Dr Dominique Gracia

Why the French do higher education better | Luke Markham | The Critic Magazine Preserved on the campus of University College London (UCL) are the remains of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Regrettably, his classical liberal view of education has not also benefitted from conservation...

Interesting French-UK university comparison from a British student studying classics at the Sorbonne.

Alice Slater – Death of a Bookseller (2023) Review ★★★ I was really excited about the premise of this book, and the initial introductions to its apparently diametrically opposed characters—Roach (aka Brogan) and Laura—fizzed with the promise of tension. There was a lack of real menace about Roach, despite her developing stalker behaviour. A grungy quasi-loner, actually longing for connection and struggling to find the right way to go about it, Roach's low self-esteem and awkwardness really do provoke empathy, and I have to say of the two principals I'd prefer to see Roach make a transformation rather than alcoholic melancholic Laura.

Alice Slater – Death of a Bookseller (2023)

Review ★★★ I was really excited about the premise of this book, and the initial introductions to its apparently diametrically opposed characters—Roach (aka Brogan) and Laura—fizzed with the promise of tension. There was a lack of real menace about Roach,…

Eds. Katherine Stansfield and Caroline Oakley – Cast a Long Shadow (2022) Preamble If you like mythologically informed (crime-adjacent) fiction, you can also check out my Dear Damsels story, 'In Darkness' as well as some of the stories in this collection, available on Bookshop.Org! Review ★★★★ This collection was published a few years again now, but I read it earlier this year, while the weather was still gloomy and the nights long.

Eds. Katherine Stansfield and Caroline Oakley – Cast a Long Shadow (2022)

Preamble If you like mythologically informed (crime-adjacent) fiction, you can also check out my Dear Damsels story, 'In Darkness' as well as some of the stories in this collection, available on Bookshop.Org! Review ★★★★…

Stuart Turton – The Devil and the Dark Water (2020) Review ★★★★★ I was somewhat slow to this, reading it a few years after it came out. Setting up a master detective requires a deftness of touch; go too far, and they sound rather Mary Sue, but if you don't go far enough in impressing their credentials on the reader then they and the plot can feel very hollow. This is one of the many things Turton does excellently, using small sections of back-narration to summarise the relationship between the "alchemical" detective, Samuel Pipps, and his assistant, Arent Hayes, the synopses feigning a parasocial relationship between us as readers and this detective-and-sidekick pair.

Stuart Turton – The Devil and the Dark Water (2020)

Review ★★★★★ I was somewhat slow to this, reading it a few years after it came out. Setting up a master detective requires a deftness of touch; go too far, and they sound rather Mary Sue, but if you don't go far enough in impressing their…

Universities aren’t often spoken of as ‘brands,’ but Warwick leans into that idea. What does thinking of a university as a brand unlock—and what can it achieve when done well? Seeing a university as a brand unlocks coherence and confidence. A brand is about more than design, it’s about identity and consistency. When you align your values, your story and your impact, you become more than a place, you become a movement. At Warwick, brand isn’t just a communications tool, it’s a strategic asset. It helps us attract brilliant minds, forge global partnerships and create a distinctive space in a competitive world. When done well, a brand doesn’t limit, it liberates.

What drew you to the world of higher education, and how do you see its role evolving in society today? My journey from the world of luxury into higher education has been one of purpose and transformation. After years of working with global brands, I was drawn to higher education as the next frontier of influence, a space where knowledge, identity, and opportunity intersect. Universities aren’t just places of learning, they are platforms for societal impact. Their role today is to be both anchor and catalyst: rooted in rigorous teaching and research, yet agile enough to respond to global challenges and cultural shifts. How has your background in the luxury sector shaped the way you approach storytelling and brand building at the University of Warwick? Working across premium and luxury sectors—fashion, real estate, travel and beyond—taught me the value of emotion, detail, and differentiation. In those worlds, a brand isn’t just a badge, it’s an experience, a feeling, a story that lives in people’s hearts. At the University of Warwick, I’ve brought that same mindset to higher education: crafting narratives that are both strategic and human.

I can't quite believe it, but, it appears that the person responsible for this at the University of Warwick has had a Vogue photoshoot about the rebrand, explaining his 'journey from the world of luxury [goods marketing] into higher education' vogue.sg/university-o...

Thanks for sharing this thinking!

Looking forward to speaking at the City Writes event this evening @citystgeorges.bsky.social.

Still time to sign up to hear some fantastic short stories and @fionakeating.bsky.social talk about her glorious Smoke and Silk 📖

blogs.city.ac.uk/cityshortcou...

And this has been going for a while, with those roles the first to be outsourced to agencies with worse pay and conditions.

@qmul.ac.uk used to take pride in having all staff in-house. This stopped shortly after the current Principal arrived. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #UKHE #SaveHE

Claire Evans – The Graves of Whitechapel (2020) Review ★★★ Having written a collection of short stories about detective work in the Victorian East End, this is of course going to catch my eye, which it did eventually on a Tower Hamlets library shelf. (And the Whitechapel branch, no less.) This is the second novel by TV producer, Claire Evans, although both stand alone. (I haven't read The Fourteenth Letter…

Claire Evans – The Graves of Whitechapel (2020)

Review ★★★ Having written a collection of short stories about detective work in the Victorian East End, this is of course going to catch my eye, which it did eventually on a Tower Hamlets library shelf. (And the Whitechapel branch, no less.) This is…

Victoria Dowd – The Supper Club Murders (2022) Review ★★★★★ This is the third in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names) and aunt Charlotte, plus some of their friends and acquaintances, and the series just keeps getting better. As in the previous two books, the Smart women endeavour to go on a relaxing holiday and instead find themselves marooned (although not literally, this time) and in the middle of a murderous plot.

Victoria Dowd – The Supper Club Murders (2022)

Review ★★★★★ This is the third in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names) and aunt Charlotte, plus some of their friends and acquaintances, and the series just keeps…

I’m always particularly disappointed at how often career development activities and networking are scheduled outside of these times. Often at the end of a full-day “away day” (that could have been an email)

Agatha Christie – Cards on the Table (2021) Review ★★★★ I am slowly picking my way through more of the twentieth-century greats’ novels, and Christie’s Poirot novels are excellent travelling companions. Compact and concise, this one was great for a flight and the long commute back from the airport. In brief, eccentric society man Mr Shaitana is stabbed at one of his own parties while the eight of his guests play bridge at two separate tables.

Agatha Christie – Cards on the Table (2021)

Review ★★★★ I am slowly picking my way through more of the twentieth-century greats’ novels, and Christie’s Poirot novels are excellent travelling companions. Compact and concise, this one was great for a flight and the long commute back from the…

Frank Tallis – Mortal Mischief (2005) Preamble Check out my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or, if you’re a particular Edinburgh enthusiast, try my novella Researcher Wanted, available on Kindle. Review ★★★★ As one of the extraordinary sidekick series I've written about before, I watched Vienna Blood when it first broadcast and so the characters here feel quite comfy and familiar: Oskar and Max, the Liebermann family more broadly, and the psychiatric community of medics in turn-of-the-century Vienna.

Frank Tallis – Mortal Mischief (2005)

Preamble Check out my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or, if you’re a particular Edinburgh enthusiast, try my novella Researcher Wanted, available on Kindle. Review ★★★★ As one of the…

Ambrose Parry – The Death of Shame (2025) Preamble Check out my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or, if you’re a particular Edinburgh enthusiast, try my novella Researcher Wanted, available on Kindle. Review ★★★★ I'm grateful to the publisher and author for an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel via NetGalley. Victorian Edinburgh. I've covered a bit of the summary of why this is fantastic setting for historical detective fiction featuring medical professionals (and aspiring female medical professionals) in my review of Carole Lawrence's…

Ambrose Parry – The Death of Shame (2025)

Preamble Check out my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or, if you’re a particular Edinburgh enthusiast, try my novella Researcher Wanted, available on Kindle. Review ★★★★ I'm grateful…

Victoria Dowd – Body on the Island (2021) Review ★★★★ This is the second in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names), aunt Charlotte, and godmother Mirabelle, plus book-club hanger-on Bridget and her dog. The unreliable narrator of the series, Ursula, is prima facie a shaky, timid soul who hasn't ever recovered from the death of her father when she was 13.

Victoria Dowd – Body on the Island (2021)

Review ★★★★ This is the second in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names), aunt Charlotte, and godmother Mirabelle, plus book-club hanger-on Bridget and her dog. The…

Martin Edwards – Blackstone Fell (2022) Preamble Take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Review ★★★★★ It's been a while since I reviewed something that I learnt about on the fantastic Death of the Reader podcast, which seems to be currently in abeyance, but they made the story sound like such great fun that I was happy to jump in partway through the Rachel Savernake series.

Martin Edwards – Blackstone Fell (2022)

Preamble Take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Review ★★★★★ It's been a while since I reviewed something that I learnt about on the fantastic Death of the Reader podcast,…

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Sign of the Four (1890) Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Review ★★★★ I have tended not to review here the Victorian fiction on which I write academically, outside of the research-related posts from my Great Nineteenth-Century Reading Challenge.

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Sign of the Four (1890)

Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir…

Carole Lawrence — Edinburgh Twilight (2017) If you’re interested in nineteenth-century historical crime fiction, take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; available now! Or if you're a fan of the Scottish capital, check out my short story on Kindle, Researcher Wanted (free on Kindle Unlimited). Review ★★★★ I read this some time ago but was reminded of it by a new ARC (to be reviewed soon), so thought I should pick this back up and properly review it here.

Carole Lawrence — Edinburgh Twilight (2017)

If you’re interested in nineteenth-century historical crime fiction, take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; available now! Or if you're a fan of the Scottish capital, check out my…

Kate Morgan – The Walnut Tree: Women, Violence and the Law (2024) Review ★★★★ Billed as a "hidden history" in its sub-subtitle, like many popular history works, this somewhat oversells its unveiling of new stories to those who know anything much about the period under investigation. Still, as a Victorianist and someone who writes historical crime fiction set in the period, generally focused on women, I definitely found some nuggets of interest here.

Kate Morgan – The Walnut Tree: Women, Violence and the Law (2024)

Review ★★★★ Billed as a "hidden history" in its sub-subtitle, like many popular history works, this somewhat oversells its unveiling of new stories to those who know anything much about the period under investigation. Still, as a…

“Thank you for your attention to this matter” is an unhinged sign-off.

Four in five universities missed overseas student targets in 2024 - Research Professional News Universities UK survey underlines “continued challenges for sector” despite four-month rise in student visa applications

“Around four in five UK universities failed to recruit the number of overseas students they expected to by September last year, according a survey by Universities UK International,” 🖊️ @francesjones.bsky.social.

We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now

Leonora Nattrass – Black Drop (2021) Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cos…

And finally for the month, Leonora Nattrass' slightly-before-my-time Black Drop, the first in her Lawrence Jago series. I'm forever catching up, folks! 😆

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Batya Gur – Murder on a Kibbutz (1994) Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cos…

Plus another entirely different long-ago-read, more than 30 years on, Batya Gur's Murder on a Kibbutz, midway through her Michael Ohayon series

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Agatha Christie – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) Preamble Take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Review ★★★★★ I read this some time ago, before I had started (some…

And a little bit later than Sidney Street, although not by very much, Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which I read yonks ago but never got around to writing a review of

graciado.com/2025/03/21/a...

Andrew Whitehead – A Devilish Kind of Courage (2024) Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cos…

And a foray into non-fiction, which I read less of these days (although I'm gearing up for a big non-fiction reading bout for research purposes), Andrew Whitehead's book about the Siege of Sidney Street, which is very near me and where my detective Meinir Davies roams!

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Alasdair Beckett-King — Mystery at the Manor (2024) Preamble If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cos…

Plus some detective fiction for younger readers, as a test-read for my nieces and younger siblings, Alasdair Beckett King's Mystery at the Manor (I'm reading the first of the Montgomery Bonbon's to my about-to-be-six-year-old now!)

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Andrew Hunter Murray — A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering (2024) If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteri…

Then Andrew Hunter Murray's A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering

graciado.com/2025/03/11/a...

DB Stephens — The Serial Killer Support Group (2025) If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or you can take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteri…

Then from that into one of a few ARCs I read in March, The Serial Killer Support Group from DB Stephens/Darren O'Sullivan, out in May (and a great read if you're an enthusiastic pre-orderer!)

graciado.com/2025/03/06/d...

Nicola Williams – Until Proven Innocent (2024) Read my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies now (in paperback, hardback, or on Kindle)! If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and cr…

Started the month with Nicola Williams' 2024 follow-up to her 1997 Without Prejudice

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