It’s brilliant to get my hands on this beauty at last! Proud to have chapter on ugliness in this great collection @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social #beauty #earlymodern #gender #shakespeare

Blackbird’s nest in garden - in just over 2 weeks from eggs to little birds

In December 1680 there was a harmony of harping, and this has improved my day immeasurably

Thrilled to find this in my favourite bookshop @blackwelloxford.bsky.social

April ye 2nd

For the last day of #womenshistorymonth, a reminder that literary history, like other forms of history, has blind spots. Women - often “ordinary” women - wrote some of the most innovative works of the 17th century, including prophecies and visionary forms of prose. They’re worth reading! 📚

Gorgeous flourishes in a woman’s spiritual diary (late 17th century) - the letters seem to take off and dance across the page #earlymodern

In an altogether excellent list of imp names, Griezzell Greedigutt is a particular standout Image from Hopkins, “The Discovery of Witches”, 1647 #earlymodern

The Church of England may at last be recognising a female leader but it has taken far too long to do so - women were preaching as far back as the 1640s - and were vilified in the strongest terms within the established church #earlymodern

As the Church of England gets ready to install a female Archbishop of Canterbury, I’m thinking of all the women - going back 400 years and more - who were excluded, mocked and hounded for daring to preach. As this tract from 1641 shows, they were vilified as Satanic (as were “unqualified” men, too)

Richard Roach, writing in 1725 about the great female authors and spiritual leaders of his era. He assumed that when the history books were written they would all be put on the public stage “with applause and admiration”. 300 yrs later and we’re only just learning their names #earlymodern

17th-century version of clickbait?! Opening page of Ann Bathurst’s spiritual diary, late C17th #earlymodern

I write for ease & for strengthening of my memory, & it may be for future ages, when the law of love will be more naturalized among you ~ Ann Bathurst, 1694 I get goosebumps when C17th women directly address future readers! They hoped the future would be more open to them than was their present

The mystery is above the history.” Ann Bathurst, giving the best ever definition of mysticism

The difference between engagement on X and BlueSky is huge! The pic on the left is from X and on the right is from BlueSky (I have more than twice as many followers on BlueSky). This is not a one-off! Is it just me or is it hard to get engagement on this platform?

I love that @nybooks.com used this picture from my book in their review by @erinmaglaque.bsky.social - it’s the biblical prophet Hannah, looking truly terrifying

Women should have a share in “directing the destinies of nations and governing the world, which is composed of females as well as males” ~ Shaker document, early 19th century

Happy International Women’s Day - today I’m celebrating Rose Thurgood, a poor woman with a “hard and hungry” stomach who supported her four children alone after being abandoned by her husband - and found the inspiration and courage to write one of the earliest English autobiographies in the 1630s

Ann Lee’s marriage certificate, marked by her with an X. Held in Chetham’s Library, Manchester, it’s the only surviving hand-written mark of the Shaker leader #thetestamentofannlee #shakers #manchester

Voices will always resonate more loudly than “men’s great cannons” - the words of Anna Trapnel, which gave me the title of my book and remain truer than ever

It’s #worldbookday and so here’s a book I wrote! It introduces a dozen radical 17th women who have been ignored by history books for far too long ✍️📚#voicesofthunder #newbook

Fennell’s #wutheringheights has far too many scenes indoors and misses the point that the moors are not only a crucial setting in the novel but its most important character. Sylvia Plath gets it better in her poem “Wuthering Heights”

It’s Women’s History Month, with the theme “leading the change”, and I want to celebrate all the unsung women who innovated, resisted and risked their lives to pave the way for the freedoms we cherish today. My book introduces 12 of these women from the C17th but there many more stories to be told

Back in the time when the sun was pink

The fact that a woman has become the #archbishopofcanterbury is not the astounding progress that it might seem, given that women were preaching in 1641! But they were vilified for doing so by the Church of England, which has taken a very long time to revise that view #earlymodern

Equal parts sweet and imperious 😻 #caturday #catsofbluesky

Adventurous, emotional, hopeful, informative, inspiring, mysterious, sad, fast-paced … it’s fascinating to see this reader’s description of “Voices of Thunder”! It’s sad that women’s stories have often been sidelined in history books because it’s a powerful thing to connect with women from the past

Thank you Prof Alice Hunt for this wonderful review of Voices of Thunder in @historyextra.bsky.social magazine

1656, when the new builds started popping up

Happy early morning discovery at Altrincham @waterstones.bsky.social - signed copies are now in store! ✍️📚#voicesofthunder #womenshistory