On my way to give a talk at @northumbriauni.bsky.social and it feels entirely appropriate to be prepping next week's class on Catherine Cookson on the train!

Did Regency romance mad libs with my students today (from Beyond Heaving Bosoms by @smartbitches.bsky.social) so am I a cool teacher now?

We have been researching her works for a few years now - @jodimca.bsky.social and I wrote about the late Jilly Cooper's work and the readers who loved her for @theconversation.com doi.org/10.64628/AB....

Finally received a copy of this from the publisher (although ebook only, and I can't download it?!) and was reminded that @menysnoweballes.bsky.social and I wrote some SMART thoughts (probably all from Rachel tbh).

Hi Barbies! Pleased that @dramyburge.bsky.social & my chapter, '‘The man behind the tan’: Ken’s Trumpian Absurdity' has been published in the exciting new book The Barbie Phenomenon, Volume 1! www.routledge.com/The-Barbie-P...

This is true, we do! Thanks @lauravivanco.bsky.social

Cover reveal! @dramyburge.bsky.social and I revealed the cover of our new academic book, The Bonkbuster: Women's Popular Reading in the Long 1980s, at the @iaspr.bsky.social conference today. Out January 2026! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bonkbuste...

I wrote a blog post about my book! Want some ramblings about fairy ladies, magical princesses, and serpent women (and how we should feel about them)? Or just curious about how reading medieval romance is like watching Star Wars?? It's all here, folks (and also a 35% discount 👀)!

The promotion trajectory of Wrexham AFC (3x in 3 years) is *literally* the plot of Jilly Cooper's book Tackle!, so which owner is secretly Rupert Campbell-Black: Ryan Reynolds or Rob McElhenney?

Today was @alcs.co.uk payment day! Always a delightful surprise, and a reminder authors should be paid for their work. A less delightful surprise this week was finding out that 8 things I've published, including the monograph based on my PhD research, have been used by Meta to train their AI.

There I was, minding my own business, reading my Jackie Collins (technically work as @jodimca.bsky.social would attest) when I was asked about what I was reading for Read This podcast! Always delighted to talk about bonkbusters (I'm on at 7:20). open.spotify.com/episode/31Er...

Mine and @jodimca.bsky.social's piece on the Rivals TV show for @uk.theconversation.com has been picked up by RNZ! www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Today is a reading day at the State Library of Victoria 📖

This is tomorrow!! @dramyburge.bsky.social and I will be presenting our keynote on bonkbusters first up, from 10:15-11:15am. If you're in Melbourne, come along and let us tell you about some truly bonkers books.

Couldn't find her handle before but this article partly looks at @brijbautista.bsky.social's novel You, Me, U.S. (2019)

Now that it's fully open access, happy to share this article of mine that was recently published in Literature, Critique, and Empire Today (formerly Journal of Commonwealth Literature) on marriage migration in romance novels by Helen Hoang and Brigitte Bautista! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

I had an absolutely wonderful time at Edith Cowan Uni in Perth talking all things Love Studies with Madalena Grobbelar, Elizabeth Reid Boyd and Debra Dudek! Dream collaboration team - and there is TONS of exciting research coming out of the ECU network.

ICYMI, Melbourne! @dramyburge.bsky.social and I are psyched to be giving this keynote to talk all about the books and readers of Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper, Shirley Conran and Judith Krantz.

Hi everyone! Happily resharing that my little book will be out in the world on 28th November. It is about the anglophone romance reading fandom in Pakistan, book history, & some bits of postcolonialism. #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky #Romancelandia www.bloomsbury.com/uk/romance-f...

Had THE BEST time chatting about Rivals and mine and @jodimca.bsky.social's research on Ireland AM this morning! This is my in-the-office-before-8.15am face 😂

For anyone else watching the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper's Rivals, released today, @jodimca.bsky.social and I wrote a piece for @uk.theconversation.com! theconversation.com/rivals-the-h...

I learned enough on my last trip to Australia to understand what this film is about (and also why it should have been released on the 21st December) youtu.be/K_Fwe9Q6NB0?...

Hey Australian scholars! Do you have some thoughts on nostalgia and popular fiction? Deakin's having a symposium on November 21! @dramyburge.bsky.social & I are delighted to be the keynotes, presenting some of our work on bonkbusters. Full CFP link here (goes to a PDF): bit.ly/3ZidjRJ

It's behind a paywall, but I was quoted in a piece on Colleen Hoover in the Irish Sunday Independent's Life magazine this weekend! www.independent.ie/entertainmen...

Great article! If you're collecting info on more ethical academic journals, the independent Journal of Popular Romance Studies @jprstudies.bsky.social (for which I am the current managing editor) has been open access with no fees since 2009 and is indexed in Scopus/Scimago. www.jprstudies.org

If you're in Australia - there's a big piece on the 50th anniversary of Mills & Boon publishing here in the latest print issue of the Australian Women's Weekly (feat. quite a lot of comments from me). #Romancelandia

I'm working on a summer project with the Romance Research Group on romance publishing in the UK, and the shift in paratext since 2016 is FASCINATING. For example, this Tessa Bailey novel was first published in 2017 with a photorealistic clinch cover in line with mass-market romances at the time.

Lol apparently the photo of a naked woman doll is adult content (it's not explicit).

At Sex, Sensation, Scandal conference learning from Molly-Kate Britton about Alma Mahler's boyfriend Oskar who made a LIFE-SIZED DOLL of her after she married someone else in 1915. He took the doll out with him, introduced it as Alma, and eventually TIED IT TO A TREE AND DOUSED IT IN WINE WTF.

The inimitable @profromance.bsky.social of IASPR at Sex, Sensation, Scandal conference, currently discussing the (very recent) history of Black British romance.

What do bonkbusters have to do with the Conservative Party, you ask? Me and @jodimca.bsky.social ponder this question in our piece for The Conversation - just in time for the UK General Election!

A week later, still dreaming of the post-workshop lunch.

JPRS is starting the year with 3 short pieces from @emselinger.bsky.social, @amandaallenphd.bsky.social, and @dramyburge.bsky.social about romantic works and pedagogies that are important to them. Stay tuned for more about this new series + how to get involved! www.jprstudies.org/volume-13-no...

Every. time.