I have a new piece out in @smithsonianmag.bsky.social for Christmas Eve: Louisa May Alcott wrote to survive for much of her life. What became of her love affair with words later, when she was rich and adapted Dickens' A Christmas Carol for children? tinyurl.com/4ypdyyah #christmas #writers #books

Off to spend my Christmas Eve with Muppet Christmas Carol & One Battle After Another, & then taking a bit of time away from this place. Have a great festive season all!

Oh my, just seen there's a Muppet Christmas Carol Soft Toy Advent Calendar...

"Christmas Morning". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 7 of 7).

In London a time comes every day where the ghosts get their own back. It's often subtle but always undeniable, and it's strongest in autumn & winter. If you're ever at loose ends on Christmas Eve, pay respects at St Michael's Cornhill. Because here, down the alley, was Scrooge's counting house.

As the year draws to an end, I've been reflecting on the loss of my friend and former supervisor, Simon James, a truly wonderful man. It feels like an especially appropriate time to share this public lecture from 2015, in which Simon discusses the importance of memorial rituals in A Christmas Carol.

"Scrooge and the Third Spirit". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 6 of 7).

The Signalman. My cheery Christmas gift to you. Have a jolly peaceful one. Back after the festivities 🎅🏼👍🏻

Buy my holly green and gay, to deck your walls on Christmas day The Met 1874

"Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 5 of 7).

The Dickens Society is thrilled to announce: 'Novel Beginnings: The Charles Dickens Birthday Virtual Conference' on 7th February 2026. The conference is free. Please join us and register for the event using this link to receive a Zoom link for the event: www.eventbrite.com/e/novel-begi...

"The Second of the Three Spirits". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 4 of 7).

EXTENDED DEADLINE: AAS 2026 is now accepting proposals until 15 January 2026!

When the light begins to return, and you all watch winter #solstice sunset images, the next summer solstice comes closer. Here is a 19c etching of Stonehenge's summer solstice, illuminated from behind by the rising sun; with a few sheep in foreground at left.

It would perhaps surprise no one that I was raised with public radio as the background noise to my daily existence, so it was a singular delight getting to go on NPR to talk about Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol omny.fm/shows/in-the...

"Marley's Ghost Appearing to Scrooge". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 3 of 7).

I love a bit of literary tourism - visiting places I know from stories in books and films. So what a joy it was to talk to Lee Jackson about #Dickensland! Join us for the start of the new season of #LifeandLanguage @victorianlondon.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/0aB3...

"Not a knocker,--but Marley's Face!" Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 2 of 7).

On December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol was first published. This is a 1946 edition from King Features Syndicate. With a cover & interior art by Hal Foster, the endpages show characters such as Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Prince Valiant, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Blondie, the Katzenjammer Kids & many more.

In 1892, Charles Green contributed 28 fresh illustrations to a reprinting of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. To kick off my Christmas Carol illustration advent this year, here's his half-page title. (1/7)

Birmingham Town Hall (UK). New! Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque commemorates Charles Dickens' first public reading of A Christmas Carol in 1853. #novella #fiction #literature #English

Another early Christmas gift from @angelawright1794.bsky.social and me: Jimmy Packham's splendid book on 'Coastal Gothic, 1719–2020' has just been published, and is available on open access for the next 2 weeks: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

@sinsleyh.bsky.social offers a characteristically thoughtful, generous and appreciative assessment of Austeniana. I want to read the graphic novel!

Today marks Jane Austen's 250th birthday! Celebrate with 30% off select books - plus, get free shipping on orders of $50 or more. Use code HJANE25 to save on in-depth biographies like "The Making of Jane Austen," essential poetry collections, and much more. https://tr.ee/oyFyMj

Reading a very recent novel and feeling smug at the narrator describing another character as 'not old, only about forty-five'. (Yes, alright, I am around this 'not old' age, so am enjoying this judgement of not-oldness from a millennial novelist while it lasts & definitely not asking my students.)

"Mr. Trump's countenance was orange, his manner coarse, accent harsh, and wig ginger. No one could ascertain his income, as the number kept changing at his own report."

📢 We are delighted to announce that our most recent special issue "(Dis)location: The Shifting Thematics of Home" has just officially been published! 📚 This issue comprises a diversity of promising articles on home, #belonging, transcultural memory and #diaspora. More details on the entire issue👇:

More on Fennell's "Wuthering Heights", though to be fair this is an enjoyable piece on Haworth & Brontëmania.

It is with deep sadness that the Institute of English Studies reports the death of Michael Slater, MBE. Michael was a world-leading authority on Charles Dickens, who generously shared his enthusiasm, knowledge, understanding, and promotion of all things Dickensian. ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

The stirring of the pot in this article is predictable enough - and of a piece with Fennell's other work. Was probably more intrigued by Robbie's claim that the new Wuthering Heights is primarily for the demographic of women in their 30s, which seems niche even for classic literary adaptations.

Some interesting thoughts in this column on narrative video games & Victorian fiction: 'There’s that same sense of slightly spread out storytelling that you get in those big 19th-century novels from Thackeray onwards'.

Our latest “Document of the Week”, chosen by our Editorial Assistant, Chloe Haney, is a page of festive puzzles, riddles, and jokes published in The Illustrated London News in December 1847. Why not have a go at solving some of these puzzles yourself! Read the full article here: buff.ly/F6WzRJu

Journal of European Periodical Studies is now on Bluesky! JEPS is a peer-reviewed online journal published by Ghent University on the study of periodicals and newspapers in Europe from the seventeenth century to the present. Follow us for news & please share! Our website: openjournals.ugent.be/jeps/

Coming soon: Disability and the Gothic: The Nineteenth Century. Cambridge Gothic Elements series. Publication date is 24 March 2026 www.cambridge.org/core/element...

#CFP for the 27th International Thomas Hardy Conference and Festival: www.hardysociety.org/oxo/817/ths-... July 25th-August 1st 2026, Dorchester #ThomasHardy #19thC #Victorian 💙📚 #booksky

Clearing out for an office move, and just found this pearl of a prompt in some old, scribbled teaching notes from c. 20 years ago: 'Is Willoughby a cad or a victim of circumstance?'

Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale is now available for preorder from @livunipress.bsky.social. It revises our understanding of this political genre through medical humanities www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

50% off books in the ADAPTATION AND VISUAL CULTURE series link.springer.com/series/14654 — all 41 books on sale! Use FLSH50 to save on books & eBooks | Until December 5, 2025 11:59 pm EST*

CfP for VPFA's 18th Annual Conference is now live and the topic is 'Victorians and their Publics'. To read the CfP and full submission guidelines online, please head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-....

‘Marie’ Christmas, Victorianists! Eleanor Dobson and I have co-edited ‘Marie Corelli Reconsidered’, a special issue of Victoriographies. It features @janetteleaf.bsky.social Adam Lewis Smith, Keiko Kiriyama, Stephen Edwards, and our own detective work into the authorship of The Twin Soul (1887) 🔍

Dickens is going to Denmark! Will you go too? CFP deadline: 4 January Conference: 13-16 July in Aarhus on ‘Thinking Dickens’ dickenssociety.org/home

What happens when @bavs-uk.bsky.social and @qaqv.bsky.social join forces? This: qaqv.ia.uw.edu.pl/wlm14/ You've got almost 3 months to submit your idea and then 2 more to complete your paper! Details in the CFP ⤴️

Job Posting: Victorian Periodicals Review Associate Editor (Application Deadline: 12/15/25) navsa.org/News/13568271

⚠️ DEADLINE TODAY!!! ⚠️ Get your abstract in for the LFA/AAS joint conference on Adaptation & Collaboration, to be held online February 19-20 2026 🖥️

I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

@lydiacooper.bsky.social’s and my special issue of @studiesinthenovel.bsky.social is out now. Such a joy to work with one of my best friends on this amazing set of articles muse.jhu.edu/issue/55993

Another regionalised Christmas Carol, this time focusing on Victorian Leeds & the textile industry & starring Reece Dinsdale as Scrooge. Deborah McAndrew's adaptation has been staged a few times before, so not sure how radical take this Leeds Playhouse one is.

It's that time of year again for #Dickens #AChristmasCarol & the #Victorians Join me for a virtual lecture on Dec 3 for #SmithsonianAssociates & learn about plum puddings, workhouses, the Queen, and if Dickens really "invented" #Christmas Details at smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...

James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best-known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism #poetry 1/4 psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...

I’m looking forward to delivering the plenary lecture at this multidisciplinary conference, which marks the tercentenary of the first publication of the world’s greatest prose satire, in 2026: www.fabula.org/actualites/1...