Ruth Scobie

@ruthscobie

Mostly eighteenth-century; she/her. Writing a book: NOVELS AND THE RISE OF CELEBRITY, which is not about the rise of the novel

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Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· 10d

Signs, portents, things of that nature

People sitting in a park. The light is weird

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· 15d

Nineties album cover style image: NOW THE GREEN BLADE RISETH

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· 26d

My Gran, 100 years old today: first in her family to go to university, tennis sensation, this afternoon queen of an enormous noisy family tea party 🥳

A black and white photo taken in the 1940s of a young woman wearing a graduation gown, walking with various bespectacled men

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jul 19

Doris is aghast and sends all her best for your recovery!

A black and white cat pretending to be the tragic muse

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jul 17

Had a chance at my day job to climb the scaffolding round the Radcliffe Observatory Tower. A treat for lovers of 1790s Coade stone and dusty Oxford vistas

A panorama showing the top of the Radcliffe Observatory Tower and the rooftops of Jericho

A Coade stone relief of the zodiac sign Virgo. Also some scaffolding

Close up of a Coade stone foot. The words "Coade London 1796" are written in the corner

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jun 17

Does 1780 count as Romantic? artuk.org/discover/art... and the unfinished newspaper-reader from the same series buffaloakg.org/artworks/194...

A painting of a young woman in a magnificent hat, reading by candlelight

An oil sketch of a young woman in a magnificent bonnet, looking startled by the newspaper she's reading

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jun 16

Am I getting a migraine or is the AI-powered BL playbills database lightly deranged

An attempt to filter by date gives a long list of date ranges with no clear order or sense

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Feb 16

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Nov 4

Accidentally bought Goth potatoes

Cut up potatoes in a roasting tin. The potatoes are white and unexpectedly purple

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Aug 6

Look at this cat I'm catsitting, he looks like Percy Bysshe Shelley

A very fluffy cat lies on a sofa looking Romantic

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Aug 5

Mary Robinson already making fun of AI bros in 1799

"Reading only makes me stupid and women insolent. Besides, why should a man of rank ever have the trouble to think, while he can hire poor vagabonds to take that labour off his hands?"

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jul 7

This is the last page of the first Penguin edition of Virginia Woolf's Orlando [Pixies voice] GOT ME A BLOOMSBURY AH-HA-HA-HO SLICING UP MARS BARS AH-HA-HA-HO

A black and white 1942 advert with the headline Make MARS last longer... Cut it up into slices.

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Mar 24

The vet told me that Doris "has the kidneys of a much younger cat" so obviously I said "well I'll tell her she must give them back", and he earnestly replied "no I just meant for comparison" in case you ever wondered what those Bluesky commenters are like in real life

A small black and white cat with green eyes, curled up on a checked duvet. She needs a brush.

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Mar 10

It's (almost, tentatively, unreliably) something like Spring?

Early white blossom on branches with blue sky behind

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jan 25

Haggis is fine; I'm just here for the rumbledethumps

A slightly scruffy pan of potatoes, swede, cabbage and cheese baked together

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Dec 15

Extremely jetlagged in Singapore. It is 31 degrees and stormy. A sped-up version of Silent Night is playing. Anyway here's a fake living room with a picture of Carl Linnaeus in it

A blown-up engraved portrait of Carl Linnaeus looks out beadily from a living room set, inside a glass and metal building full of tropical plants. There are Christmas decorations

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Nov 10

I could write something about myself to greet new followers, but I don't want to, so instead have a murmuration from earlier this evening

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Sep 9

The actual best thing about living in Oxford is St Giles Fair, which is 400 years old, closes the whole city centre for two days, and offers unrivalled weeknight opportunities to vomit on St John's College

A crowded street at a funfair, with trees and a big wheel in the background

The front of St Johns College with the arm of a funfair ride whirling past

A ghost train ride lit with green lights. A giant picture of Frankenstein's monster and the words HELL'S GATE are displayed

Ruth Scobie@ruthscobie· Jul 11

Right & Wrong; or, The Kinsmen of Naples (1803): perfectly serviceable four volume Gothic-y novel Reader: Right & Wrong; or, The Kinsmen of Naples (1803): this bit's set in Wales Reader: Right & Wrong; or The Kinsmen of Naples (1803):