Dr Lisa Gee

Selfie of Lisa holding up William Hayley book so that the title, editor & other jacket text are visible, and concealing part of her face. Behind her are her slightly chaotic bookshelves and the tops of some plants

If you’ve been following me for a few weeks, you’ll know that I’ m super-proud of the book Mark Crosby & co-edited about William Hayley (1745-1820). If you don’t already know this & are interested in long #18thC art, lit, women's or socio-cultural history, please check out bit.ly/HayleyEssays TY!

Me. Yesterday. Feel v lucky that my body can do this.

(Video shows short woman wearing pink toe shoes jumping slightly more than half her height)

Who painted this haunting portrait? And what do we know about the woman it portrays? Lisa Gee discusses Eliza Hayley and her portrait with Lucy Bamford, Senior Curator, Derby Museums and Art Gallery,… Eliza Hayley – portrait mystery

Alex Kidson – the World’s leading Romney expert – whose conversation with leading Blakean Morton D. Paley forms bit.ly/HayleyRomneyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays, is editor of the stunning www.amazon.co.uk/George-Romne.... Both he & the book feature in this video… youtu.be/nCBFJGcpB2Q

Nicholas Shrimpton | The New Criterion document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { const selects = document.querySelectorAll(".filters-container select"); selects.forEach(select => { select.addEventListener("change",…

Nicholas Shrimpton whose bit.ly/RevisitHayleyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays reassesses the Blake-Hayley relationship, is the editor of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙢 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙠𝙚: 𝙎𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙤𝙚𝙢𝙨 and writes for 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙣. See more of his writing here:

Part 2 of the video shared in yesterday’s post re @fbls.bsky.social’s essay on on erased 18thC author Eliza Hayley bit.ly/ElizaHayleyAuthor in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Remarkably, my cats demonstrated greater tolerance of clock change than my brain did. It was ready to play soon after 05.00. I wasn't.

@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 in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #womenshistory #womenswriting

The Warwick PhD Scholarships Competition for 2025 entry is open! Deadline: 8 Dec. 2025 (course applications); 11 Dec. 2025 (funding). Get in touch.

warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/mod...

Researching the histories of race and ethnicity in the Bibliography of British and Irish History  - On History

In this On History blog, Gaverne Bennett and Jenny Lelkes-Rarugal discuss how the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) can be used to research and teach the histories of race and ethnicity

A few years back I applied, unsuccessfully, for a (smallish) research grant. As the funder revealed how many applications they'd had, I did a quick back-of-an-envelope calculation. My estimate is that for every £1 they were putting into the sector, they were extracting c. 99p in labour.

I'm curious about that smaller heavenly peak at £35-39k too...

Phillis Wheatley, the first Black nature poet | The Observer Enslaved as a child, the 18th-century writer became the first published Black woman – and a pioneer of nature poetry whose legacy still inspires

'Before William Wordsworth’s imagination had wandered, lonely as a cloud, and before John Keats’s nib had quivered with notions about nightingales, a Black woman named Phillis Wheatley was circulating a treasury of nature-inspired verse in London.'

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.

The only person to write a book length critical study of the poet, Claudia Thomas Kairoff was amazed to discover a major portrait of Seward in a local library bit.ly/HayleySeward in bit.ly/HayleyEssays
#lifewriting #18thC #c18th #romanticism #portraits #arthistory #friendship #poetry #womenshistory

Vacancy: Legacy of Slavery Research Project Officer - The Scottish Episcopal Church Salary: £36,799 (Grade 5: Development Worker grade)Contract: Fixed term for 12 months Hours: Fulltime, 35 hours a week (.8 FTE or 28 hours will also be considered). Some occasional evening or weekend ...

Great 12-month opportunity for an historian. Salary: £36,799 (Grade 5: Development Worker grade). Edinburgh/hybrid. Closing date 21 October.

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…

“The bust [is] nevertheless of a size never likely to have been realized. (Doesn’t the pictured Hayley realize this incongruity?)” Morton D. Paley on William Hayley & George Romney’s paintings buff.ly/BuYPfpF in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Actual bust? Probably this: buff.ly/kfNHnhK #ArtHistory #18thC

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.

‘“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

Just catching up with #TheArchers. Because that's what Sundays are for.

That and 08.15am boot camp (yes. That was a distinctly (unhumble) brag)

Miniature of Mary Wellford Hayley in her wedding garb, probably by George Engleheart. Mary wears a lacy cream (or white) wedding gown, with pink roses (or peonies) in her hair, and a gold cross on a gold chain round her neck.

“A Systematically Immoral Man” who “committed the vilest sins from a pure motive”. Safe to say that William Hayley’s sister-in-law was not a fan. Find out more: bit.ly/systematicallyimmoral in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #marriage #divorce #romanticism #19thc #womenshistory

damaged print portrait of Dante in profile, facing left, wearing a soft white cap with a brown band around it, a brown jacket with a short collar, with a white, short-collared shirt underneath. He also appears to be holding a sprig of a plant in his partially-visible right hand, raise to armpit level. Licence: Public Domain Mark Credit: Dante Alighieri. Colour lithograph, 1859, after S.S. Kirkup after a fresco attributed to Giotto. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

“Hayley’s literary relationship with Dante had a central role in the rediscovery of the Italian poet at the turn of the nineteenth century in England”. Read Silvia Riccardi's bit.ly/DanteHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #Dante #Inferno #divinecomedy Pic info in ALT

(Have also ordered Dear Committee Members). So, thank you!

I may just have cackled into my kitchen sink about Delayed Gratification magazine...

Anarchy in the UK: OUP hoists its standard for radical polymath #WilliamGodwin, author of Political Justice, 1793, & Caleb Williams, 1794; & (in timespan of this volume) Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century, Of Population, History of the Commonwealth of England; & many more works. At press.

It's an academic term designed, I think, to accommodate/signal the fact that people, cultural trends & events don't fit neatly into one specific century... EG: tho Hayley lived well into the 19thC, his attitudes/politics/behaviours remained more typically 18thC.

Does that answer your q?

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.

Diana Barsham on 💘William Hayley 💘 Jane Austen 💘… bit.ly/AustenHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #romance #JaneAusten #romanticism #19thc #womenswriting #womenshistory

Black & white cat just visible in grey pet carrier.

Poor Alejandro. Off his face on gabapentin so he doesn't maim another vet while having his annual jabs...

England is now experiencing a significant Covid wave, after 10 months of relative quiet The latest Covid situation in England and a look at where NHS services are as we head into winter

After a long pause, I've just done another England Covid & NHS update as we head into the autumn/winter season.

TLDR: we're in a significant Covid wave now, the NHS is stretched, get boosted if you're eligible.

christinapagel.substack.com/p/england-is...

Blimey. That’s embarrassing.

This is GREAT (thanks for the excellent find @ncdominie.bsky.social )

Engraving by Blake of Thomas Alphonso Hayley which appears in William Hayley’s ‘Essay on Sculpture’ (photo © Lisa Gee) Profile of Thomas Alphonso Hayley with a fine head of hair covering his shoulders, a full fringe large eyes and a purposeful expression.

“… the death of his only son at the age of 19 challenged … [Hayley’s] … techniques for managing grief and his assumptions about the workings of sympathy."

Fathers, sons & memoirs. Susan Matthews on bit.ly/BeingTemperate in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #memoir #fathers

Cowper faces left, wearing a large, soft white hat. His mouth is slightly upturned, he has a long aquiline nose, and is wearing a soft fabric coat with a frankly enormous collar. William Blake, 1757–1827, William Cowper, Author of "The Task", 1802, Etching and engraving on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1978.43.1668.

An #18thC tale of love, poetry, religion & mental illness. And what happens when a writer begs the Prime Minister for a pension for his friend…

Read bit.ly/HayleyCowper in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #romanticism #poetry #friendship

Image credit in ALT text.