Dr Lucy Whitehead

Loved being on this great panel at #NAVSA2025!

Cast list for Great Expectations, a play commissioned by Dickens himself

Gathered in London tonight with John Drew and assorted Dickensians to do a private reading of a never-performed play of Great Expectations, commissioned by Dickens himself to thwart the would-be pirates who made full use of the lax copyright laws of the time. Geek heaven!

So interesting - I'd heard about this archive, held privately, and wondered which institution would acquire it. Congratulations @uniofcam.bsky.social!

Some of our Reading Rooms will be closed between 27 October and 9 November due to planned strike action at our St Pancras site, and there may be other short notice disruption.

To check what’s impacted, please visit our website: bit.ly/StrikeAction...

stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness (bonus if you can tell me who these two are and who drawn by…)

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Cover of Victorian Studies journal, with lithograph of fairies!

I'm really proud of this: the latest issue of #VictorianStudies has an article of mine in it!
It's on #ageing and #generations, & the insightful ways that Victorian novelist Margaret Oliphant approaches these issues, with takeaways for us now.
doi.org/10.2979/vic....

1/

Really enjoyed this - thank you @britishacademy.bsky.social #ECR Network for organising it! Loved hearing about everyone’s writing projects across a range of disciplines.

well so long as there is propriety of colouring

When you get really excited about an archival holding, and then realise that access is restricted until 2095

I’m on TV tonight! Check out the first episode of Britain’s Railway Empire at 8pm on Channel 4.

It’s a new, two part series about the history of the railways, starting with the Victorian Era. It’s not just a story about tech and engineering, but covers the social and cultural impact too.

Pollock's Toy Museum

As a bit of a toy collector myself this one has extra appeal. Thanks Julia.
mainlymuseums.com/post/695//po...
#museums #museumfromhome #toys #london

Railway Infrastructure and the Victorian Novel | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Book news! I’m pleased to say that Railway Infrastructure and the Victoria Novel is now in circulation www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Congratulations!!!!

Dark blue title slide: The EC Festival: Ecological Citizenship in Action Thursday 18 September 2025 - Museum of Making, Derby "And then what happened?" Thinking about Impact Clare Stainthorp, Research Impact Manager, Royal College of Art

I'll be running a workshop on 'thinking about impact' at the EC Festival in Derby on 18 Sept. Join us to explore how #EcologicalCitizenship is practised through creativity, community, and collaboration.

📣 Register now - attendance is free & incs lunch! ecologicalcitizens.co.uk/upcoming-eve...

The Signalman tour (Play) 27th August 2025-15th November 2025 Tour information for The Signalman (Play) touring 27th August 2025 to 15th November 2025 (9 venues), details, news, reviews and tickets from UKTW, the UK's oldest theatre website. QTIX: T1870904911

Funnily enough yesterday I noticed (as you may already know) that there’s a play adaptation coming to a few different locations from the end of August, starting in Great Malvern www.uktw.co.uk/Tour/Play/Th...

It makes me think of that Victorian exhib ‘Colour Revolution’ @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social a couple of years ago, that warned us off imagining the Victorian world in black and white just because of the photography. Point extravagantly made here!

Really enjoying the colourful Victorian station at Great Malvern. @victorianlondon.bsky.social I thought of you!

Thanks, yeah it was really nice to do BAVS again after a few years! There were indeed very many people! Hope your paper went well x

I’m sad we missed each other! 😢 Different panels maybe? I hope you had a good one!

Happy 25th birthday @bavs-uk.bsky.social! Thank you for the beautiful conference dinner and the fiendishly difficult quiz! Glorious Victorian architecture provided by Oxford Town Hall… it felt a bit like dining inside a wedding cake… #BAVS2025

50% OFF Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens's London The intriguing history of Dickens's London, showing how tourists have reimagined and reinvented the Dickensian metropolis for more than 150 years Tourists have sought out the landmarks, stree...

There's a 50% discount on the audiobook of DICKENSLAND at the moment, if you're so minded, and can ignore the slightly odd cover www.audiobooks.co.uk/promotions/p...

Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises

You can now read most of the introduction (co-written by me and @johannawinant.bsky.social) to CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, out in October from Princeton UP press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Really enjoyed giving my second public lecture on my research into Dickens biographies yesterday, this time at the beautiful Charterhouse! Thank you @dickensfellowhq.bsky.social for the invitation and the warm welcome!

English literature was culturally central to a degree not easy to grasp today and which throws a stark light on the subject's present crisis of marginality. English was born as an academic subject in a world in which journals and magazines "carried an endless stream of critical essays celebrating or reconsidering the achievement of major and minor poets alike". ". For many people "a deep intimacy with English poetry was a living presence, not simply a social affectation or a relic of a half-remembered education". When the littérateur-turned-don John Bailey gave public lectures ("Can We Tell Good Books from Bad?", "Shelley") he addressed "crowded" halls of hundreds of people ("many standing") and met with "wild success"; when he lunched with the former prime minister Arthur Balfour in 1914, the two men chatted about "Dryden, Pope, Browning, etc"

When English literature had a different place in society @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Looking forward to this @rhul-cvs.bsky.social!

⬇️ 🙌🏼

Reposting because why not

Fantastic, congratulations!

Railway Infrastructure and the Victorian Novel Cambridge Core - English Literature 1830-1900 - Railway Infrastructure and the Victorian Novel

Proofs are in! 'Railway Infrastructure and the Victorian Novel' should find its way into circulation later this year with CUP 👀🚂
Too many folk to thank here but those acknowledgements are full!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...