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victoriandetective.bsky.social
Writer. Latest Book, The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective (Yale UP, 2024). Teach 19thc Lit & Culture at Uni of St Andrews. Writing for a greener world.
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Enjoyed talking to the Canadian Sherlock Holmes Society on Saturday about Victorian female detectives. Conan Doyle ended up finishing Grant Allen’s Hilda Wade in 1900, as Allen lay dying, so he wrote a fem tec himself too.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

The evening is perfect, my sisters. The loch lies silent, the air is still. The sun’s last rays linger over the water and there is a faint smirr, almost a smudge of summer rain. Sisters, I smell supper… —Edwin Morgan, “Midge” published in THE MAP & THE CLOCK, @faberbooks.bsky.social 2016

submitted 7 days ago • 3 comments

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..." Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up. I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

submitted 17 days ago • 524 comments

Recovering from Flu. I am officially in the Fug of Blah - that monotone landscape full of administrative hangovers & bleakness at the global Omnishambles. Went to BL exhibition on Mediaeval Women. Inhaled the scarlet, lapis & intricate flowers of an illuminated MS. Liquid gold like bling Tippex.

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

The gorgeous residential Gladstone’s Library Writer in Residence programme provides space and resources for up to four writers whose work engages with liberal values in the broadest sense. Writers at all stages of their career can apply. Please share :) www.gladstoneslibrary.org/events/write...

submitted 24 days ago • 11 comments

London’s Chinatown today, where we celebrated the Year of the Snake. 🐍 Bright winter sunshine & blue skies. Everything hazy, soft & pale, including me. But glad to be emerging from the grey phase of the winter toward Spring.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

I love the way low sun illuminates the palm house at Kew Gardens. I’d never seen the lake iced over until the weekend. It made me think of Frost Fairs on the Thames. Kids were wildly excited to try to break the ice. Which turns out to be, unironically, a really good way to make new friends.

submitted 47 days ago • 1 comment

Absolutely cracking #bookpost today: Sara Lodge’s groundbreaking history of women detectives in the Victorian era. Can’t wait to get started on this. Thanks a million, @victoriandetective.bsky.social!

submitted 54 days ago • 3 comments

The tree is up. Only exam marking & wrapping up a pile of awkwardly shaped long-postponed tasks stand between me & collapsing into the Xmas pudding. What’s your fav Xmas food? Mine was my mum’s tiny mince pies, w mincemeat of dates & currants muddled in brandy. Cocktail mince pies: naughty & nice.

submitted 76 days ago • 2 comments

Found you here at the Sun Bookshop in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Oz. So good! @victoriandetective.bsky.social

submitted 82 days ago • 1 comment

It’s St Andrews Day tomorrow & Fisher & Donaldson’s — the baker at the heart of St Andrews — has saltire shortbread for the patriotically minded. Or you could just go for a ginger Rudolf. 🤷🏻‍♀️

submitted 93 days ago • 1 comment

I’ve been in the Scottish Highlands for a few days, researching a new project and having a birthday treat. Snow! Sublime views. These are pictures from the train window, coming back to Glasgow. So beautiful, I couldn’t read.

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

Here are some thoughts about an extremely informative book by @victoriandetective.bsky.social - doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-...

submitted 97 days ago • 1 comment

Here I am on the blue planet. Looking for fellow writers, artists, eco-worriers in my circle (& those I don’t know yet) who made it out alive when the Twittership combusted. I’ve never felt as supported by a creative community as I did before the Xplosion. Let’s regroup hug & continue the party.

submitted 104 days ago • 4 comments