If you're interested in all things Victorian - and who wouldn't be? 😉 - feel free to join us on @sfeve.bsky.social You'll discover the activities of the SFEVE (celebrating its 50th anniversary this year 🎂) and its members, who are all passionate about Victorian literature, history and culture. 🤓

Happy 30th birthday to the best road album, the best studio/live hybrid album, the best end-of-an-era album, and Michael Stipe's own favorite R.E.M. album.

Coming soon...

Huge congratulations to Joanna Turner on the publication of her new book, Marie Corelli, in our Key Popular Women Writers Series!! 🎉 The book explodes the myths of prior biographies, revealing Corelli the performer, her working-class roots, and her hidden periodical publications of the 1870s.

We are very excited to share yet another addition to the Key Popular Women Writers Series: congratulations to Susan Civale on the publication of Mary Shelley! 🎉 This study reveals previously unseen continuities in Shelley's work and affinities with other women writers!

Hem hem. ‘It is difficult to imagine a better account of James’s life ever being written.’

John Connolly@jconnollybooks.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I reviewed the new biography of M.R. James by @profdarryljones.bsky.social for @irishtimes.com today…

Couldn’t figure out where I recognized her name from and then I realised I picked up a book of hers from somewhere… now I’m intrigued to lean more! Sharing because I love this cover.

I first came across her with The Mighty Atom in the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult. (My teenage introduction to a whole raft of writers.)

Thank you. I look forward to reading about Marie Corelli, who's long been a source of fascination for me. I didn't have much room for her in this book, but I did write a bit more here... thelionandunicorn.com/2017/12/16/i...

Imperial fiction: Boy

ALWYN TURNER reads Marie Corelli’s forgotten Boer War fable from 1900.

thelionandunicorn.com

@alwynturner.bsky.social Thank you for the repost! I am currently reading your book for my next project - it’s brilliant!

What a wonderful feeling – it’s publication day for my book on Marie Corelli! Thanks to my amazing editors @helenaifill.bsky.social and Janine Hatter for all their support. I’m so proud to be a contributor to their series on Key Popular Women Writers. @vpfa.bsky.social @lboroenglish.bsky.social

No better way to celebrate the imminent publication of my very own book (a week today!) than showing off a personalised @gailmyerscough.co.uk print including my opening sentences! Cheers, Gail - I love it 😍

I'm reading the new book on Marie Corelli by @coppertapestry.bsky.social and it's BRILLIANT! So readable, entertaining & field-transforming. Whether you are a Corelli nut or not, I urge you to treat yourself to a copy: www.eerpublishing.com/turner-marie...

Truly honored and deeply grateful to have been awarded the Greta Depledge Prize for best postgraduate paper, given by @vpfa.bsky.social at its 18th annual conference for my paper on Arthur Machen’s manipulative storytelling. This award means more to me than I can put into words. Thank you ❤️

Our 18th Annual Conference is now over, and some of you may be staving off the post-VPFA conference depression. Not to worry, because we have JUST the cure: Volume 8, issue 1 of Victorian Popular Fictions Journal 🤩💫 Read it online here: victorianpopularfiction.org/publications...

Victorian Popular Fictions volume 8 issue 1 (Spring 2026)

Table of Contents ArticlesJulia Kuehn and Diane Eveline van den Brink. The Good, the Bad, and the Popular: The Question of a Popular Canon and Other Methodological ContemplationsLinda K. Hughes. Cr…

victorianpopularfiction.org

A *fantastic* time at #VPFAPublics the last few days. Fascinating papers, fruitful discussions (Some fun things on the horizon)... Caught up with old pals, made some new ones - every year I'm blown away by the incredible warmth of @vpfa.bsky.social. All the thanks to Jo and Janine for organising!

This is SO GOOD! Julia Kuehn and Diane Eveline Van den Brink open the latest issue of @vpfa.bsky.social journal with a polemical article that includes a case study featuring Wilkie Collins and Marie Corelli.

Victorian Popular Fictions 8.1 1 Kuehn and van den Brink

The Good, the Bad, and the Popular: The Question of a Popular Canon and Other Methodological ContemplationsJulia Kuehn and Diane Eveline van den BrinkDownload PDF hereAbstractThis article challenge…

victorianpopularfiction.org

What a fantastic three days at #VPFAPublics in Liverpool! I had an amazing time in one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen. Such a joy to learn more about Victorian popular fiction while catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Can’t wait for next year!

The Bodies panel was certainly one of my favourites too. Fascinating research presented at #VPFAPublics day 2.

Dr Joanna Turner@coppertapestry.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Bodies - WHAT A PANEL at #vpfapublics It was absolutely brilliant! I loved hearing from Megan Nash, Anna-Maria Grill, and @ebutler-way.bsky.social about their fascinating research! @vpfa.bsky.social

@andrewkingc19.bsky.social talking about how Victorians marketed Pop Fiction - and I’m very excited to learn more about Victorian marketing, particularly design and product placement! Makes me think of my trawling through Punch for crumbs of context! #VPFAPublics

Can you imagine trying to de-anonymise 22 Victorian sensation novels? Because Janine Hatter can! What an amazing project 😱 #VPFAPublics

very pleased to have signed the advance contract for my first monograph, Ecogothic America and the Twenty-First-Century Novel, with @edinburghup.bsky.social !

Helena Ifill discussing Charlotte Riddell's direct addresses to the reader, arguing that they were used as part of her campaign to become "the" novelist of London. city. Though she was interested in the lives of city women, her USP was the lives and hearts of city businessmen #VPFAPublics

Bodies - WHAT A PANEL at #vpfapublics It was absolutely brilliant! I loved hearing from Megan Nash, Anna-Maria Grill, and @ebutler-way.bsky.social about their fascinating research! @vpfa.bsky.social

Jo’s fantastic Corelli book will be out in August!

Dr Joanna Turner@coppertapestry.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Prepare to be Corellied @vpfa.bsky.social conference-goers! In the pack there’s a special offer for delegates to pre-order this beauty (is she winking? I like to think so!), and I’ll be speaking in panel two on Monday. The book can be ordered from EER next month www.eerpublishing.com/turner-marie...

Order up Bowie's guitar to hold and strum? Byzantine glass shards to hold to the light? Beatrix Potter watercolours to peer at closely? This is so very very cool. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/a...

A One-on-One Date With a Museum’s Treasures

nytimes.com

Thanks @vpfa.bsky.social for having me at #vpfapublics I loved being in the company of Beniko Inamura and my wonderful PhD supervisor @braddonite.bsky.social

#VPFAPublics Theatricalities panel. @braddonite.bsky.social (Anne-Marie Beller): For Braddon, theatre = metaphor for social performance. "Acting" explores social performativity. Complex, shifting reps of actresses reflect changing ideas about acting.

"Deerstalker" hats are dangerously genderqueer fashion for women, thought Marie Corelli? Sherlock's hat? @coppertapestry.bsky.social #VPFAPublics

Jo Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social : Marie Corelli gave public speeches to "my public" of 1000s. Literary celebrity-> "platform poetry." Inconsistent, as Corelli bashed women for unfeminine public speech? Check out Jo's biography of Corelli from the VPWW Series. #VPFAPublics