Join our own @drbeard79.bsky.social & other good eggs to talk about cracking applying for funding

A blue book with a silhouette of a woman reading a book cut from the blue background and in the silhouette is a landscape of a river, forest, and castle

Reading @triciamatthew.bsky.social’s gorgeous edition of Northanger for a thing.

The best books about being a teenager – according to our experts Battling raging hormones and learning to navigate the worlds they live in, these literary teens reflect real life.

Fun Conversation piece on books about being a teenager - my Frankenstein joins Holden Caulfield, Esther Greenwood, Carrie, and others (none of the people in this photo look like teenagers 🤷‍♂️)

Once again sharing our upcoming EHU19 PGR & ECR conference as the abstract deadline for 1st May is looming closer! We're very lucky to have @drclaireocall.bsky.social as keynote & running a journal workshop!

Send any abstracts or queries to ehu19place@outlook.com ✨️

@ehunineteen.bsky.social

ALT: a beautiful and possibly Romantic-era and otherwise significant painted image of an ornate gate and building with church spire to the side plus trees and cloudy blue sky advertising BARS 2026 ‘Romantic Retrospection’ at Birmingham 29-31 July

Exciting!

Please see the conference website for details of registration fees, the conference dinner, and university accommodation.

*To clarify re Concessionary registration fees, these apply to unwaged, postgraduate, part-time and impermanent, or retired delegates*

The draft programme is a thing of beauty and a joy for as long as it lasts in this form - but the NEXT draft programme will also be a thing of beauty 🖤

Join us!

A display of the Bell signatures plus the envelope they were in and an explanation about the autographs from Charlotte’s correspondence (missing in ms) published in Gaskell’s life

Conspiracy theory! At the Brontë Parsonage Museum

A curator took me up to see some Charlotte-publisher correspondence on display and told me his theory that Emily refused the request for an autograph (after Poems but before the novels!) and Charlotte forged Ellis Bell’s signature 😂

Pre-order @drbeard79.bsky.social & @rjdashwood.bsky.social’s Reading the Romantic Ridiculous in paperback to make next year’s royalty statement less, well, ridiculous!

CFP deadline this week for our Brontë Studies special issue on Poetry - the abstracts are starting to flock in - still time to send in yours!

I've got an op ed in @telegraph.co.uk, ruminating on how the Victorians approached death and funerals, in case you fancy reading something cheerful this morning! In print, or online: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03...

Seating chart: Leo Vincey, Catherine Earnshaw, Van Helsing, Jane Eyre, The Signalman, Mina Harker, Charles Darwin, Anne Bronte, Anna Sewell, Beatrix Potter, Dr Seward, Dr Jekyll (Mr Hyde by pudding), Marian Halcombe, Wilkie Collins (who would propose to MH by coffee), Sarah Bernhardt, Count Fosco, Napoleon Sarony, Lady Audley, Quincey Morris, Rosalie Murray. Sherlock Holmes declined and is now hiding at home with all the lights off. ME Brandon sadly declines. She has a deadline to meet.

⭐️ The results are in!! My wonderful hons class have made their choices for dream Victorian Popular Fiction dinner party.

Who are you adding and where are you sitting?! #c19th

The new @bavs-uk.bsky.social newsletter is looking gorgeous after its refresh! It also features our halloween workshops for kids at the historic Mackintosh at the Willow tearoom, where we explored the history & ethics of sugar consumption & what it means to be a 'sugar vampire'! Thanks BAVS! #C19th

The CFP deadline for our Brontë Studies special issue on poetry is coming up - 1st April! Don’t be a fool - submit something!

I'm writing on Wickham being a nasty piece of work in Pride and Prejudice. If he was alive today, he'd definitely be featured on the Manosphere doc by Louis Theroux 🤢 (also mid 20s+ going after 2 girls of 15 and 16??? Yikes, even by 1813 standards!)

Notice from the BARS 2026 'Romantic Retrospection' Conference Organisers:
The deadline for bursary applications is 16th March (next Monday). Please see your acceptance email for further details of how to apply. Applicants will hear back by the start of April.

Slow Reading in an Age of Speed: Wordsworth and the Practice of Criticism This talk reflects on the practice of literary criticism in a moment shaped by media acceleration, distraction and shrinking attention span.

Upcoming in-person lecture (and wine reception!) at QMUL (London): 'Slow Reading in an Age of Speed: Wordsworth and the Practice of Criticism' by Jonathan Sachs

2 April, 5:15-7:15pm. More details and book tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/slow-readi...

The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents Cambridge Core - English Literature 1700-1830 - The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents

It's official 🎉🎈 Professor Michael Gamer's fantastic edition of Radcliffe's 'The Italian' is out now. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ann Radcliffe is off to a roaring start! Be sure to request a copy for your library now - and use the code GAMER26 for 20% off
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

Dr Catherine Redford has kindly shared an insight into her wonderful new poetry collection The Way the Water Held Me with the BARS Blog.

To read Catherine's post: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6367
For more about the collection: theemmapress.com/shop/poetry/...

EXCITING TALK ANNOUNCEMENT: @romgothsam.bsky.social will be speaking on Byron's Legacy, Newstead Abbey and Thomas Wildman for the Byron Society.

Get your free tickets below ⤵️

Ann Radcliffe, St Albans Abbey and the Gothic - 06/06/2026 10:00:00 Join us to mark the 200th anniversary of "Alban’s Abbey; A Metrical Romance" (1826) - the work of poet and Gothic novelist, Ann Radcliffe

If you're around St Albans on 6th June, you might want to check out this study day on 'Ann Radcliffe’s St Alban’s Abbey at 200', organised by Dr Elizabeth Bobbitt, Professor Dale Townshend, and Rosie Garland!

More info and book tickets: www.stalbanscathedral.org/Event/ann-ra...

Call for Papers!
2026 Wordsworth Summer Conference: 'Wordsworth's Texts'

Get your abstracts and bursary applications in to proposal.wsc@gmail.com by 15th May.

More info on the blog: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6383

I am childish and vain so I would like you to read my conversation article on The Other Bennet Sister and cuteness so I continue to stay on top of scientists at Edge Hill writing about the menopause and cholesterol, please and thank you 🙏

It’s me, sneaking a whole Wordsworth poem into my review of The Other Bennet Sister 🖤

The Other Bennet Sister: this fresh take on Pride and Prejudice transforms the overlooked Mary This new BBC drama is an enjoyable retelling of Austen’s most popular novel from the perspective of one of its least regarded characters.

From the sublime to the… cute?

I (p)review the new TV show The Other Bennet Sister - which I’m really enjoying!

The early history of teacher training colleges in Britain, 1836-1918 - call for participants deadline 8 May 2026 We are inviting participants to attend and contribute to a workshop day at the Quaker Meeting House, Liverpool, on 2 June 2026, organised by Edge Hill University, in collaboration with Lincoln Bishop University. The intention is to orient most of the day around workshop sessions that contain introductory (c.8-10 minutes) presentations which enable us to collectively discuss and progress particular research questions relating to the early history of teacher training colleges across Britain. Further aims of the day are to establish a national network to research the history of teacher training, unlock underused archival collections related to this field and to develop interdisciplinary and collaborative research opportunities for the future. Please provide a 250-word (max) overview of your interest and background in this area to enable the organisers to construct a thematic and coherent programme. Please email to Professor Alyson Brown (browna@edgehill.ac.uk) • If you have any suggestions or ideas for the best way to present/share your knowledge and research, please do indicate this. We are open to whatever works to advance collaboration and research and make the day as productive as possible

Exciting opportunity to collaborate with our own @interwarcrime.bsky.social and Lincoln Bishop University on the history of teacher training colleges, with an openness to alternative presentation formats

[PDS Award] Preventing Species Loss for Human Health and Wellbeing: from Nineteenth Century Conservation to De-extinction and Rewilding. at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - [PDS Award] Preventing Species Loss for Human Health and Wellbeing: from Nineteenth Century Conservation to De-extinction and Rewilding. at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAP...

Please see below for a fantastic funded PhD in 19c literature with Clara Dawson at the University of Manchester - deadline 18 March 2026:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project... [findaphd.com]

📢 BOOK GIVEAWAY ends next week: Share this post to win 1 free copy of *Theatrical Afterlives: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Novels on the Stage* (OUP March 2026). global.oup.com/academic/pro...
#JaneAusten #WutheringHeights
@ncsascholars.bsky.social @19birkbeck.bsky.social @l19cmanmet.bsky.social

It was a belter of a session, if I do say so myself 😆
@benltjackson.bsky.social is such a great speaker, and his research is fascinating. I can't wait to read the book!
#skystorians #18thC #19thC #EHU19🗃️