So, here it is! Merry Christmas everybody!

I have finally put my MR James collection, which is quite extensive, on the bookshelf that came from the Rhodes James family who were family friends. It came from the estate of MRJ niece, maybe Dr James, maybe from the family home, and at the very least owned by his brother Sydney. Goodnight

I had so much fun thinking about M. R. James, ghosts, art and objects for Apollo this month 👻👻👻

I've written a novel, Experts in a Dying Field. It's out on Penguin Sandycove in June. It's about about a band and a tragedy & art for art's sake & aging & loss & community & Dublin. There's a fox in it. & sheet music. The beautiful cover's by Jack Smyth. You can preorder: linktr.ee/expertsinady...

Come and apply to be the Professor of Bibliography & Modern Book History @engfacoutreach.bsky.social & @jesusoxford.bsky.social (and work closely with us @bodleian.ox.ac.uk). Following a long line of great scholars: Don McKenzie, Kathryn Sutherland, & Dirk van Hulle ... my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

In this compact volume, @profcarolyne.bsky.social explores how dragons have captured the human imagination across time and space. Discover The Little Book of Dragons: bit.ly/47SWqjc #ArtHistory #LiteraryStudies

‘Horrid little fellow, like some sort of maggot - looks like a drug-taker’: A. C. Benson, on meeting Winston Churchill.

Everyone should have this book.

Keir Starmer won’t be surprised Lucy Powell is his new deputy leader – but he should be very worried | Morgan Jones

Ah, go on then: “Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.” Ahem, who burgled the Louvre? Correct answers only.

Our own Nick Freeman has contributed a chapter, ‘The Ghost Story 1870-1900’, to The Victorian Ghost Story: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh UP). There’s spooky fun for all the family with Dickens, Kipling, Stoker, and various other practitioners of the ghostly tale ...

I couldn't resist. #pleasingterror

Job alert! University of Auckland, lectureship in English, in the long 19th century: jobs.smartrecruiters.com/TheUniversit...

Look what finally arrived! Hooray!!

I think this analysis is correct but more importantly it uses a Night of the Demon analogy for a leadership challenge. It's in the trees! It's coming!

I imagine Keir Starmer must feel a little like Karswell at the end of the film, only instead of a demon approaching to draw things to a close, it’s probably a by-election in the greater Manchester area, a fizzing cloud of Andy Burnham on the horizon. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

We have a cover! ‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2026. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

Oxford has fallen. Repeat: Oxford has fallen… 🤖 #HigherEducation #academia

Sally Rooney unable to collect award over Palestine Action arrest threat

Fabulous launch last night for Kevin Smith’s #InjuryTime - now at number 1 @hodgesfiggis.bsky.social - thanks to everyone for coming @tlrhub.bsky.social @profdarryljones.bsky.social @etaintannam.bsky.social @klillington.bsky.social @lilliputpress.bsky.social

I am absolutely delighted to be taking part in this panel discussion with @murphgothic.bsky.social, @ordonnel.bsky.social, @profdarryljones.bsky.social, and @drdara.bsky.social. I'll be talking about Gertrude Barrows Bennett. It's part of @tlrhub.bsky.social's research festival. Free & open to all!

Heads up, English Literature types. The newly formed School of English at MMU is looking to appoint a new Head of School, ideally someone who already holds a professorial Chair. Further details here: manmetjobs.mmu.ac.uk/jobs/vacancy...

And yet Nigel Farage is still dictating UK government policy and the BBC News agenda.

Listening to PM on Radio 4. Why is the BBC yet again allowing Nigel Farage to set the terms of the media debate?

Splendid day’s papers at the #WarningToTheCurious conference!

Delighted to have this arrive today in the mail today: The Edinburgh Companion to the Victorian Ghost Story, edited by Andy Smith, including an essay from me about "Ghostly Machines and Mechanical Ghosts." Full TOC and ordering info: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-vic...

@romgothsam.bsky.social 's #WarningToTheCurious conference gets underway. Two whole days of papers related to the work of M R James! We start with Octavia Cade talking about the well as an inverted lighthouse. We finish tomorrow evening with @nunkie.bsky.social presenting a James story.😍

I once gave a conference paper in which I gave a long reading of M. R. James’s ‘Mr Humphries and his Inheritance’ with this image behind me on PowerPoint. Nobody said anything.

I beg to differ

Palestine Action and the radicalisation of grandma: The Labour Party should remember that, in modern Britain, older people are the ones who do politics properly. 🖊️ Morgan Jones

Further evidence for my prankster theory. “Curiousity”??!!!

Have you bought your tickets for the M R James online conference yet? We've got so much amazing stuff going on, including a performance from ROBERT LLOYD PARRY of 'A Warning to the Curious' Check out the website and get your tickets awarningtothecuriousconference.wordpress.com

Oh no! I met him many times, and he was always warm, kind, witty, and very knowledgeable.

Speaking of my publisher, I guess I should keep re-sharing our book cover…gotta keep those academic and business buyers interested (even if I don’t have a pubdate yet)…

‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2026. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

Oh dear, I got my wires crossed! It’s actually September 2026!! Sorry about that folks, and please, those of you holding your breath, stop holding!

My take on @coldwarsteve.bsky.social's reimagining of #Hogarth Rake's Progress with #Trump as the personification of political shamelessness. @theconversation.com #18thcentury theconversation.com/trump-takes-...

(Fewer than) three months [are] allowed!

‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2025. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

Has some very clever, very funny prankster hacked into the Warwick website? That’s the only sane explanation here.

An article about small penis jokes...by Neil Cocks.

AI is never, ever wrong. It’s the future!

‘Fantastic keynote speakers!’

The odds of you dying on any given day are 1900/1. But if someone has a premonition of your death, the odds of you dying within 12 hours are 43/1. (According to the philosopher C. D. Broad’s papers on psychical research.)

40 years ago today I watched Live Aid on a caravan holiday in Trecco Bay, Porthcawl. 5 years ago I watched the whole thing again, and live tweeted the experience. And so, for the day that’s in it, once more, with feeling…

Claire Connolly will be at WCLF on Sunday 13 July to tell us all about Somerville and Ross’s Experiences of an Irish RM & The Real Charlotte. Claire has written the prefaces to new editions of these classic books @quercusbooks.bsky.social @claireconnolly.bsky.social m.independent.ie/entertainmen...

Ok @ryanairofficial.bsky.social , why have the passengers on the flight from Dublin toStansted been standing in a stairwell for almost an hour, when you knew the flight was going to be 40 mins delayed? Why not just leave us sitting comfortably in the departure lounge?