I just signed this, please consider doing so c.org/bzYk4kTFvq

Discussing Olaudah Equiano's 'Interesting Narrative' today in our 'London Global' module seminar and am reminded of this sculpture by Christy Symington at the Queen's House in Greenwich, where he's flanked by naval officers, the Greenwich meridian in the background #OlaudahEquiano

Now why has MS Word/Office started to want access to my location? **** off!

Excited to announce this new special issue of Volupté on the (reluctant) decadent Lafcadio Hearn: volupte.gold.ac.uk/hearn

The British Library really has become so unreliable in the last few years. It must be a complete mess working there

The gloom that hits when the 19th Century novelist presents you with several pages of "comedy" regional dialect...

Very happy to see this now in print, 'Salome's Bookshelf: Artists and Writers of the 1890s', ed. Simon Reynolds, with my own chapter 'The Music of the Venusberg: Richard Wagner and the poetry of Arthur Symons' #RichardWagner #Decadence #ArthurSymons greenex.co.uk/home/p/salom...

An academic career in the UK - constant anxiety. Every moment of every day you're thinking, oh **** I need to do that, and that too, and oh **** that too, and **** I've forgotten that, & that, & that... And still you're working flat out... #academia

Ooh, do you think our wages could now rise with inflation too? 🧐

Because all kids, of course, talk about gassing people. And raping people, etc. Apparently, that's what kids talk about. Just monstrous www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Even school children get this... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

What is it about Post Offices? You approach, no one to be seen. Within 20 yards, several people shimmer out of nowhere and create a queue. Then they pay in pennies and old buttons....

Very excited as I have just discovered how to put drop-down boxes into excel spreadsheets and now my academic admin life is supercharged and every damn spreadsheet is going to get one (or two or more). Watch out colleagues! And I need a 'merit' badge"!

A sudden shock to see my old friend and colleague's face come up on a news page this morning. My friend who was murdered. So sad and sorry for what happened to you Jamal #JamalKhashoggi www.bbc.com/arabic/artic...

Why do we have to put up with the now common nerve-shredding sound of souped up exhausts that man-children fit to their vehicles in a desperate attempt for attention? Why is there no enforcement for sound levels, no sanctions against their sale? Btw, If you're #autistic these can destroy your day

Tony Blair is to serve on the 'Board of Peace'? God help the Palestinians.

I wish Tony Blair would just go away and never come back. Please, for all our sakes, and definitely for those of the Palestinians and the wider Middle East, please, please, please go away

So at very moment the government desperately needs to gain public support they've decided to return to id cards. Seriously? Who came up with this brilliant strategy? The government might as well collectively throw itself off a cliff

As I tell all my English Literature students at the beginning of the new semester... #DragRaceuk

Our fabulous new arts students! @qmul.bsky.social @qmullinguistics.bsky.social @qmullibrary.bsky.social

The reality of teaching and employment for many of my colleagues across UK universities right here, in Yara Rodrigues Fowler's there are more things (2022) #ucu #casualisation @ucu.org.uk

Very excited by this! Great that this fabulous novel is being republished with the care and attention that it deserves! #sabinebaringgould

New book contract signed for our Jewelled Tortoise series! 'Sabine Baring-Gould, Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes', edited by Michael Craske (@mjcraske.bsky.social) All info 👉 www.mhra.org.uk/publications...

In Mersea. Mehalah country. #SabineBaringGould #MerseaIsland #Mersea #Colchester #VisitColchester

Please help. Please sign. I work on a part-time degree for mature students to study for a BA in English Literature & Community Engagement. Its direct access and designed for those who didn't or couldn't go to Uni at 18. Bristol plan to close it. We want to save it. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Still time to apply!

The full LGBTQIA+ Book History Bibliography is here 🏳️‍🌈!!! 650+ items of LGBTQIA+ #BookHistory!! Check out the intro to see how we made it, the primary bibliography, the article appendix, and the absolutely magnificent zine!!! From monographs to zines, you'll find it here! sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20...

Day three since this happened and I still feel, look, and sound like someone ran over my neck several times. Very grateful for the NHS but hey, next time, more morphine! I could have done with several days of being completely off my face! 🤪 If anyone has laudanum please send it my way

Paying a visit to John Addington Symonds and some other poets

Because why not have a winged lion boat to travel around in

The only way this vase might represent Wuthering Heights would be to smash it and then roll up and down on the fragments, screaming 'Heathcliff!' and gurgling gibberish as you go.

What gets me about young people’s use of chatgbt for writing/art/etc is it’s the modern day equivalent of jabbing an ice pick into your brain. You’re making yourself stupid and you don’t even know it.

A quick reminder that there's still time to register for the free @dickenssociety.bsky.social Dickens and Death Online Event on Saturday 7 June! 3 talks and discussion on topics including the death of Steerforth, VR representations of Dickensian deaths & Dickens's afterlife:

Apparently Elizabeth R has booked my table from 6.30, so I'm wondering which ghost is going to turn up. Glenda Jackson or one of the monarchs?

Failure to tackle AI use in student essays will damage British Universities' reputations. Universities must wake up and act on this NOW. And not just 'maybe we should think about essays and whether this or that..' the horse has already bolted and is on another planet..it needs ACTION #AI #Academia

#SkyNews seems to have become a Roman Catholic news agency

My article on Algernon Charles Swinburne's missing musical 'Ear' is now available for free on the website of the International Walter Pater Society. For a summary and a link, click below: verseandmusic.com/2025/05/13/a...

"I found in dreams a place of wind and flowers" #ACSwinburne Walking the Pembrokeshire coastal path #Pembrokshire #Wales #StDavids

"AI models are not your friends. They’re not designed to help you answer the questions you ask. They’re designed to provide the most pleasing response possible, and to ensure that you are fully engaged with them." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Please share! Fully funded PhD studentship in Digital Humanities and 19C travel writing at U of Copenhagen: employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...

#MarcelProust sees me yet again. 'and when people who...' The reason why, as an exhausted lecturer, I have yet more books delivered (much to my husband's annoyance). The modern world right there, amazon deliveries, doomscrolling, etc. From 'The Way by Swann's' #ALaRechercheDuTempsPerdu #Literature

On violence and classical music, written by me verseandmusic.com/2025/04/14/t...

Posting this before the pleasure of a new publication turns to shame and embarrassment about its inadeqacies. My article '"Bullshit" Jobs and Ticklish Comedy: Humor and Sadness in the Contemporary Workplace Novel' is out now in _Contemporary Literature_ cl.uwpress.org/content/65/2....

Finally my first edition of the #CharlesDickens weekly serial 'Great Expectations' is complete, having finally found volume IV to add to my volume V of 'All the Year Round'. 'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

Some of our students being a bit blunt...

No...'Live Chat' isn't 'live' chat if it's clearly some AI response program... #frustrated

I've worked at QMUL as well... centralising PS has never worked - particularly for 3rd space roles. Many admin tasks are subject/discipline specific. Many PS staff are specialists. Leave them where their expertise can best support academic colleagues.

The Leigh Bowery exhibition @ The Tate is a blast 💥 #LeighBowery