#DidYouKnow that women have been doing detective work for centuries?
In the 2025 #WolfsonHistoryPrize shortlisted book 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective', alumna @victoriandetective.bsky.social explores the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives.⬇️
bit.ly/49PezAu
Every letter in the Gaelic alphabet is linked to a tree. 🌳 The very structure of the language reflects a deep connection between people and the natural world, and an understanding of the practical and cultural importance of trees.
#WorldGaelicWeek #SeachdainnaGàidhlig #Gàidhlig #ScottishGaelic
I'm pleased to say that @waterstones.bsky.social are offering 25% off the paperback of Upon A White Horse for those pre-ordering this week. The promo code is FEB26 & details are at this link. If you're thinking of buying my book, this is a great deal. #WPreorder www.waterstones.com/campaign/feb...
Thanks Kathryn. You were a fab contributor — such a fun day of recording. And obviously in my post I meant Prof James H Murphy. Thankfully, I don’t think he’s on socials, which spares my blushes at misremembering his middle initial…
Huge thanks to @kslaing.bsky.social , James T Murphy, @susancahill.bsky.social, the Jesuit Archives in Dublin, & the good people of Inishbofin, who agreed to share their expertise on Rosa Mulholland for tonight’s documentary.
Tune in at 6pm!
Thank you! I think ranting may be my new way forward when faced with university requests…
On Sunday 15th February at 6pm, RTE Lyric FM are broadcasting my feature documentary about Rosa Mulholland, pioneer Victorian novelist, poet, feminist, & leading figure in the Irish Revival. Please consider tuning in, either on Sunday or afterwards, on ‘listen again’:
t.co/Hj1WVqBU9X
Happy Valentine’s Day! As everyone’s talking about the new Wuthering Hotties movie, my university asked me to say a few words.
I may have gone on a bit of a rant about why Wuthering Heights is not really a date night novel…
www.instagram.com/reel/DUs7tMZ...
For anyone who knows/is a prospective PhD student seeking funding...
My lovely colleagues Prof Gill Plain & James Purdon have a fully-funded scholarship in English, on fiction/film 1945-65 imagining outbound UK-Commonwealth migration:
www.st-andrews.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
Deadline 27 Feb.
Had a great day teaching on Victorian detective fiction with @victoriandetective.bsky.social and David Grylls for @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social yesterday. I'm back there this Saturday with a course on British detective fiction from Holmes to Morse. lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/brit...
Fantastic fun subjecting @victoriandetective.bsky.social to the 15 minutes! Sarah smashed it.
Sara's book is out now from @yalebooks.bsky.social.
#booksky #histbookchat #books #newreads @alexchurchill.bsky.social
Thanks Matt! You were great hosts.
The serenity of Winter. Glycerine light. A chorus line of parakeets with limegreen feathers and dragonfruit beaks, feasting on holly berries.
The Thames glassy.
A delicate monochrome woodblock print in shades of grey and black. Two crows perch on a bare, snow-laden branch: the upper bird leans forward under the weight of falling flakes, wings slightly spread, while the lower bird turns its head upward with its beak open as if calling into the storm. Fine white specks of snow scatter across their glossy black feathers and through the misty background, where faint silhouettes of winter trees rise below. The composition is quiet and atmospheric, capturing both stillness and life in a cold, drifting snowfall.
"All this foolishness
About moons and blossoms
Pricked by the cold’s needle."
(Basho)
🎨 Shoun Yamamoto
#wintersky
Every imperial power drums up paranoid fears to justify aggression and expansion. If one excuse looks too ridiculous to attempt, another will always be found.
100%
A majority female, often collaborative pursuit. Relegated to ‘decorative arts’. ‘x, the Greatest Knitter of her age, who lately had a retrospective at Tate Britain, has sold a work ‘Not so Cosy’ at Sotheby’s for £8.5 million’. Said nobody, ever.
@chiswickrnli.bsky.social training out on the Thames last night. I am always grateful to those who volunteer their time, & lives, to save others in distress.
My grandmother collected for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Living in Thurso for part of her life, she saw a lot of boats go down
Today (16th Dec) as part of their celebration of #JaneAusten at 250 BBC Radio 4 is devoting a whole day of programmes to the author. Tune in shortly to hear Val McDermid and Kate Atkinson talk about when they first encountered her work.
#WomenWritersNet #BBCRadio4
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
I think we’re right to feel betrayed. Carelessness, spite, & a latent desire to narrow the sector & make university more exclusive again. Goalposts changing yearly so unis couldn’t plan. Fees frozen. Having 10 difft education secretaries from 2010-22, the shortest tenure being 35 hrs, didn’t help.
I think about this quote from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social a lot:
“The idea that some people may freely poison others is one of the most astonishing but least contested aspects of modern life.”
My brilliant partner @guyducker.bsky.social has made a film in WW2 style to make us think about what wld have happened if Britain had taken the same complacent attitude to Hitler as it commonly takes to Climate Breakdown, which threatens more lives.
I am so sorry, Matt. Hideous. The sector has been so badly betrayed by successive governments.
The Society currently invites applications for its David Berry Fellowship in the History of Scotland and the Scottish People.
The Fellowship, for up to £2500, supports research by historians of Scotland at any career stage: bit.ly/4ns6LJj
Closing date: Friday 6 March 2026 #Skystorians
Delighted to be there for this exciting announcement! Congratulations to Hannah Durkin. 🥂🥂🥂
Had a ball at @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social
prize celebrations last night. Great to meet @kieranconnell.bsky.social @drmirandakaufmann.bsky.social & other luminaries. I said to my partner ‘everyone in the History World was there’ & he thought I said ‘everyone in the History of the World’ - v crowded!
"History has never been more important than it is in the current moment."
'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' by @victoriandetective.bsky.social is shortlisted for the 2025 #WolfsonHistoryPrize. @yalebooks.bsky.social
What a horrible case! It underlines the need for real, deep, & properly supported local journalism — and also the crying need to get rid of the leasehold system, endlessly prolonged by govts, which (from a Scottish perspective) was always mad & exploitative.
"Why had the character of the professional Victorian female detective suddenly materialised, then vanished?"
Read an extract from Sara Lodge's (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) #WolfsonHistoryPrize shortlisted book 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective'.⬇️
bit.ly/4oJC6rr
Climate knowledge has been taken hostage to prevent climate action.
“It didn’t happen by accident. It’s the product of a deliberate and systematic assault on knowledge by some of the richest people on Earth. Preventing climate breakdown means protecting ourselves from the storm of lies.”
"An innovative exploration of the roles of women working in policing and private agencies."
The #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges on why they have shortlisted 'The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective' by Sara Lodge (@victoriandetective.bsky.social) for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
