyweight title fights enjoyed a very friendly and manly boozy bath together after battering each other close to death for 2.5hrs in a French field. Jake Kilrain and Jem Smith, pictured in 1887.

Comically muscular pen sketch of boxers Jem Smith (right) and Jake Kilrain in adjoining bathtubs. A bottle of wine lies on the floor, another one a table. Kilrain smokes a cig. Jem jauntily crosses his mighty thighs. Steam rises.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Mr oispooky (not pictured) is notoriously very good at charity shop finds. Usually expensive designer menswear for dead cheap. This week he surpassed himself. £1.50!

An approx A4 sized framed vintage John Travolta (as a young man) MIRROR. It says John Travolta at the top and has a border of stars and stripes.

Sarah takes a selfie in the John Travolta mirror

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is 4 for £1.00.

Sign in a Clacton charity shop which reads Books 99p each. Fact based books 4 for £1.00

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My boyfriend brought this home from a charity shop at lunchtime. It cost £1.50.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Beyond the Spidey Mat. New author pic? 😂🤷🏻‍♀️ My son, who is named after 1880s-90s heavyweight wrestler and boxer Jack Wannop (in my book! Next year!), has decided to live up to his namesake. He's only about 36lb though. I like this photo because I'd recently done the carpet with a hired Rug Doctor ✨

Sarah, a tall woman with a questionable spine, is crouched on the floor while a blond toddler boy tries to squash her. The cream carpet is, temporarily, extremely clean.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

So committed to marketing that I'm going to the online book marketing meeting today DRESSED AS MY BOOK COVER. Ps. Please buy my book so I can afford to buy a full length mirror, thank you 🥊♥️👹

An almost 40yr old woman wears an almost neon tones red sweater and red lipstick, and grins for a selfie. Note, bra strap and nails are also red. Attention to DETAIL.

Sarah, who is 5ft 11, contorts herself at an awkward angle to take a selfie in a mirror only suitable for little, or perhaps even average, people. Her bedroom is messy because she hasn't unpacked from the British Science Festival yet. Some plants in the foreground just about survive.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I've only worked at two British Science Festivals, my day job (for people who know me only as a boxing historian!) is news, press, socials for @britsciassoc.bsky.social. Both have made me hope for MANY more! The enthusiasm in Southampton was incredible. Inspiring people, places, research. Top vibes.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It's Saturday morning in a Southampton art gallery and I've been doing a British Science Festival yoga class in wide-leg M&S jeans, surrounded by Turners and Monets. Brilliant! We won't be talking about the Happy Baby Pose again though, thank you.

Legs in grey M&S palazzo jeans. Half price in their sale and the long length is a perfect fit!

Sculptures, paintings, yoga mats in big white domed room

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

There's almost nothing I enjoy more than sitting in my attic thinking about a 6ft 2, 252lb, lady wrestler who could fling me across a music hall stage if I was around in 1906 🤼‍♀️ Not a fan of my recorded voice but I DO love chatting about my boys, gals, n' rabbit holes. Thank you @thewonderkamer.ca!

1906 newspaper photos of Miss Juno May and her manager, Antonio 'The Terrible Greek' Pierri. Juno is a tall curvy woman in white blouse and dark knickerbockers, long leather boots, dark hair pinned up, she is pictured in several poses.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Good morning from day two of the British Science Festival, where we are all fine, all having a very normal time 🐍😂

Lecture hall full of people. A young man holds a sign with some mustard on it in front of a slide about genes in bats. An ENORMOUS YELLOW SNAKE is half out of a box and making his way across the carpet...

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Brilliant 'living autopsy' by Dame Suzy Lishman at the British Science Festival this evening. Can't stop thinking about her comparison between cutting open a bowel and cutting wrapping paper in one long neat line...

Suzy in fab pink coat holds a plastic skull. In front is a female model (ALIVE) posing as dead body on post mortem table covered in white sheet

Screen showing feedback from one of Suzy's talks. It says 'if I go to one of these again I'll prbly puke' 😂😂

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Lovely day! All kicking off tomorrow. www.britishsciencefestival.org

British Science Festival event guide held up in front or MAST Mayflower Studios

British Science Festival small 3D sign thingy in foyer of John Hansard

BIG BANNER. British Science Festival welcome sign on hoarding on Uni Southampton campus.

THE END written in a window. Think its a hairdresser. Not British Science Festival related, I just liked it.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Hah! It was great! Look at this lovely bit of carving!

Simple cross gravestone with stone sword and sword strap. I don't know if a sword strap has a proper name.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You WISH your AI 'what would I look like in the 1980s?' photo even came close 🤷🏻‍♀️💅🏼

Sarah in November 1989. She is three. White silk blouse with puff sleeves and little black tie, fushcia pink layered skirt, sparkly white tights, black shoes, hair half pinned up like a housewife attempting glam. She's sitting on a brown leather Chesterfield that only got relegated to the dump in 2024.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I'm in Southampton! Never been before. Mostly just seen a retail park so far, and a cruise ship the size of a planet. I like this massive wall!

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Sent the third and final draft of the book manuscript back to my Editor today. Off to the typesetters soon. Can't wait to share the cover and pre-order link with you, hopefully at the end of this month! 🙏🏼 30 minutes after I hit send, I got a DM from another descendant. DEEPLY SATISFYING DAY! 🥊🤼

Tom Thompson, 20s, and Jack Wannop, 30s, two boxers and wrestlers with shaved heads, white undershirts, trunks and white tights, embrace each other in a wrestling hold. Photo taken around 1889 and published in Wrestling, a textbook written by Walter THE CROSSBUTTOCKER Armstrong.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Just a little bit of a sore hand for Corbett, ha ha

Corbett will leave the City for New York tomorrow morning. He is in good condition, his only trouble being that his right hand is sore. Sullivan is badly used up.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This week, 1892: John L. Sullivan, Heavyweight Champion of the World, lost his title to 'Gentleman Jim' Corbett after one hour and 18 minutes in the ring. Sullivan's seconds said to the press: "We met a younger man, and we stayed once too long. He is an American. That's all we've got to say."

sepia photo of sullivan, a handsome white Victorian man with shaven head and fantastic moustache, shirtless, arms crossed

Full length photo of Corbett, a handsome white man with glorious bouffant dark hair, shirtless, white tights, fists raised

clip from sept 1892 Sporting Life showing sketch of Sullivan, and headline THE WORLD'S BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP, Jem Corbett and John L. Sullivan, DEFEAT OF SULLIVAN

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The man, the myth - John was born Jan Neuberg in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, in 1918. Served in the RAF. I didn't stay in touch with him after I left in 2014 and don't know what happened next. Assume he's no longer with us. Wouldn't put it past him though. www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/a-p...

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I wish we still had proper local newspapers. Perfect, PERFECT. Every sentence. Every phrase. Every word. Barnoldswick & Earby Times, March 1961.

HUNGRY RAT STOLE AND KILLED.

Parrot found Dead.

RATS with digestions of iron and jaws of steel. They eat their way into homes in Hill Street, Barnoldswick, stealing and pillaging as they go. On Friday night one of these rubber-stomached rodents chewed through a wall and a thick cupboard door at number 6 the home of 73-year-old Mr. William Crearer. And it was so hungry that after a determined assault on a length of electric cable it braved the fierce, hooked beak and sharp claws of Mr. Crearer's parrot Chico, for a handful of bird-seed

Chico, says Mr, Crearer, was accustomed to sleep with his head against the side of the cage. The savage intruder sneaked up while Chico slept and bit fatally deep into the brightly coloured throat. Then it stole his bird seed. So now Mr. Crearver has a disused parrot-cage which he is willing to give to any genuine parrot-loving fancier. Along with two 12-year-old budgerigars Chico, who was 14, belonged 1o his wife who died last year. “He was a champion little bird,” says Mr, Crearer, "and I shall miss him terribly.” Now an angry bereaved birdlover has put down large amounts of rat poison—with he believes—some success. I haven’t heard rats lately,” he explains

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Jack, why is your ham plate on your head?

Ridiculous child in ridiculous fluffy onesie with a plate on his head.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It might just look like a private dining shed at Harbour Lights, Walton-on-the-Naze. But it is now Deep Throat's car park. The grassy knoll. A Clacton landmark to rival the pier (snapped this last week over oysters and a delightful cold seafood platter!) 😂🦪

Selfie taken by Sarah with her brother in law and her sister, who is conveniently ducking so we can see the dining shed in the background, seen of a July lunch for Farage and some under cover reporters posing as illegal donors.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Speaking of Bognor, why does the Clacton-on-Sea branch of a popular chain restaurant have a large display of historical Bognor Regis photographs behind the bar? 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Earned these. Thanks @robmanuel.b3ta.com! Worth at least £100 a pop in a few years, I reckon. Might fund a holiday to Bognor or Cleethorpes. Or I'll donate them to the Clacton & District Local History Society for their display cabinets in the library nobody visits because there isn't a bus.

Seven small pin badges with various Clacton by-election slogans eg TRASH NOT FASH

What's the difference between Nigel Farage and a zx81? You didn't laugh when your x81 crashed

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Yes, only 28 when he lost the title to Ted Pritchard in 1891! He did have a short later run as champion in 1890s + kept boxing exhibitions into the 1900s. I'd need to check but the last one was something like 1918 I believe! Pic below from 1914. V. interesting news on Mary Ann + this John fella...

Grainy photo of Jem Smith age around 51 from a group photo of old pugilists in 1914. He has a moustache.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Here we go again, eh. To be fair, invertebrate jellies is at least SLIGHTLY more creative than the usual insults 😆

Some snobby twat calling the people of Clacton 'invertebrate jellies' - even the ones who voted Binface. Charming, eh. Fuck off. I go gym as much as I can.

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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My sister and I were in our mid twenties when we were joined by Milly Cox (centre), a third significantly larger than average grumpy brunette. 36 and 40, probably, when she leaves us. Feels... a lot. We think she's getting close. Two years by the sea now. So much swimming. A perfect retirement 🤎

Two women in their mid/late thirties take a selfie with a brown bearded 12-13r old Korthals Griffon / wire haired pointing griffon

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