Emma Butler-Way

The Neo-Victorian Corset: Two Narrative Approaches to the Constricting Garment in Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith (2002) and Laura Purcell’s The Corset (2018) | Victoriographies This article will examine how Sarah Waters and Laura Purcell use the corset as a narrative tool in Fingersmith (2002) and The Corset (2018), and how placing these texts alongside Victorian writing on ...

Happy 3-year anniversary to my first ever publication: 'The Neo-Victorian Corset'. It has a very special place in my heart and marked the start of the next stage in my career, even if I remain slightly sad I couldn't come up with a zestier title... doi.org/10.3366/vic....

Mocking people for their class is discrimination – so why don’t we treat it as such? ‘Banter’ about where you’re from or how you speak is harder to define than racism or sexism, but it is damaging.

In a new article, Toni Beardmore from our Department of Geography and Earth Sciences discusses how ‘Banter’ about where you’re from or how you speak is harder to define than racism or sexism, but it is damaging.

🖱️ tinyurl.com/5n7p4dr8

#SocialJustice

I went to a VPFA 'Turning your thesis into a monograph' workshop in 2022. After completing my PhD, I thought I'd maybe mine my thesis for a couple of articles and leave it at that. I left the workshop motivated, re-inspired, and my monograph is now in production 👀
So: sign up!
@vpfa.bsky.social

Join the VPFA for a workshop on publishing Victorian Popular Fiction!
✅ Turning your thesis into a monograph.
✅ Writing a winning book proposal.
✅ Insights from the VPFJ editorial committee.
✅ Handling peer review & rejection

📅 26th February at 6pm
🔗 See your emails for the registration link!

Thirteen books, flanked by a plant, a brass Labrador, and an orange pot: Hera, by Jennifer Saint; The 12 Days of Xmas, by Susan Stokes-Chapman; The Siren of Sussex, by Mimi Matthews; Palestine +100, ed. by Basma Ghalayini; Babel, by R.F. Kiang; Welcome to the Hyuanam-Dong Bookshop, by Hwang Boreum; Witsh, by Mari Ellis Dunning; Rivals, by Jilly Cooper; Enter Ghost, by Isabella Hammad; Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins. Laying on top: Ghosted, by Alice Vernon; Pixel Flesh, by Ellen Atlanta; Teta, Mother, and Me, by Jean Said Makdisi.

My top 10 fiction reads of the year, with 3 NF honourable mentions. At least 2 made me cry, & I was able to help launch another 2 here in Aber.
Hear me out re: Rivals. Bonkbuster is may be, but it's also a biting social commentary with a fascinatingly observational narrative voice. I was a big fan.

Christmas Won’t Be Christmas without ‘Little Women’… A subjective ranking of Christmassiness by Emma Butler-WayIn my years of teaching Little Women in adaptation, the one question I have never asked either myself or my students is: ‘And what about ho…

Christopher Columbus! I've written a new blog post for @vpfa.bsky.social, this time on the Christmassiness of Little Women adaptations...

It was much harder than anticipated. I changed the ranking many times. I began to question everything. I still am...

victorianpopularfiction.org/christmas-wo...

Ghosted A social, historical and scientific exploration of ghost-hunting, and why our fascination with the paranormal is as timeless as the ghosts we hope to find.The h…

Ghosted is in Bloomsbury's Christmas sale and the hardback is currently £14 until 7th December. It even includes a recipe for ectoplasm you can shoot from your nose - a reliable way to get out of any complicated post-Christmas-dinner board game.

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ghosted-9...

Please give Emma's wonderful blog post about Guillermo del Torro's Frankenstein a read. Let us know your thoughts, did you enjoy the film? What did you like and dislike? Even if it deviated from the book, did it, as Emma says, still keep its 'soul'?

Frankenstein (2025); or, the Adaptation Shelley Deserves A review by Emma Butler-WayEvery interview that I saw snippets of suggested to me that Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein was going to be quite something; this was a director and a cast who cl…

I had some thoughts (and many emotions) about the new Frankenstein film, so wrote this review for the VPFA Blog @vpfa.bsky.social

Philomena Cunk memes: a major part of the review, or a side thought? You'll have to read it to find out...

victorianpopularfiction.org/frankenstein...

Search result for 'lord byron' showing John Polidori's 'The Vampyre; a Tale' as the top result

I never expected Project Gutenberg to be the deliverer of such a thrill. Lord Byron would be *fuming*...

a woman wearing a green scarf around her head ALT: a woman wearing a green scarf around her head

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is amazing. What a spectacular film, and adaptation. A work of art. Costumes: amazing. Visuals: stunning. Heart and soul of the book? Firmly in place. My emotions? All over the place. So many tears. Exquisite stuff, cannot recommend highly enough.

Witsh: In Conversation with Mari Ellis Dunning YouTube video by Llyfrgell Genedlaethol - National Library of Wales

A pleasure & a privilege to have helped my good friend @mariellisdunning.bsky.social launch her debut novel WITSH last week in the Drwm @librarywales.bsky.social, mere hours after Aber was announced as Wales's first UNESCO City of Literature!
Missed out? ⬇️
youtu.be/Xa8P98gUQoQ?...

Really looking forward to this evening's launch at @librarywales.bsky.social 📚✨

Tickets have flown & while I'm a tad nervous to be addressing The Drwm after attending so many events there, I can't wait to chat about Welsh witshes, spells, superstition, religion & misogyny.

tinyurl.com/37ddc4fn

Agree with the Jane Eyre suggestions - but would also suggest The Woman in White, particularly in terms of the relationship between it and neo-Vic fiction in a generic/literary sense (see Cox 2019, for example)?

📖 A haunting novel inspired by the largely unknown history of Welsh witchcraft has been published by one of our lecturers.

🖱️ tinyurl.com/3nhm5fyc

@mariellisdunning.bsky.social
#novel #history #wales #witchcraft

Why we keep hunting ghosts – and what it says about us From Victorian séances to TikTok, our hunt for ghosts reveals more about the living than the dead.

👻 Writing in The Conversation, Dr Alice Vernon from the Department of English & Creative Writing discusses how our hunt for ghosts reveals more about the living than the dead.

🖱 tinyurl.com/yhrk9av7

@alicevernon10.bsky.social
#ghosts #ghosthunting #supernatural

This was a super encouraging read - I am *so* excited about this adaptation!

Kemi Badenoch wants to end ‘rip-off degrees’ – but I wouldn’t have created Horrid Henry without mine | Francesca Simon I studied Old and Middle English. Although I didn’t know it, I couldn’t have chosen a better subject to train me to become a children’s author, says author Francesca Simon

Kemi Badenoch wants to end ‘rip-off degrees’ – but I wouldn’t have created Horrid Henry without mine | Francesca Simon

Alice Vernon launches Ghosted | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Alice Vernon launches Ghosted today.

And after that, I'm hot-footing it down the hill to Waterstones, trying to avoid being waylaid by ghosts with unfinished business at crossroads, to chat to @alicevernon10.bsky.social about her new book, GHOSTED. Will I be able to sleep afterwards? Who knows...
www.waterstones.com/events/alice...

I'm very much looking forward to my busy Halloween night this year. First up, chatting to @mariellisdunning.bsky.social at the National Library of Wales about her haunting debut novel, WITSH, set in C16th Wales during the Welsh witch trials...
www.ticketsource.co.uk/llgcnlw/evt-...

Alice Vernon launches Ghosted | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Alice Vernon launches Ghosted today.

I'm doing a book launch for Ghosted at Waterstones Aberystwyth on Halloween night at 7pm. It's going to be a spooky evening!

Info and tickets: www.waterstones.com/events/alice...

What a joy it was getting this page ready to go! All the thanks to @helenaesser.bsky.social for the material!

Here we'll have reflections, contemplations, speculations and more (all of a Victorian/neo-Victorian nature, of course).

Interested in contributing? Follow the link below & get in touch!

There are, I think, few things as humbling as the automatic captions to a lecture that reveal just how often you say 'Um'...
Oh, and Panopto has spoken: my name is now, apparently, Emma Holloway...

Want to try something new? I'm running #Writing Women again through Aberystwyth Uni's Lifelong Learning.

✶ Online course
✶ Self-paced
✶ One to one feedback
✶ Expert guidance

Here's the link to my course, & there are heaps of others to choose from too!

www.aber.ac.uk/en/lifelong-...

#WritingSky

Happy publication day to Ghosted! This book was so much fun to research and write, and I can't wait to go on a ghost hunt again.

Thank you to everyone who's ordered a copy! I hope you enjoy reading it...with all the lights on, obviously. 👻

(Note: video plays crackling static sound)

Reflections on Leaving Salaried Academia My tenure as full-time Professor of English at the University of Greenwich ends today (31 August 2025). Inevitably, I find myself reflecting on what the institution and I have given each other. Wha…

Reflections on leaving salaried academia: lessons I've learned.

profandrewking.me.uk/2025/08/31/r...

I'll be running Writing Women again in the new semester through Aberystwyth University's Lifelong Learning.

✶ Online course
✶ Self-paced
✶ One to one feedback
✶ Expert guidance

Here's the link to my course, but there are heaps of others to choose from too!

www.aber.ac.uk/en/lifelong-...

A banner advertising my book Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking. A spooky candle is in one corner, and an upside-down crucifix in the other, with the tagline: 'A social, historic and scientific exploration of our fascination with the paranormal.'

Ghosted is published in one month! It's all getting very exciting. Bev the Haunted Doll is positively crawling the walls.

No, really. She's crawling up the walls. Send help.

Pre-order: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ghosted-9...

Letter from Gaza: “What I feel isn’t just hunger. It’s slow, internal erosion” This famine is an engineered one – a war on our bodies, our clarity, our ability to move.

‘This famine is an engineered one – a war on our bodies, our clarity, our ability to move’ Read Sondos Sabra’s Letter from Gaza in The New Statesman. www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

View of Seaford head, looking over Cuckmere Haven. White chalk cliff, green hill, shingle beach. Bramble and hedgerow in foreground, with a wire fence

"Is there a felicity in the world superior to this?"
Celebrating meeting a Big Deadline with a holiday to reconnect with the chalk of my childhood. Have I been finding myself crying every now and then at the scenery I've not seen for 4 years? Yes. Am I relaxed, and feeling at ease? Also yes.