‘I scorn death and vow that I meet it innocent of any crime’ A privilege to view Mary’s last letter (Feb 1587) in Perth Museum yesterday with @hannahgrim02.bsky.social and Ollie. The exhibition is free and open until the 26th April - a rare chance to read Mary as portrayed in her own words.

This superb book by some bloke called James Coleman will be available in paperback soon. Available to preorder via @edinburghup.bsky.social edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-remembe... #heismyweebrother

Just over one week left to submit abstracts for the CoAH PG Conference! Link to submission form: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/YzbADsQhqu

The last of our special Arran editions is out today to our email subscribers. A huge thank you to Aimee and @katekane1542.bsky.social for your impressions of what was a fantastic weekend. #theblether #thebletherpgr #scottishliterature #visitarran

Meet Daniele Blee on placement with us during her PhD in Scottish Literature at @uofgartshums.bsky.social. Dani is exploring the Alasdair Gray archive to inspire a tabletop RPG, connecting Gray’s imagination with inclusive, community-driven play.

I wrote a thing about caves and our recent #ScotLit trip to the Isle of Arran. Sign up to the link here if you’d like to read it. Also, The Blether is very good, so you’d be doing yourself a favour anyhow… 👍🏻

I enjoyed writing this for International Women's Day today! theconversation.com/wit-courage-...

Two poems by Scottish playwright and poet Joan Ure (1918-1978) for International Women’s Day. A small selection of Ure’s much-overlooked work was published in 2018’s The Tiny Talent, with a foreword by Alasdair Gray. Why is her work not considered part of the Scottish literary canon?

📚 Every secondary school pupil in Scotland deserves access to a school library but right now, there's no law to protect them. Write to your MSP today and tell them that school libraries shouldn't be a luxury. www.scottishbooktrust.com/our-research...

So nice to spend time on lovely Arran ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Our email subscribers are enjoying an article by @laurzzs.bsky.social on her work on Agnes Owens. Thank you for supporting us Laura and we can’t wait to visit @aowensarchive.bsky.social Subscribe today via us4.list-manage.com/contact-form... #thebletherpgr #theblether #agnesowens

Episode 4 is out: Scottish Folk and European Music with Kirsteen McCue, Professor of Scottish Literature and Song Culture at @glasgow.ac.uk We discuss the history of Scottish folk music and particularly its influence on the birth of modern music — from Beethoven to Bob Dylan. 🎼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Link⬇️

New publications by our members: "The Page as Gendered Cultural Recess: Female Creative Anxieties in Margaret Oliphant’s 'The Library Window' (1896)" by @leoniejungen.bsky.social has appeared in "Writing Angst". Available in open access: tinyurl.com/mrmwwpwe

Mary, Queen of Scots was executed for treason at Fotheringhay 439 years ago today! 21st-century poet Anne Pia imagines Mary’s final hours in her recent poem below, named ‘Les Dernières Heures: The Last Hours of Mary Queen of Scots’. www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/les-der...

Photos from the NLS of ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’ and her ‘Four Maries’ at the Scottish Historical Pageant at Craigmillar Castle in 1927.

What can PhD researchers learn from a ceilidh? 🕺📚 From Gay Gordons to Strip the Willow, guest blogger Joshua MacRae dances through history, academia, and Burns Night reflections. Take the floor—read the full blog: sgsahblog.com/2026/01/27/d...

To celebrate Burns Night on Sunday, I wrote an article for @theconversation.com about the role that Robert Burns played in the afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots. Have a read below!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 This Burns Night, we’re digging into the blog archives to share how a Robert Burns poem helped promote the suffrage movement in Ayrshire & Arran. 📖 Discover the story here: womenshistoryscotland.org/2022/08/06/h... #BurnsNight #WomensHistory #Suffrage

The queen was the source of much debate among 18th-century thinkers.

To celebrate Burns Night on Sunday, I wrote an article for @theconversation.com about the role that Robert Burns played in the afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots. Have a read below!

Today’s Out of the Shadows email is by @ginorgym.bsky.social We thought we would challenge Geraldine to bring some of her Burns thoughts and opinions into the daylight. Drop us an email to subscribe or complete the form via us4.list-manage.com/contact-form... to receive our Daily Blether.

Had great fun reading and editing the Blether this month! A great spectrum of insights and opinions on the Scottish Bard which I’m sure will be thought-provoking to all of our readers 🧐💭

Sign up to The Blether to get a monthly dose of all things Scottish Literature in your inbox! In celebration of Burns night, I’ve written a piece about the connection between Robert Burns and Mary, Queen of Scots. More exciting pieces to come this week!

Mary, Queen of Scots is remembered as a ‘Jeezabel’ in George Blake’s ‘Scottish Treasure Trove’ (1928). The collection contains ‘the most interesting historical extracts and literary quotations about Scotland’. Quotation from John Gibson Lockhart’s 1823 satirical bildungsroman ‘Reginald Dalton’.

Excited to say I have a new book chapter out in 'Nationalism and Royal Women in Early Modern England', part of the Queenship and Power series from Palgrave Macmillan. My chapter explores the anti-Scottish nature of Elizabethan propaganda on Mary Queen of Scots. Read it here: doi.org/10.1007/978-...

I’m excited to be working alongside the @natlibscot.bsky.social to deliver their upcoming event in celebration of Burns Night. Come along for some fascinating insight into the Bard’s unique relationship with the natural world! @paulinemackay.bsky.social @dr-ron.bsky.social #scottishliterature

A quick Vinted search reveals some of the weird and wonderful world of 20th-century Mary Queen of Scots memorabilia…

Once upon a time, there was an ogress who lived on the North Berwickshire coast, & she managed to scare even the king of fairies before marrying the devil himself… —Dr Sarah Dunnigan on the supernatural feminine in early Scottish literature #WyrdWednesday www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2016/11/from...

To celebrate the imminent exhibition of Mary Queen of Scots' last letter at Perth Museum, I wrote an article for @uk.theconversation.com about my PhD research into Mary's writing - have a read for my top 5 things you should know! ⬇️ theconversation.com/mary-queen-o...

A striking image of Mary, Queen of Scots in Etonian Charles à Court Repington’s blank-verse play ‘The Life and Death of Marie Stuart’ (1923). Very little information is available about the text or its Scottish illustrator R.E. Balfour (Ronald Egerton Balfour, 1896-1941). Would love to know more!

it wis January and a gey dreich day the first day Ah went to the school… —Liz Lochhead, “Kidspoem/Bairnsang” published in A CHOOSING: The Selected Poems of Liz Lochhead (Polygon, 2017) #poem #poetry #scots #language #MinorityLanguages birlinn.co.uk/product/a-ch...

A very Happy Christmas from @ginorgym.bsky.social @hannahgrim02.bsky.social @swottypat.bsky.social @katekane1542.bsky.social aka The Blether team! More from us in 2026! #happychristmas #thebletherpgr #thebletherscotlit

I went on my first solo trip to the NLS last week! Great Mary finds in their collection, including Emily Hahn’s biography for children ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (1956). An American (and feminist?) perspective on a Scottish Queen: ‘Fifty years after Columbus discovered America Mary Stuart was born.’

Introducing ‘The Blether’ 💬 The Blether is a developing idea from 4 Scot Lit PGRs @uofglasgow.bsky.social designed to highlight the work and research being carried out in Scottish Literature. Follow us to get involved!📚✍🏼💬 #scottishliterature #theblether #thebletherpgr