Just had to edit my bio after saying bye to my 19.5YO cat Kooky. Am now only herded by one cat 😟. But it was a peaceful, dignified end at home for her, after a last meal of her fave tinned tuna in spring water.

“Hayley’s literary relationship with Dante had a central role in the rediscovery of the Italian poet at the turn of the nineteenth century in England”. Read Silvia Riccardi's bit.ly/DanteHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #Dante #Inferno #divinecomedy

“In his phraseology, he was paying tribute to Jane Austen, whose novels … he had been reading as he wrote [his memoir]”. Hayley ❤️Austen? bit.ly/AustenHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #romance #JaneAusten #romanticism #19thc #womenswriting #womenshistory

“… the death of his only son at the age of 19 challenged … [Hayley’s] … assumptions about the workings of sympathy. The writing that Hayley produced in the aftermath … have also challenged later readers …" Fathers, sons & memoirs. Susan Matthews on bit.ly/BeingTemperate in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Looking forward to Saturday's event & ear-reading the book later this week.

Happy 280th birthday William Hayley! Want to know more about the dude • credited with reforming "the entire female mind of England” • who lobbied the PM for a pension for his mentally ill best friend & • tried to cure him by creating "a large & Complicated intellectual Machine"? bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Jan 1792. Two poets are cast as ‘rival biographers’ of Milton. But one letter switches competition to collaboration & kicks off a surprising tale of love, poetry, mental illness & money. bit.ly/HayleyCowper in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #bromance #friendship Pic deets in ALT

Reminder that the next Stephen Copley Award deadline is 15th November! The Stephen Copley Research Award funds bursaries of up to £500 for postgraduate and early-career researchers. See the website for more information on eligibility and how to apply: www.bars.ac.uk/main/index.p...

1784. Jeremiah Meyer, miniature painter in enamels to King George III, brought a popular opera back from Germany, thinking his friend William Hayley could make £ translating it for the London stage. What could possibly go wrong? Read bit.ly/KnausMeyer in bit.ly/HayleyEssays for the full story.

How did developer Michael Kowalski & I make an interactive biography – “HayleyWorld” – for my PhD? And why did I decide to call it a “zoeography"? bit.ly/MakingHW in bit.ly/HayleyEssays. Video intro here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4N.... #elit #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th

Interested in #WilliamBlake &/or biography? Read @jasonpaulwhittaker.bsky.social & @urthonaunbound.bsky.social’s: “‘Be My Enemy for Friendship’s Sake’: Hayley & Blake’s Biographers” bit.ly/BME4FS in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #Blake #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th Pic detailss in ALT

It’s my birthday! So if you want to make me happy, go look at bit.ly/HayleyEssays! It’s priced as an academic book (cos that’s what it is), so please only buy a copy if you are a) an academic or academic-adjacent institution or b) super-rich! But do go and have a look. TY! #HappyBirthdayToMe

In our intro to bit.ly/HayleyEssays, Mark Crosby & I explain William Hayley’s significance, discuss the book’s chapters & point to research still to be done (there’s LOADS!). So, if you’re an #18thC-ist, or a #Romanticist looking for a new research project/focus, check out bit.ly/HonestChronicler.

If you’ve been following me for a few weeks, you’ll know that I’ m super-proud of the book Mark Crosby & co-edited about William Hayley (1745-1820). If you don’t already know this & are interested in long #18thC art, lit, women's or socio-cultural history, please check out bit.ly/HayleyEssays TY!

Me. Yesterday. Feel v lucky that my body can do this. (Video shows short woman wearing pink toe shoes jumping slightly more than half her height)

Alex Kidson – the World’s leading Romney expert – whose conversation with leading Blakean Morton D. Paley forms bit.ly/HayleyRomneyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays, is editor of the stunning www.amazon.co.uk/George-Romne.... Both he & the book feature in this video… youtu.be/nCBFJGcpB2Q

Nicholas Shrimpton whose bit.ly/RevisitHayleyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays reassesses the Blake-Hayley relationship, is the editor of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙢 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙠𝙚: 𝙎𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙤𝙚𝙢𝙨 and writes for 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙣. See more of his writing here:

Part 2 of the video shared in yesterday’s post re @fbls.bsky.social’s essay on on erased 18thC author Eliza Hayley bit.ly/ElizaHayleyAuthor in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

@fbls.bsky.social observes how “Scholarly references to Hayley are … always in relation to her husband, hardly ever recognising her own intellectual merit.” A pity, as Hayley had plenty to say… bit.ly/ElizaHayleyAuthor in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #womenshistory #womenswriting

The Warwick PhD Scholarships Competition for 2025 entry is open! Deadline: 8 Dec. 2025 (course applications); 11 Dec. 2025 (funding). Get in touch. warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/mod...

In this On History blog, Gaverne Bennett and Jenny Lelkes-Rarugal discuss how the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) can be used to research and teach the histories of race and ethnicity

A few years back I applied, unsuccessfully, for a (smallish) research grant. As the funder revealed how many applications they'd had, I did a quick back-of-an-envelope calculation. My estimate is that for every £1 they were putting into the sector, they were extracting c. 99p in labour.

'Before William Wordsworth’s imagination had wandered, lonely as a cloud, and before John Keats’s nib had quivered with notions about nightingales, a Black woman named Phillis Wheatley was circulating a treasury of nature-inspired verse in London.'

The only person to write a book length critical study of the poet, Claudia Thomas Kairoff was amazed to discover a major portrait of Seward in a local library bit.ly/HayleySeward in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #romanticism #portraits #arthistory #friendship #poetry #womenshistory

Great 12-month opportunity for an historian. Salary: £36,799 (Grade 5: Development Worker grade). Edinburgh/hybrid. Closing date 21 October.

“The bust [is] nevertheless of a size never likely to have been realized. (Doesn’t the pictured Hayley realize this incongruity?)” Morton D. Paley on William Hayley & George Romney’s paintings buff.ly/BuYPfpF in bit.ly/HayleyEssays Actual bust? Probably this: buff.ly/kfNHnhK #ArtHistory #18thC

‘“if Hayley is deemed a furious Democrat what must be the state of patriotism in this country?”'. Mark Crosby explores William Hayley’s Milton biography and politics bit.ly/MiltonHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #Milton #republicanism #politics

Just catching up with #TheArchers. Because that's what Sundays are for. That and 08.15am boot camp (yes. That was a distinctly (unhumble) brag)

“A Systematically Immoral Man” who “committed the vilest sins from a pure motive”. Safe to say that William Hayley’s sister-in-law was not a fan. Find out more: bit.ly/systematicallyimmoral in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #marriage #divorce #romanticism #19thc #womenshistory

“Hayley’s literary relationship with Dante had a central role in the rediscovery of the Italian poet at the turn of the nineteenth century in England”. Read Silvia Riccardi's bit.ly/DanteHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #Dante #Inferno #divinecomedy Pic info in ALT

Anarchy in the UK: OUP hoists its standard for radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice, 1793, & Caleb Williams, 1794; & (in timespan of this volume) Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century, Of Population, History of the Commonwealth of England; & many more works. At press.

Diana Barsham on 💘William Hayley 💘 Jane Austen 💘… bit.ly/AustenHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #romance #JaneAusten #romanticism #19thc #womenswriting #womenshistory

Poor Alejandro. Off his face on gabapentin so he doesn't maim another vet while having his annual jabs...

After a long pause, I've just done another England Covid & NHS update as we head into the autumn/winter season. TLDR: we're in a significant Covid wave now, the NHS is stretched, get boosted if you're eligible. christinapagel.substack.com/p/england-is...

Blimey. That’s embarrassing.

This is GREAT (thanks for the excellent find @ncdominie.bsky.social )

“… the death of his only son at the age of 19 challenged … [Hayley’s] … techniques for managing grief and his assumptions about the workings of sympathy." Fathers, sons & memoirs. Susan Matthews on bit.ly/BeingTemperate in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #memoir #fathers

An #18thC tale of love, poetry, religion & mental illness. And what happens when a writer begs the Prime Minister for a pension for his friend… Read bit.ly/HayleyCowper in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #romanticism #poetry #friendship Image credit in ALT text.

Spring 1792. Eliza Ball Hayley reads ’A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’. She asks what her estranged husband, William Hayley, thinks of Wollstonecraft. Then she makes a proposition… Video – reading of (edited) letters between the pair. 2/2. bit.ly/systematicallyimmoral in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Anyway, today is World Migratory Bird Day, so I invite you to spend a minute contemplating those extraordinary journeys, perhaps by looking at the European Migration Atlas. migrationatlas.org

On the blog: “A Hidden History: African women and the British Health Service, 1930–2000” by Olivia Mason. An important read on overlooked contributions to Britain’s healthcare system. #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackHistoryMonth2022 #GenderHist womenshistorynetwork.org/a-hidden-his...

Just bought a socket screwdriver set (£25) & a radiator key (£2). Only needed the key. Now hunting for loose screws (actual rather than metaphorical) to justify purchase. Can't return, as I ripped the cardboard cover off rather too enthusiastically 🤦🏻‍♀️

Spring 1792. Eliza Ball Hayley reads ’A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’. She asks what her estranged husband, William Hayley, thinks of Wollstonecraft. Then she makes a proposition… Video – reading of (edited) letters between the pair. 1/2. bit.ly/systematicallyimmoral in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Workshop 6pm Monday 27th Oct (recording also available) in #postmenopause as a time of creative possibility. An existential, psychotherapeutic and creative look at #menopause as turning point, opening towards our vital third act. All welcome. onlinevents.co.uk/event/how-to...

Scholars of eighteenth-century topics: consider submitting your work to *Digital Defoe*. We publish essays on Defoe, but also on his "contemporaries," which we're inclined to interpret broadly. More info here: call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/10/...

ADHD 🤦🏻‍♀️of the week? Tipping the rice I'd decided against cooking back into the wrong jar. Nearly broke several teeth on oat, banana & yog dessert with surprise ingredient ADHD 💪🏼? DIY mini PA system pairing Bluetooth speaker with old wireless lapel mic, used to speak gently to class of 50 students.

Flicking through my (unbound, stained) copy of 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, I was excited to discover these. Can anyone tell me if they’re flowers or, perhaps, 4-leaf clovers? I’m guessing the former, as would be quite the collection of the latter! RPs appreciated! #18thC #botany #ArtHistory #WomensHistory

1784. Jeremiah Meyer, miniature painter in enamels to King George III had an idea. He brought a popular opera back from Germany, thinking his friend William Hayley could make £££ translating it for the London stage. What could possibly go wrong? 🤦🏻🤷🏻🤦🏻 Read bit.ly/KnausMeyer in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Things that should not be happening in one of the richest countries in the world. I'm ashamed.

Discover how developer Michael Kowalski & I made “HayleyWorld” for my PhD & why I decided to call this interactive biography a ‘"zoeography". bit.ly/MakingHW in bit.ly/HayleyEssays. Video intro here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4N.... #elit #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th