Byron Society PhD Bursary - up to £5,000 for 2026-27. ​ New & existing full-time PhD students enrolled at a UK university & working on any aspect of the life, work &/or influence of Lord Byron can apply. Deadline: May 1st, 2026. More details: www.thebyronsociety.com/phd-bursary #C19th #byron

He is busy admiring his own fancy bechonkitude in the glass. You may as well admire him too! #fancychicken #pheasant #nothoughts

Last chance to register if you fancy hearing me chat about how volcanos shaped some of your favourite gothic novels. I can promise a LOT of volcano art, some early stage adaptations of Frankenstein, a cut scene from Dracula, & of course lots of Lord Byron!. 🌋 #c19th

I'm super excited to be chatting to The Byron Society about how volcanoes have shaped the Gothic and why Lord Byron was the ultimate 'Volcanic Gothic' celebrity. Featuring cameos from Jo March, Dracula & the Dark Lord Sauron! 📆 26/02/2026 5:30 pm. Online. 🎟️ www.thebyronsociety.com/events/volca...

BREAKING: A push to name one of Chicago’s snowplows “Abolish ICE,” clearly linking the humorous pun to efforts to oppose President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort, won the city’s annual snowplow naming contest, officials announced. @wttw.bsky.social

still waiting for intelligent longform cultural criticism with psychomarxist explanation of the "everything is butthole" logorrhea in the AI space

We still have some fully-funded spaces available in this year's mentorship programme. Open to all BFS members. Get your application in here: forms.gle/ZUxehGN44unR...

Caption contest!

📢 RRR Journal is on the hunt for new reviewers! If you'd like to express interest in writing a review of a monograph, conference, exhibition, theatre production, or film to be considered for next year's issue, please fill out the 'call for reviewers' form at www.rrrjournal.com/contact or email us!

Yes it’s Valentine’s Day. But it’s also the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass who was born in 1818 on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland. He escaped from slavery & rose to become the most eloquent and forceful voice for the abolition of slavery & for Black voting rights in the U.S.

I'm super excited to be chatting to The Byron Society about how volcanoes have shaped the Gothic and why Lord Byron was the ultimate 'Volcanic Gothic' celebrity. Featuring cameos from Jo March, Dracula & the Dark Lord Sauron! 📆 26/02/2026 5:30 pm. Online. 🎟️ www.thebyronsociety.com/events/volca...

I guess we’re not going outside today. Those of you who remember Padraig the Pheasant, please meet his equally tenacious descendant, Phil the Pheasant.

He’s been stuck like this for ages. My dude. Just reverse. Truly, achingly vacant.

🔈 Calling all PhDs & ECRs working on 19thC places and spaces! Send your abstracts in for what is going to be a wonderful event! 👇

Peanuts have arrived. Bon appetit wee man.

“Greetings Food-Mammal. I cannot help but notice that you have allowed yourself to become distracted from feeding duties by your day job.”

It’s Decadence day. 💛

🙌

🚨 The goat has fallen!!! #Gävlebocken

Very Happy Blue Carbuncle Day, to all those who celebrate! “It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan,” I remarked. “Precisely so," Holmes replied, "on December 22nd, just five days ago." 💎

Go check out Bob for Wired!

This week we launch a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social 'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the 2026 Chalke History Festival bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited #Skystorians

In this week’s episode of “Place names that sound like Victorian novel characters!” Fankerton Bash would be a hearty but slightly abrasive American in an Arthur Conan Doyle or Bram Stoker story. #c19th

Honk honk 🎄

I’d forgotten what a banger of a kids movie is Small Soldiers (1998). But if it was freaky as a kid then it’s extra freaky in the age of AI.

Apply!

Dickensians, what are your academic plans for next Thursday?

Some really great literary theory classes today. Our regularly scheduled class on Marxist theory and Sianne Ngai’s ‘cute’ commodities derailed wildly (but not irrelevantly) into a discussion of what Karl Marx would make of the Labubu that someone left on his grave.

Boiler’s borked. So I’m spending Halloween waiting on … “The Boiler Man!!” #BBCghosts

I’m currently writing about Sherlock Holmes and my autocorrect keeps changing ‘Lestrade’ to ‘Lestat’. But now I’m thinking that would be one wild shared universe?!

Our first seminar was fabulous and has been recorded of you missed it - don’t miss our November event on Amateur Theatricals hosted by the very professional @catherinequirk.bsky.social! Register in the link below - free, online, all welcome!

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Very excited for BAVS to come to Liverpool next year, and very pleased to see our CfP out! No specific theme, we are open to any exploration of the multifaceted nature of 'the Victorian' - have a look at the call here: victorianist.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/c...

The BAVS 2026 Annual Conference CfP is now live: victorianist.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/c... We hope you can join us in Liverpool next year!

The full line up for our 2025/2026 #EHU19SeminarSeries is available to book now in the thread below! Join us for a free, online, and friendly discussion about cutting-edge research in nineteenth-century studies!

Weekend reading.

📚🚨 SALE 📚🚨 We have 70% off in our new academic year sale! Celebrate the start of a new term with some fantastic discounts ⤵️ www.uwp.co.uk/sel-sale/

every author in this video has had their books banned #BannedBooksWeek #UniteAgainstBookBans get involved to stop the attacks on our freedom to read: uniteagainstbookbans.org

Wilkie Collins did ‘slutty little glasses’ first. I will not be taking questions at this time.

They've lost the 9yos

Me and my insomnia ready to take on the day.

This year is the year! What a great lineup. Join @romgothsam.bsky.social and read along.

Violet Hunt and her amazing cat. #caturday

I’m on TV tonight! Check out the first episode of Britain’s Railway Empire at 8pm on Channel 4. It’s a new, two part series about the history of the railways, starting with the Victorian Era. It’s not just a story about tech and engineering, but covers the social and cultural impact too.

A few bonus covers. 🌷❤️⚽🏹

Your La Vie Parisienne cover by birth month. Some silliness from the historical periodicals for your #Friday. #c19th

Same vibes, somehow? (Piggy is chilly and is accepting warming hugs.) #cats

If anyone needs Piggy, he’ll be sulking in the bathtub about his lion cut until further notice. #Caturday