Jenny Kenyon

you will not regret viewing these Halloween advertisements - especially as the full version of this fun/terrifying jack o’lantern acorn ad claims ‘you will have no trouble at all with THE BOGIE BOOK to plan your decorations, games and stunts’. will someone buy me THE BOGIE BOOK for Halloween?

the way this poem haunted me from secondary school to undergrad entrance exams and beyond. but now, i am healed (Ozzed up in my turn)

“Eventually, the manuscript becomes real and possesses you, making you do terrible things.”

brat is back, baby. maybe one of my favourite academic events of all time, and the first paper I gave in Bristol to the best audience… it’s time for the remix 💚

skeleton, mouth agape, perched on top of a shiny red sculpture of a cat. the skeleton is clutching a can of something mysterious, perhaps a witchy brew.

incompetently, no photos were taken, so please accept this novelty skeleton from Boston instead

today’s #ModWrite is a slow return to a UK time zone, but reflecting on the wonderful papers at MSA 25 @moderniststudies.bsky.social & the joy of presenting strategic incompetencies with @becimay.bsky.social, @vjoshuaadams.bsky.social, @jamesreath.bsky.social, Megan Quigley & Jess Payn

thanks so much! what a wonderful opportunity.

A British Gas advert from the 1950s. Mr Therm is a smiling red character, his head (or hair) is made to look like flames. The tag line reads: Mr Therm burns to serve you

today's #ModWrite I'm writing about illustrator Eric Fraser & his depiction of telephone trauma for Hamilton's radio play Money with Menaces. Fraser also invented 'Mr Therm' for British Gas: maybe the ultimate example of cute mascot & terrifying tagline?
www.modernillustration.org/archive/mrth...

Reith's Diaries How the publication of private diaries fifty years ago this month changed forever the public image of the BBC’s first Director-General - John Reith.

John Reith of the BBC: ‘a soul in torment’?

My piece for the BBC looking back at the publication - 50 years ago this week - of the extraordinary ‘Reith Diaries’

the outside of the Harry Ransom Center archive, a sandstone and glass building with dappled sunlight

a spray-painted mural of ‘Stephen F. Austin’, a curly-haired man holding armadillos, and wearing a bright blue suit that merges with the blue sky behind him. on his chest is an illustration, part-watermelon, part-human heart, bearing the legend “The Art of Texas”. He’s surrounded by famous Austin landmarks and objects.

a small black bird with one piercing eye, looking at you while you eat lunch. he’s a “Great-Tailed Grackle”

a skyline view of a glowing orange austin sunset, with the colorado river snaking through the buildings and trees below

joyous week 1 Austin - not pictured, my new friend Lester the trumpet player, and the huge cache of fascinating Hamilton materials at the Ransom Center

today's #ModWrite is from the Harry Ransom Center, with quirky drawings and unique turns of phrase that bring me closer than ever to Patrick Hamilton - if only his handwriting didn't turn each letter into a homogeneous scrawl, life would be perfect (but then wouldn't that be boring).

We're pleased to announce that the CFP for the TMR Virginia Woolf special issue is now open!
📆Important dates:
Expression of interest: September 15th, 2025
Submission due date: October 10th, 2025

Please get in touch with tmr@bams.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you! 🌻

The Modernist Review Issue #57 8th September 2025 All the months are crude experiments out of which the perfect September is made. (Virginia Woolf, ‘The Lands End’, 1905) September arrives again, and with the beginning of autumn…

We’re excited to share #TheModernistReview57, our first autumn issue! It includes seven reviews on diverse topics in modernist studies. Go check it out! we hope you enjoy reading:
modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/t...

thank you so much! the bats at sunset look amazing, and a bat kayak tour sounds even better. i’ll check out the tacos and malvern books too :)

today's #ModWrite is more packing than writing - one week before I arrive at the Harry Ransom Center for a deep dive into Patrick Hamilton's archive. Please send recommendations for Austin (bookshops, coffee, live music, nature, and for surviving what looks like 33 degree heat...)

weird modernists (and modernisms) unite!

Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to... Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research

Our campaign for the continuation of independent access to the BBC Written Archive Centre is highlighted this morning by Vanessa Thorpe in The Observer. Her article, with excellent contributions from David Kynaston and Ian Greaves, outlines the issue with clarity.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Please consider signing! I've been incredibly fortunate to access materials at the BBC Written Archives Centre for both my MA and PhD: my research would be all the poorer without them. Losing open & independent access is a terrible blow for anyone researching the BBC, broadcasting, and so much more.

Save our pioneering widening participation undergraduate degree in English Literature and Community Engagement at the University of Bristol 19 August 2025 Dear Evelyn Welch (Vice-Chancellor) cc Judith Squires (Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost), Tansy Jessop (Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students) The School of Humanities has ...

Pls sign and share this open letter to the Bristol VC, against the School of Humanities's decision to withdraw the BA in English Literature and Community Engagement (ELCE): the only part-time, flexible undergraduate degree programme available at the University forms.gle/SbyhXPSJgQTc...

clippy the paperclip asking "It looks like you're writing a key to all mythologies? Would you like a tomb instead?"

the horrors persist, but so do the poor quality and unhinged nature of my Middlemarch memes

DO NOT DISTURB x2 and ‘this message has no content’ are really adding to the general ‘impending doom’ vibe

a screenshot of my phone’s lock screen in ominous ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode, with an email notification sent by me, to me, titled ‘avid consumer’.

at the stage of writing where my brain simultaneously flies off on tangents, and cannot think of how to express a simple concept - so i send myself ominous emails from my bed as i try to get to sleep.

Sausages and cheese, German supermarket

the scenario we all feared

today’s #ModWrite is a delve back into torturous telephones in Patrick Hamilton’s radio dramas - and making a list of dream discoveries for my visit to the Hamilton archive at the Harry Ransom Center next month (happy dance)

🥹❤️!

innocuous wooden bench with notebook, plant pot and laptop, overshadowed by a giant red box mounted on the wall, labelled “Fire Documents”

wonderful lunch of squares (galettes) with the wonderful @becimay.bsky.social, also featuring this tantalising box… choosing to read ‘fire’ as inspirational and mind-blowing, and hoping to find the key.

Provocateur’s progress While Naomi Mitchison was sitting, with her four children, for the artist and writer Wyndham Lewis, she saw that he kept a flipped pudding bowl on permanent display in his studio. Inside the bowl, Lew...

The @thetls.bsky.social let me eviscerate Wyndham Lewis 🖤🔥🔥🖤

love this so much!

This rabbit hole lead me to this wonderful article on Shaw, vegetarianism, and tomato consomme served with whisky?! Another fabulous title, for the recipe itself: 'Tomato Consomme and Then Some' soupsong.com/zjul05.html