Born into slavery, Gustav Badin became part of Swedish royal court and left legacy of books and letters.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Thank you @tattydevine for this shiny new necklace celebrating the release of The Testaments ❤️ Excellent timing as I'm so baby-tired I generally don't remember my own name these days

Gutted not to make the Disney+ London celebrations today, but I have some brave historical women's lives to reclaim!

They truly do not make royal commemorative wares like they used to

Bring back the hand-painted tankards with nips out, you cowards

www.bonhams.com/auction/3224...

Some twelve year olds are chasing boys & indulging in a bit of light shoplifting, apparently I was at home drawing bad pictures of Henry VIII’s wives (I guess Anne B was my favourite)

Sometimes I look back and the career path seems a bit inevitable really

I think it is really interesting and important to talk about "male art and literature". Usually men's art and literature is just framed as "human art and literature" while the stuff women make is "women's art". Men's art has answers/clues about men's lives - not about human lives. About men's lives.

Do I know anyone on here familiar with 18th-century French legal documents?

Currently attempting to transcribe a legal record of 1790 & struggling for all the abbreviations

Please DM me if this is easy for you!

Well who *wouldn't* want to be a member of the ... *squints* ...
'Free and Independent Codgers'

📜 18thC invitation to a Club dinner www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

I’m IN LOVE with whoever cast Lucy Briers (i.e the OG Mary Bennet) as Mrs Hill in The Other Bennet Sister

Adding a whole new layer of emotion for those of us raised on 1995 P&P. Listen to Hill, WE LOVE YOU MARY

two women are standing next to each other one reading a book ALT: two women are standing next to each other one reading a book

Oh I love LOVE Lucy Briers playing Mrs Hill

This was one of my favourite reads of 2025, so hugely looking forward to catching up on the first episode of #theotherbennetsister later 🌺 📕

This was one of my favourite reads of 2025, so hugely looking forward to catching up on the first episode of #theotherbennetsister later 🌺 📕

OP with a massive copy of Jean-Paul Marat, Prophet of Terror by Keith Michael Baker

Tackling this massive bastard today … going to be a cheery one 📖

Any Marat fans out there? Personally I’m looking forward to the bit where he has to go and live in the sewers & gets a skin disease

Our ridiculous feral children running amok without supervision

I usually see it in cat appreciation groups 😂

This is very important and a major pet peeve of mine. If you don’t know what you’re doing- and if you learned on the internet, then sorry, you don’t know what you’re doing- please leave old gravestones well enough alone.

We are thrilled to share that our Human Authored scheme is now live.

This scheme has been designed for the benefit of SoA members, to help identify works written by humans in a market increasingly flooded by AI-generated books.

Well that does sound intriguing!

In a talk to young writers last night I showed this viral tweet as an e.g. of public engagement

I was gobsmacked when a number of people came up & said they had already seen it loose on the internet (w/o my name, obviously)

Clearly drunk cat is my true & most enduring legacy, & I wish him well 😽

Just a lovely evening speaking at Wollaton Hall about writing & the world of non-fiction publishing, & meeting so many aspiring young writers 🤓

Sadly no sign of Bruce Wayne, but you can’t have everything

This looks exciting!

Win a copy of Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly. Published by Saraband and longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction.

To be in with a chance of winning a copy of the @womensprize.bsky.social longlisted Kingfisher, share this post and tag a friend you think would like to read it 💛

*UK only. Closes midnight Sunday 29 March 2026. The winner will be notified on Monday 30 March.

#Booksky
📚💙

Never mind the endless Jane Austen adaptations, here's a period drama I'd watch:

Prison Break, except it's 1740s London & the hero is a 5 ft 4 Herefordshire woman called Elizabeth, with massive hands & massive feet

Come on @netflix.com it's what we all want

My photo shows a famous wall painting from Pompeii known as the Sappho fresco. It shows the head and upper body of a young woman framed inside a painted circular border. She faces forward. Her eyes are large and dark, gazing to one side with a calm and thoughtful expression, as if pausing mid-thought. Her skin is pale, and her hair is dark brown and tightly curled, forming small ringlets around her face. A thin golden hairnet holds her curls in place. She wears small gold hoop earrings, and a brown cloak over a green garment. In her right hand she holds a thin dark metal stylus (writing tool) up against her lips, as if thinking about what to write. In her left hand she holds a small rectangular wooden wax writing tablet. The fresco is now on display at the Muso Archeologico Nazionale in Naples

The ‘Sappho’ fresco from Pompeii.

A beautiful Roman portrait of a young woman for #InternationalWomensDay

She holds a writing tablet, and raises a writing stylus to her lips in thoughtful contemplation. 55-70 AD.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples 📷 by me

#Archaeology

Yes I wasn't sure which would be weirder!

Austen herself was around 5 ft 7, so would be tall even now!

Nice detective work, I hope there are descendants out there

I feel like the massive hands would be more challenging 😂

Jane Austen/fashion expert Hilary Davidson has estimated that the average height for a UK woman c.1810 was 5 ft 2 – so I imagine this would have been a few inches above average in 1740

Never mind the endless Jane Austen adaptations, here's a period drama I'd watch:

Prison Break, except it's 1740s London & the hero is a 5 ft 4 Herefordshire woman called Elizabeth, with massive hands & massive feet

Come on @netflix.com it's what we all want

Assistant Professor in 18th Century Literature at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin Discover Assistant Professor in 18th Century Literature jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQS657/a...