#bars2026 has provided some amazing pin badges (as well as papers of course) generously supplied by Wordsworth Grasmere. In my defence 'Team Shelley' I picked up for @drbeard79.bsky.social inspired by his excellent @bradfordlitfest.bsky.social talk!!

Landed in Brum and found Ozzy the bull! ✌️

BARS bound!! 🤭 excited for lots of papers and catching up with Romanticist pals ✨️

Birthday sausage for the birthday girl!!!

My baby is 11 🥺🥺 my favourite tiny tyrant and sensitive little soul. Can't believe it's been so long years since we rehomed her. She was a scrawny little thing being mistreated as a puppy farm basically. My best girl forever & my favourite heating pad 💜 (Left: today, right: almost 9 years ago!)

My Darcie decided last night she wanted to sit like a human LOL

I'm so hot that Darcie accurately represents how I feel internally right now. I'm even mentally clutching an emotional support lobster 🦞 (She was given ample shade & water but alas chose to cook herself in the sun for a bit 🤷‍♀️)

I've just walked around a VERY hot garden festival for 5 and a bit hours and am 99% sure I was like 20 minutes away from collapsing - HOWEVER, I also had a fantastic day yesterday and ate my body weight in Bath bunns at Sally Lunns 🤭 plus @toppingsbath.bsky.social was beautiful! 😍

My session on Frankenstein for the @bradfordlitfest.bsky.social Gothic education day went well, with another bunch of students who asked some great questions! And, inspired by @drbeard79.bsky.social 's brilliant Mary Shelley talk on Monday night, Matilda is my book of choice for the journey home!

A beautiful day one (for me) at @bradfordlitfest.bsky.social - today I had the honour of leading a classics session for Bradford secondary school pupils. We talked about what makes a book a classic, and played classic author/book guess who & finished with some brilliantly insightful questions too!

@bradfordlitfest.bsky.social So excited to be bringing some sessions to the education programme this week, my first time in Bradford. Hope all the visiting pupils enjoy hearing from a scouse literature scholar who is far too obsessed with the nineteenth century! I will be finding the Waterstones 🤭

Update: I got the hat

A beautiful day full of lovely papers and conversations, a joy to run today's conference. Placing the Nineteenth Century was such a success! A huge thank you @drclaireocall.bsky.social for the keynote & @drbeard79.bsky.social for all your support, as well as my fellow @ehunineteen.bsky.social PGRs

Heatwave: dogs edition (Very sad I'm not in Yorkshire rn with my girls 🥺)

Tapas & a weekday pint with @lzhymtk.bsky.social after a fab supervision meeting today!! @drbeard79.bsky.social & @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social Katie even brought me a Jane Austen choose your own adventure book 😂🩷 (not pictured the book borrowed from Sarah for the next part of chapter research)

Happy pride month to me because I discovered a Victorian historical romance called A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell with a trans hero/love interest set at the Cornish seaside!! They ride bikes together??? and apparently they hook up in a bathing machine???? I need it now!!! 😮

I'm currently hiding in the shade, but the laptop has ventured outside with me today 🫡☀️ I wish I could go write some seaside PhD on location at a beach, but alas the garden will have to do...

@lindzmcleod.bsky.social thank you for a physical copy of The Miseducation of Caroline Bingley. This dedication made me cry 🤍 you're so generous Out 5th June in the UK for my Austen loving pals (and it's a gorgeous sapphic romance too!)

And also following a semi viral 'Austen sequels recommended by an Austen academic' post over on Instagram, the very lovely @rachelparris.bsky.social sent me a copy of her gorgeous book Introducing Mrs Collins. Another pinch me moment 😮😍 thank you again!!

A very (pink) Austen day today!! • Prepping for Placing the Nineteenth Century conference meeting @ehunineteen.bsky.social • The definition of 'if you don't ask, you don't get' as Anderson Press sent me a proof copy of Kitty and Mary simply bc I dm-ed and asked them nicely. Wow 😮

The most gorgeous day on campus I've had in a while ✨️

Turned 25 on easter sunday dressed like a van gogh painting ✨️💐

My first matcha, Sunday endo group, and protect the dolls now & always ✨️

@lindzmcleod.bsky.social has done it again! Absolutely GORGEOUS book, I love Caroline & Georgiana's story. Thank you @netgalley.bsky.social for the earc! Lindz asked for name suggestions on a post and I suggested Edward, my late grandad who was my best friend and my biggest academic supporter 💖

Plus our amazing poster - please share far and wide to all your PGR and ECR connections! We're all very friendly over at @ehunineteen.bsky.social and can't wait for some amazing papers ✨️

Very excited to be speaking along with the other wonderful 2025 Chawton House Visiting Fellows on 11th Feb at a BARS digital event! My first time chairing too as I was lucky enough to be the BARS fellow, so extra exciting! @bars.bsky.social @chawtonhouse.bsky.social

I'm using John Hartley's dialect novel Seets i' Blackpool for my second PhD chapter and after a long time using an online scan of a copy in America, I decided to try and find my own version. Very delighted to get a copy on Ebay for a reasonable price. Definitely not a first edn, but still exciting!

It's Darcie's first Christmas being subjected to shenanigans (she's a rehome, I didn't pick her name, as perfect as it is!) and she is digging the Christmas spirit 1000× more than her sister...

A Christmas gift package from Penguin publishers was NOT on my 2025 bingo card... Also got clocked for my love of Austen 🫡 Is this what being an influencer feels like???

New academic headshot from my month at Chawton 🤍 - and a silly picture capturing my PhD perfectly Thanks to @wilcocksonamy.bsky.social for the photography/tips (and for being a lovely co fellow & making me gjggle a lot this month✨️)