Love proper winter weather.

Home for the next couple of weeks.

Eighteenth-century heaven.

Leaving Manhattan on a train that’s been delayed for 2 hours. Almost like being back in England, really.

I’m gonna rouge my knees and roll my stockings down 🎶 🎵 👌

MOMA, a walk through snowy Central Park, and a 21st Amendment cocktail at the Oscar Wilde, the coolest bar in Manhattan 👌

Katz’s. That’s all!

Schlepped downtown in -17c for Eileen’s Cheesecake. Totally worth it 👌

Breakfast with Lucille, whom I’ve not seen for TWENTY-SIX years! 😭

Bit fresh out.

The Algonquin!

Portrait of MG Lewis as a child, by John Downman.

‘Yours most truly M. G. Lewis’ ❤️

A day of research in the Pforzheimer collection (Romantic-era manuscripts) , New York Public Library.

Morning, gorgeous!

Getting off the train at Penn Station, Manhattan, to thick snow 😍

Truth.

Exciting day. After a long wait, I finally got a copy of a hitherto overlooked letter by Ann Radcliffe! As Gothic critics will know, she left almost no manuscripts behind, so this is a treasure. And what the letter says tells us a lot about what Radcliffe thought about her many Gothic imitators.

Louder, for those at the back: CHALLENGE your students, and stop ‘meeting them where they are’. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Just inhaled this beautiful novel in one sitting. Highly recommended.

Morning!

Like a hibernating squirrel.

The final station, the notorious wall balls, nearly killed me.

Joy. 🤩

Scenes!

Sprint to the finish! 🏆 🥇

Survived! A fantastic experience. Can’t wait for the next one.

Baby’s first Hyrox.

An interesting example of a ‘minor’ Gothic novelist taking a leaf out of Ann Radcliffe’s book (and Charlotte Smith et al before her) and ‘interspersing’ some of the heroine’s poetry in the narrative. I’ve not encountered this in trade Gothic before.

In the BL, finally getting to read this rare Gothic romance from 1795. (It’s absolutely terrible, btw) 👻

One week until HYROX 💀

The consolations of January: making Seville orange marmalade 🍊

Hide-and-Seek Fail.

This is a not-to-be-missed podcast if you’re gothicly inclined 🦇 ⚰️ 👻

The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Nighty Night.

Cover reveal for Michael Gamer’s excellent edition of ‘The Italian’, the first volume in the Cambridge edition of Radcliffe’s full oeuvre. Publishing very soon! Look at those rich colours! @radcliffecup.bsky.social @angelawright1794.bsky.social

Wordle 1,664 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Renee Nicole Good 💔

Back to work with Lydia and @drvil.bsky.social 💪

A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. (From T. S. Eliot, ‘The Journey of the Magi’, 1927)

❤️

Hunkering down.

Wordle 1,660 5/6 This one nearly defeated me. 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟨⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yes, training hard for Hyrox is vital, but what is equally important is choosing what to wear on one’s head 🧛 🦇

Wordle 1,659 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜ 🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Can’t leave the house today, sorry. Totally snowed in.

Happy New Year, one and all. Lang may your lum reek.

Leora’s made us a special dessert: kataifi nests with a sweet, whipped cheesecake filling, raspberries, pistachios and fresh oregano.

This is just to say, etc. . .