Steven

My university IT account is all back up and running. Two months until the PhD starts!

A panel of cream-colored cotton with an outlined design of intertwining stems, leaves, and anemone flowers drawn on. A small portion of the design has been stitched in silk threads: a blue-green stem, one large yellow-green serrated leaf, a few smaller leaves in various shades of green, two small orange buds, and two mid-sized anemone blooms in shaded pink. A small portion of the background is also stitched, in white.

Happy #WorldEmbroideryDay!

This panel, held at the V&A, is a great example of how Morris & Co. sold much of its embroidery: not as finished pieces, but as kits.

The piece would be started by a Morris & Co. worker, demonstrating the recommended techniques, then sold with all necessary supplies.

Happy World Embroidery Day with some Morris Magic.

1. 🖼️ ‘Poesis’, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, C.1880, @ngvmelbourne.bsky.social.

2. 🖼️ ‘Bed-Hangings’, 1917, May Morris, @cranbrookartmuseum.bsky.social

3. 🖼️ ‘The Forest’, tapestry, William Morris, 1887, V&A.

I love the vest - where did you get it from?

Spotted a wild Aurora Triumphans on Murder, She Wrote (S01E09) last night. The last place I expected to see Evelyn De Morgan!

This is my third Ernaux and whilst I've not been able to personally connect with the others (Shame, I Remain in Darkness), A Man's Place draws many parallels with my own experience and, in a way, has given voice to some of the feelings I've not known how to express. #BookSky

Onto the second, already distraught that I'll have to wait until November for the third.

Annual leave today calls for a slow morning reading On the Calculation of Volume I (Solvej Balle, tr. Barbara J Haveland) in bed with sleepy company.

Super excited to be organising a symposium on 'Why does Pre-Raphaelitism matter now?' Looking for postgrad/postdoc papers on current research
blog.bham.ac.uk/19cc/2025/06...
Or you can just come along and lie around like a Burne-Jones maiden
#preraphaelite #postgraduate #nineteenthcenturystudies

My office for the day. A gazebo in my overgrown garden with blackbird chicks chirping from their nest in the shrubbery as they're fed, untamed wisteria, budding onions, and a sprawl of who knows what that apparently bees will love, 'guaranteed', and which I can confirm that they do.

English and boys: Why are young men turning away from our subject? (16:45 -17:30, 19 June 2025) | The English Association We support the teaching, learning, and enjoyment of English at all levels of education, from early years to further and higher education and beyond.

Boys and English : what’s going on ? Tomorrow! 4.45 free on line discussion, led by @kovesi.bsky.social with teachers, teacher-educators, researchers, & charity leaders who contributed to our Spring Newsletter exploring this hugely significant issue. Sign up!
englishassociation.ac.uk/english-and-...

With the internet out at home, I'm welcoming being forced into working offline. In the garden. Under a blanket. Note to self: work doesn't always mean being sat at the computer.

A huge congratulations!

Day two of six at The Queen's Foundation in Birmingham for CitizensUK residential training towards a PGCert in Community Organising. Great time so far starting to make connections across the UK with leaders from such a range of backgrounds and organisations.

A surprise batch of Evelyn De Morgan questions on #UniversityChallenge tonight including reference to the Williamson Art Gallery in my home town! I'm ashamed to have only got 2/3 correct, though!

6th December - "William De Morgan: Novels, Socialism, and Victorian Class Struggles" Online Lecture 6th December - 4pm FREE TO FRIENDS OF THE DE MORGAN FOUNDATION. Join for £30 per year to access all of our lectures and receive the exclusive Friends' Journal. JOIN ---------- Foll...

Join me at 4pm on December 6th as I deliver my first online talk with the De Morgan Foundation.
“William De Morgan: Novels, Socialism, and Victorian Class Struggles” www.demorgan.org.uk/product/nove... #DeMorgan #WilliamDeMorgan #EdwardianFiction #VictorianFiction #EnglishLiterature #PreRaphaelite

Thank you! I'm in Manchester every couple of months or so to see friends and it's only around 50mins or so away by train so that would be lovely.

Thank you - fingers crossed it turns out as good as it sounds! I'm applying to Leeds where I completed my MA and to BCU because of their all of their work and connections with everything Pre-Raphaelite and De Morgan adjacent.

I completed my MA dissertation on Vance and Alice for Short focused on environment and social class. Currently applying for PhD study to continue research on his other novels. I'm so happy to see someone else reading them!

Steven crouched in front of a stome fireplace which is tiled with the William De Morgan Green Galleon design.

Ey up, Bluesky! I'm here for all things De Morgan, Pre-Raphaelite, and fin de siècle - especially around links between social class and the environment. I'm currently applying for a PhD starting in 2025.

#ecocriticism #demorgan #williamdemorgan #titmarshclub #preraphalite #findesiecle #socialclass