Excited to be speaking in Dunblane on 15 Nov for the Leighton Library. I'll be sharing findings from my PhD and the @books-borrowing.bsky.social project. Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!

The BBC's "Who Do You Think You Are" Magazine new November 2025 issue's "Gem from the Archive" features the Signet Library's @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social funded project on the records of John Watson's Institution, research undertaken by @kgbaston.bsky.social @johockey.bsky.social

Well, as they say, the nights are fairly drawing in & if you want something to do and are interested in Edinburgh History, why not join the Old Edinburgh Club? Alternatively, you can now give a Gift Membership to someone else. All details are on our website.

✒️ New on the blog @sententiaepauli.bsky.social chats to EUP about his new book: Henry Maine’s Ancient Law as an Expression of Victorian Humanism. Read the post:

Join us for this event on Friday. Hybrid. www.law.ed.ac.uk/news-events/...

Tonight!

Love a historical kitchen? Tune into #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems on Radio 4 tomorrow to go 'below stairs' in an eighteenth-century country house. Our guide is Mary Leapor, a labouring class poet who worked in domestic service. Beneath the worlds of Bridgerton & Jane Austen - who did the washing up?

SAVE THE DATE! The Stair Society AGM and Annual Lecture will be taking place on Saturday 15 November 2025 in Edinburgh. More details to follow, but we are pleased to announce that Professor Julian Goodare, University of Edinburgh, will be delivering a talk on ‘Witchcraft and Scots Law’.

Looking forward to this launch of @drmirandakaufmann.bsky.social's Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance, and Slavery in the Caribbean at The Georgian House. Date: 2 Oct • 18:30 Location: 7 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4DR www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/heiresses-...

Lothian Health Services Archive Cataloguer: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

despite everything going on, I'm so happy to be able to keep creating jobs in the heritage sector, check out the following listings for: Assistant Musical Instruments Curator: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

“THE INHERITANCE is, then, a novel concerned with questions of morality and education, but also national identity, the differences between Scottish and English cultures… It is also very funny” —Books & Borrowing, 1750–1830 on Susan Ferrier’s THE INHERITANCE 7/8 borrowing.stir.ac.uk/forgotten-be...

We republished Susan Ferrier’s MARRIAGE in 2020—using the text of the acid-sharp 1819 2nd edition rather than the sentimentalised Victorian 4th edition of 1841. You can read the first chapter online here: 3/8 www.yumpu.com/en/document/...

I've made nothing (and won't) from publishing my book - included in LibGen (www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...). 😠The Anthropic Piracy Lawsuit form is now available to authors outwith the US: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au... ✔️✒️(On a lighter note 'outwith' is now definitely in the AI realm.)

24 month, 0.16 post at Glasgow University to cover my teaching while I'm leading a Leverhulme Project Grant. Desirable: Up-to-date knowledge and specialist understanding in science fiction, literature and medicine, and/or post-war literature. www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Unzoomed #584 3/6 🔴🟡🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️ unzoomed.com Happy with that.

The British Association for Romantic Studies Biennal International Conference 2026 - Romantic Retrospection In-person: Wednesday 29th–Friday 31st July 2026 Online Conference: Thursday 6th August 2026 Updates & CfP announced: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/arts-... [Image: Birmingham Museums Trust]

Lovely visit to @merchantshallyork.org this morning - cafe and Hall both on great form! 🤩

Happy International Cat Day! 🐾 Have you visited Whittington: The Man, The Myth, and The Cat yet? Don’t miss it — closing 21 August 2025!

Collecting The Most Beautiful Books 22 Aug, Rothesay – £8.50–£11 Kelsey Jackson Williams explores armorial bookbindings in the Bute Collection & tells the story of an exceptional but unknown assemblage of book-art in the Mount Stuart libraries #BookHistory www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collecting...

***CALL FOR PROPOSALS*** Routledge Studies in #18thC Cultures & Societies (eds. @profelainechalus.bsky.social & Deborah Simonton) seeks proposals for book-length studies on aspects of British, European, or transnational culture and society c.1680-1850. Full details: www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...

In a new entry on our research blog, Glasgow's Alex Deans reflects on how Thomas Pennant's tours of Scotland are haunted by absent, ancient trees - and the possibility of enlightened reforestation curioustravellers.ac.uk/thomas-penna...

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh announces the launch of a new website, The People’s Dispensary featuring a digitised and transcribed collection of 18th century case notes of the Edinburgh Public Dispensary from its foundation in 1776. buff.ly/UzShOzg

I love chairing panels at academic conferences and I Have Thoughts about it! I think it’s a really important service role AND you can create the conditions for everyone in the panel to have a good time AND it can be fun! A 🧵👇 1/9

This needs a 'dislike' button. Good luck!

A quick heads-up that our online catalogue will be offline for an upgrade on Wednesday morning (9th July) - all being well, we'll be back by lunchtime.

Project overlap! A letter of recommendation by William Laing, Minister of Crieff, supporting a job application for Watson's Institution in 1830. He's also a borrower from @innerpeffray.bsky.social that year. @books-borrowing.bsky.social @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social Https://tinyurl.com/4ctz4z76 ✉️📚

🚨Call for Papers: The 18th St Andrews/USTC Book History Conference on 'Print and Education' will take place 18–20 June 2026. 👉 Further details here: www.ustc.ac.uk/conference 📅 Application deadline: 12 December 2025 📖 We look forward to receiving your proposals! #CfP #bookhistory #skystorians

I made a starter park! For the #GlobalJaneAusten conference at Southampton in July! If I’ve missed you and you want in let me know!! Also, if you want out let me know! Hoping it’ll be a way to get the most out of what looks like a great event!!

Just published! 'Library Catalogues as Data' with a chapter by Team B&B - '"(S)hut not thy Heart, nor thy Library": Realising the Potential of Historical Library Borrowing Data': www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/...

'West End Girls' - a new summer exhibition at The Georgian House, Edinburgh - I helped! www.kgbaston.co.uk/2025/06/25/w... 📚👧👧👧📖🪶

I've been to this and it's absolutely tremendous. It's all based on fresh research, and uses a fabulously rich mix of artifacts, art and illustration, books, pamphlets etc. to tell its story. And it's in the beautiful Georgian House in Charlotte Square! Well worth the visit.

'West End Girls' - a new summer exhibition at The Georgian House, Edinburgh - I helped! www.kgbaston.co.uk/2025/06/25/w... 📚👧👧👧📖🪶

Out in September. Available to pre-order now from all good online bookstores. #HenryMaine #AncientLaw edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-henry-m...

🙄 (I will never regret changing my name but keeping the initial...)

Won £5 in the 'Set for Life' draw. I don't think that's *quite* going to do it. 🫤

My second EVER publication is now online, part of the wonderful volume made for a @universalstc.bsky.social conference from years' past. See how one printer/publisher/bookseller in Geneva managed to evade the city's book trade authorities for over 20 years! #skystorians #bookhistory

Today is #WorldDraculaDay because Bram Stoker's classic novel was first published #onthisday in 1897. It's also worth remembering that if Stoker hadn't come across the name Dracula in a book while researching in a LIBRARY the main character was going to be called Count Wampyr. 🧛‍♂️

I thought someone should write a brief tribute to Scotland's online archives Canmore and Scran (and their other superb counterparts) in their last days before the move to Trove - and it might as well be me. So here it is. www.jameshamilton.co.uk/uncategorize...

'A Year of Books and Borrowing'- read Katie Halsey's round-up here: borrowing.stir.ac.uk/a-year-of-bo... 😃📖📚

It's been a busy year for the Books and Borrowing Team - even though the project technically ended a year ago! Highlights include winning the @bsecs.bsky.social Digital Prize for 2025, a doctorate for @smithjj.bsky.social, and many new publications on the way...

A recent addition to the @signetlibrary.bsky.social Photographic Collection, a box of 10 full size glass plate negatives of Old Penicuik House, environs and family. The house was ruined in a fire in 1899, which dates these images to the previous 20 years (going by the style of clothing).

Jean Guild Grant Awardee Dr Kit Baston's research on 'Book Borrowing Surgeons' has got off to a great start! Using records from the University of Edinburgh Library for ‘external’ users, this project will reveal the books borrowed by the surgeons. Read all about it on our website. buff.ly/XBRmKma

Book Borrowing Surgeons! With thanks to @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social for funding an exciting new @books-borrowing.bsky.social venture: borrowing.stir.ac.uk/book-borrowi... 📚📖⚕️

/…Volunteer guides of Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library love to find a centuries-old book to suit your interests 🚶Visit the Leighton Library 📅 Open Monday-Saturday 🕚 11am-4pm 🆓 Free admission (donations invited) #Scotland #ScotlandIsCalling #VisitScotland #ExploreScotland #ScotlandIsNow

What can be discovered from the writings of 18th century women travellers? Join Dr. Alexis Wolf on May 15 at Birkbeck for "Manuscript Stories: Unconventional Women in the History of Travel Writing." For more info & to book your place: buff.ly/uJMpB7h @dralexiswolf.bsky.social

And search the catalogue from here: innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/books/

Great news! Congratulations, @innerpeffray.bsky.social! 📚

Stirling’s Literary History Exhibition 8–10 & 12–15 May, Stirling Central Library – free Celebrating Stirling’s extraordinary contribution to Scotland’s literary heritage, from the works of the medieval Makars to the voices of contemporary writers & poets www.visitscotland.com/info/events/...

We’re investigating a potential story in the student area of Jesmond in Newcastle (incidentally where I grew up!) and would love to hear from anyone whose had a potential paranormal experience in Jesmond, either in the modern day or as far back as the 80s and 90s - email me at [email protected]