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