Thrilled to announce I have passed my PhD viva with no corrections (typos only). Heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors @LearNonsense and #ClareGill, my stellar examiners @DrAnindyaR and #ClareClarke, @sgsah for the funding that made this journey possible and @staenglish

How brilliant that Conan Doyle's very early work, "The Mystery of Cloomber" (1888) was narrated by a student of law from St Andrews!! @univofstandrews

Dundee mum’s anger as council cancels autistic son’s four-year support package after 45min meeting dlvr.it/TSDTHN

Keith the Apocalypse Bringer is a three-year-old Anglo-Nubian goat in a field in Devon. Keith should not be underestimated. Keith has been systematically dismantling the ecosystem since approximately 7am, when he ate a bramble. This is significant because bramble is an invasive scrub species that outcompetes wildflowers, reduces biodiversity, and creates dense monoculture thicket that nothing else can use. Keith ate it. Keith does this every day. Keith does not charge for this service. 8:15am - Keith ate a thistle. Thistles are also considered invasive scrub in managed pasture. Goldfinches eat thistle seeds, but Keith's grazing will ensure the pasture remains open enough for the ground-nesting birds that can't use dense scrub. Keith has not attended a conservation workshop. Keith arrived at this conclusion by being a goat. 9:00am - Keith dismantled a section of hedge. This was less helpful. Keith does not have a perfect record. 10:30am - Keith escaped the field. He was in the road for eleven minutes. He ate a neighbour's rose. This is not being counted in Keith's environmental impact assessment. 11:00am - Keith was returned to the field. Keith regarded the farmer with the specific expression of an animal that does not recognise the concept of property. 12:00pm - Keith ate more bramble. His digestive system: four stomachs, a rumen full of specialised microorganisms, the ability to extract nutrition from lignified plant matter that would defeat any other animal on this field, is converting scrub vegetation into milk with a fat content of approximately 4.5%. The milk will become cheese. The cheese will be sold at the farm shop. The farm shop is four miles away. The cheese food miles are: four. 3:00pm - Keith produced manure. The manure will grow the grass. The grass will grow the bramble. The bramble will be eaten by Keith. This system has no inputs. It has been running since goats were domesticated approximately ten thousand years ago. Keith is not aware he is saving the planet. Keith is thinking about whether the fence on the north side has a weak point. It does. Keith found it at 4:45pm. Keith got out again.

Santa has just been spotted over Iceland taking in the Northern Lights🎅 Quick refuel (mince pies carrots)🥕 All systems go for the Atlantic crossing🌊 #TrafficScotland #SantaTracker #SnackStop

CALL FOR PAPERS: TRAFFIC Proposal Deadline: 15 February 2026 〰 NASSR/NAVSA Pasadena, California November 11-15, 2026 〰 For more information, visit: traffic2026.ucr.edu 〰 #19C #Traffic @navsa

CFP: Intimacies in Nineteenth-Century Ireland at Maynooth University, 18th-19th June 2026 (Deadline: 1 February 2026) victorianist.wordpress.com/2…

CFP: Housing the Poor - Theories, Practices and Representations (Deadline: March 15th, 2026) victorianist.wordpress.com/2…

Bravo Sara @LearNonsense

Someone finally stopped for the cat sitting alone in the rain, adopted him and named him Rain Drop 🥹❤️

Eee. I caught the trailer for the new series of Shetland on BBC1 last night. In case you missed it, it starts on November 5th at 9.00pm.

Absolutely, utterly vile

When the wonderful @LucySussex not only delivers a wonderful keynote lecture at your conference but also send this absolute corker of a book to you all the way from Australia. Thrilled beyond measure! Also, many congratulations to Lucy and Megan. This is such an important work!

I believe that @waitrose need to offer this young man a paid job. This experience shows how in some circumstances "volunteering" and work placement schemes can exploit chronically ill, disabled and neurodivergent people. This needs to stop.

PhD Fellowship within the DECADOCS network: ‘Decadent Travellers and the Reception of Classical Antiquity in the Nineteenth Century’ (Deadline 20 October 2025) victorianist.wordpress.com/2…