Dr Lisa Gee

This piece by Charlotte Higgins is excellent and takes an unusually balanced position on the benefits of reading and its technologies

work with me and @drdaveobrien.bsky.social as part of @creativepec.bsky.social! we're recruiting a postdoc to work on the arts, culture and heritage sectors using quantitative methods. please share, please feel free to email me directly with any Qs! jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Sheffiel...

Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2026 - 2027 at University of Cambridge Searching for an academic job? Explore this Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2026 - 2027 opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

Munby Fellowship in Bibliography based @theul.bsky.social in Cambridge - closes on 1 February, so still time to apply.

Wot @openspacer.bsky.social says. And read the post/article or whatever you call things people write on substack.

With joyful abandon.

If you've got this far, thank you for reading this incredibly dull thread x

While no other notebook has ever approached the perfection of the Muriel Sparks, my hoard suggests that I (reluctantly) moved on to softback Moleskines, then Whitelines, and then settled on Castells

I may have kept a few, unused sheets of the paper while my ancient notes are heading for the recycling bag...

Grubby old white wire bound notebook cover with James Thin Booksellers Since 1848 logo

While having a bit of a declutter (NOT normal for me), I found a couple of used James Thin notebooks. The best notebooks EVER: gorgeous cream thin-lined paper.

If memory serves, they were called 'Muriel Sparks' cos originally made for her.

Wish they were still made...

Are you a community specialist and interested in the world of open source investigations? Come work with us! We're searching for a Community Operations & Project Manager. Apply by January 11th. www.bellingcat.com/bellingcat-j...

Can there ever be enough roasties?

2. Animal. Piggy has a different vibe...

There's an inadvisable amount of blue cheese? Who knew?

I'm very excited to announce the launch of the #18thC Ecologies Network! Co-convened by myself & @calsutherland.bsky.social at @cecs-york.bsky.social , ECEN is a hub for researchers interested in the many diverse ecologies of the period 🌱

Find out more: hzj520.wixsite.com/eighteenth-c...

Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Postdoctoral Research Associate Are you passionate about early medieval Britain?  Do you have advanced knowledge of Old English and proficiency in Medieval Latin?  If yes, then you may be interested in this fixed term full time post...

The ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Book jacket. Text reads Top left: Palgrave studies in life writing Series editors: Clare Brant • Max Saunders Centre: William Hayley A Biographer’s Influence on Life Writing and Romantic Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century Edited by Lisa Gee • Mark Crosby Bottom right: Palgrave macmillan Image: Full length picture showing (l-r) George Romney (self portrait) peering impishly into the frame, William Hayley standing side on head turned to face the viewer. He’s tall, has an imperious expression under shortish grey hair, is wearing a long dark blue cape, grey trousers and his right hand holds a walking stick. John Flaxman(who comes up to Hayley’s shoulder looks at him while working on a large grey bust. In front of him, the height of Flaxman’s shoulder,. and facing away from us, is Tom Hayley, wearing a red waistcoat over a white/cream shirt, knee length britches, white socks or spats and brown shoes. His hair is brown and touches his shoulder George Romney, 1734–1802, John Flaxman Modeling the Bust of William Hayley, 1795 to 1796, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.538.

A quick post to say I’ m taking a December break from posting about bit.ly/HayleyEssays,. Places to go, people to see, work to do, etc. …

(etc = mostly sorting out messy piles of things that refuse to tidy themselves up because they’re inanimate objects and lack sentience).

Engraving of Jeremiah Meyer. William Pether, ca. 1738–1821, Jeremiah Meyer, Esqr. r. A., Miniature painter in Enamel to His Majesty, 1789, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.12362. Meyer, his body turned slightly to the left, looks over his left shoulder, while – from the top – he holds what looks to be a large sketch pad, with a pencil or brush held gently in his right hand. His face bears a concentrated expression as if he’s observing something closely. His features are large and heavy, his hair neatly dressed and curled outwards over his ears (his right lobe is visible). His hairline is slightly receding. He wears what looks like a simple, brown jacket over a cream or white cravat.

1784. Painter in Enamels to King George III and in Miniatures to Queen Charlotte, Jeremiah Meyer had a plan. He brought a popular Opera back from Stuttgart, hoping his writer-friend William Hayley could earn some £ by translating it for the London stage…

bit.ly/KnausMeyer in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

This video is about HayleyWorld, the creative element of Lisa’s Digital Writing by Practice PhD. Intro to Hayleyworld

How did developer Michael Kowalski & I make an interactive biography – “HayleyWorld” – for my PhD? And why did I decide to call it a “zoeography"? bit.ly/MakingHW in bit.ly/HayleyEssays.

Video intro here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4N.... #elit #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th

Shadow of a finger pointing to the chapter title. Text reads ‘Be My Enemy for Friendship’s Sake’: Hayley and Blake’s Biographers Jason Whittaker and Annise Rogers

Interested in #WilliamBlake &/or biography? Read @jasonpaulwhittaker.bsky.social & @urthonaunbound.bsky.social’s: “‘Be My Enemy for Friendship’s Sake’: Hayley and
Blake’s Biographers” bit.ly/BME4FS in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #Blake #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th

Lost Romney watercolour, b&w/sepia L-R Eliza Ball Hayley in profile (facing right), seated at a table, looking down while at some form of handiwork: possibly sharpening a pen, or preparing materials for needlework. William Hayley is seated behind the same table, pictured front on, wearing a jacket with a huge collar. His arms rest semi crossed on the table, and in front of him is a large book with another document on it. Standing to his right (directly opposite the seated Eliza) is Captain Howell, a protegé of William Hayley’s who was lost at sea. Howell is looking down at the document while William Hayley’s head is slightly tilted up to look at him

Poet, biographer, man of letters, and cultivator of influential literary and artistic networks during the late 18th century, William Hayley was considered one of the brightest stars in the poetical firmament.

So why isn’t he more famous? See bit.ly/HonestChroni... our intro to bit.ly/HayleyEssays

William Hayley This volume of essays reassesses William Hayley’s contribution to the literary and artistic history of the period.

Know I’m repeatedly repeating myself, but Mark Crosby & I have a book out, crammed with erudite, fascinating & readable contributions from an impressive range of scholars. If your research touches on long #18thC art, literature or socio-cultural history, please check out bit.ly/HayleyEssays TY!

Art historian and author/compiler of 𝙂𝙚𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙢𝙣𝙚𝙮: 𝘼 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 tells us what Romney got up to during his summer visits to William Hayley at his house in Eartham, Sussex.

Discover more: bit.ly/HayleyRomneyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Leading Blake Scholar and editor of @blakequarterly.bsky.social Morton D. Paley discusses William Hayley’s poetry.

Discover more: bit.ly/HayleyRomneyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Art historian and author/compiler of 𝙂𝙚𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙢𝙣𝙚𝙮: 𝘼 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 explains what makes Romney such an important artist.

Discover more: bit.ly/HayleyRomneyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Impressionistic pen sketch of house in background, with green bush front right and to right on hill, viewed through 2 trees front centre & left, with more greenery/?dead tree to left foreground. William Blake, 1757–1827, The Entrance Front of Hayley's House at Eartham, 1801, Pen and black ink with watercolor and graphite on medium, smooth, beige wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.2396.

Best of frenemies? “The relationship is perhaps best understood as a drama in four acts …” Nicholas Shrimpton reassesses William Blake & William Hayley’s #friendship: bit.ly/RevisitHayleyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

#Blake #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th

Pic info in ALT text

Eliza Ball Hayley in profile (facing right), looking down while at some form of handiwork: possibly sharpening a pen, or preparing materials for needlework. b&w/sepia Detail from lost Romney watercolour, which also features William Hayley and Captain Howell, a protegé of William Hayley’s who was lost at sea.

@fbls.bsky.social observes how “Scholarly references to Hayley are … always in relation to her husband, hardly ever recognising her own intellectual merit.” A pity, as Hayley had plenty to say… bit.ly/ElizaHayleyAuthor #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #womenshistory #womenswriting #reputation

I love this ⬇️

George Romney, Anna Seward, 1788. Oil on canvas. © Forsyth County Library, Winston-Salem, NC. Used with permission. A woman in a long, dark dress with gold trimmings and a blue silky sash leans her left elbow on a table covered in red fabric. Her eyes look to her right, and her face rests gently on her left hand, her index finger pointing upwards. She holds a scroll of paper in her right hand. On the table are inkwell with a quill pen in it, an unfolded sheet of paper, and some crumpled pieces of paper. The background is reddish orange, darkening on the sitter's left into what could be read as night.

Claudia Thomas Kairoff, author of THE Anna Seward book-length critical study –bit.ly/CTKAS – discovered Romney’s 2nd portrait of the poet in her local library bit.ly/HayleySeward in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #romanticism #portraits #arthistory #poetry #womenshistory

Bust of the poet and biographer William Hayley (1745-1820) William Hayley (1745-1820) was a literary celebrity of his age. His poetical essay <i>Triumphs of Temper </i>(1781) went to 14 editions and in 1790 he refused the post of Poet Laureate. Hayley…

Read Morton D. Paley’s take on William Hayley & George Romney’s paintings bit.ly/HayleyRomneyPaintings in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

The most likely candidate for the actual bust? This:

Upright spine of leather bound book embossed with gold designs and the words LIFE OF MILTON The book is held in position by two piles of other old books (mostly also by Hayley)

‘“if Hayley is deemed a furious Democrat what must be the state of patriotism in this country?”'. Mark Crosby explores William Hayley’s Milton biography and politics bit.ly/MiltonHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #Milton #republicanism #politics