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Martin Willis

@profwillis.bsky.social

Budding writer of crime fiction. Rep by Joanna at BKS. Cardiff-set historical crime out on sub. Academic day job. Books on Jack the Ripper & Victorian genre fiction. Scottish by birth and temperament.

43 Posts215 Follower 257 Folgt

Dr Dillo PHD @dillo.media · 22h ago

this is gpt6 astra btw

Sam Cole@samleecole.bsky.social · yesterday

this is so fucking crazy. huge huge huge scoop www.404media.co/inside-proje...

In a dashboard available to the workers, human reviewers are able to select which “task” they want to take on. Once they click that, they are presented with the real ChatGPT user’s prompt. 404 Media has seen multiple real prompts but is not quoting any of them for source protection reasons. Some of the prompts indicate the ChatGPT user does not expect that a human may end up reading their conversation, because they ask ChatGPT to keep the content to themselves.

The British Society for Literature and Science @thebsls.bsky.social · 4w ago

We are delighted to announce the winner of the BSLS/JLS early career essay prize: Daniel Bowman, “Coach Dog to Automobile Dog: Canines in Literature and Car Culture" literatureandscience.org/volume-19-is...

Volume 19, Issue 1 (2026) | Journal of Literature and Science

literatureandscience.org

Michael H Whitworth @profmhwhitworth.bsky.social · 6d ago

Occult science, disenchantment, re-enchantment — an excellent topic for the BSLS online Winter symposium organised by Marijke Valk (University of Birmingham).

The British Society for Literature and Science @thebsls.bsky.social · 6d ago

CfP: BSLS 2026/27 Winter Symposium 'Occult Science: Disenchantment, Re-Enchantment, and the Persistence of Wonder' 29 January 2027 - Online More Info: www.bsls.ac.uk/2026/09/bsls...

Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · last wk.

How do societies imagine a better future? How do the arts and humanities help make that future possible? Join the conversation! Register 👉️ luma.com/0qco7ph2 @christophersmith.bsky.social @henriettalmoore.bsky.social @annavignoles.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ukri.org @expeditions.bsky.social

EXPeditions Base Camp: Why arts and humanities matter more than ever. Headshots of Professors Henrietta L. Moore, Christopher Smith and Anna Vignoles. QR code, September 28 2026, 5 PM (UK). Logos: Leverhulme Trust, UKRI, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, EXPeditions.

Katherine Weikert @kateweikert.bsky.social · last wk.

A very quick turn around because of paperwork, but we're hiring a one year post in Modern British History! Please have a look and share widely with anyone interested! Happy to take informal queries at the email in the job posting! www.winchester.ac.uk/About-Us/Wor...

Work with us - University of Winchester

Explore the University of Winchester and discover your new career. We have a variety of positions in academic and professional services. Work with us.

winchester.ac.uk

SHADOW OF MADNESS out now!@dvbishop.com · 2w ago

Authors, just in case you need more procrastination tools, you can put your book titles in what3words.com and find out where in the world they are.

Transposing my historical thriller CARNIVAL OF LIES into what.three.words takes you to the middle of nowhere, Western Australia.

Transposing my historical thriller RITUAL OF FIRE into what.three.words takes you to the north of Houston in Texas.

Transposing my historical thriller SHADOW OF MADNESS into what.three.words takes you to the outskirts of Josephine, Texas.

David Barnett@davidmbarnett.bsky.social · 2w ago

Authors, just in case you need more procrastination tools, you can put your book titles in what3words.com and find out where in the world they are.

Screen shot of what3words.com showing WITHERED.HILL.BOOK is in Argentina

Jon Adcock @jonadcock.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Book blurbs deciphered #booksky

Martin Willis @profwillis.bsky.social · last mo.

Great fun to edit this with Maebh. My contribution, written with @keirwaddington.bsky.social considers the construction of immunity across late Victorian fiction and medical science

Maebh Long@maebhlong.bsky.social · last mo.

It was such a pleasure to work on this special issue. Do check out all the great humanities and social science contributions to immunology!

Martin Willis @profwillis.bsky.social · last mo.

Always worth reading Keir on issues of environment. This one based on years of extensive research. Fascinating and timely.

The Historical Journal@historicaljnl.bsky.social · 2mo ago

📘From our latest issue! Keir Waddington @keirwaddington.bsky.social (Cardiff University) on 'Living with Drought in the Long Nineteenth Century' #Water #Environment #Climate #Rural #Weather 👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The 1893 drought will, according to the science journal Nature in July, ‘unquestionably take its place among the recorded events of history, if regard be had to its intensity [and] the length of time during which it has lasted’. Communities reported being stretched beyond endurance. Rivers ran dry, reservoirs dropped to record lows, wells failed, and domestic water supplies were restricted to a few hours per day. But while the 1893 drought was severe, it was not unusual. As this article reveals, urban and rural communities faced regular droughts of varying intensity and duration during the long nineteenth century. What did this mean for them? Where previous interest in extreme weather events has focused on recovering historic patterns, or examined resilience or adaption, this article explores the lived experiences of drought to offer a new perspective on the impact of weather shocks and water scarcity on people’s lives. By combining evidence from meteorological reports, newspapers, official reports, and local government archives, the article undercovers the fragility of urban and rural water supplies and examines how behaviours were adapted in response to water scarcity and precarity.

Martin Willis @profwillis.bsky.social · last mo.

This is a fascinating account of adaptation across media. Well worth the read.

Esther Wright@enwright.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A super thoughtful post on the way interpretation of literary texts - across time - shapes the stories we tell, even before they make it into a video game. Super interested to see more of @mabinogiongame.bsky.social and how it puts Wales and the Welsh language at its heart! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This should be self evident but clearly isn’t. From @lewisgoodall.com

The problem is not that higher education has failed as an engine of social mobility. It is that, for too long, it has been treated as the only engine. The curriculum is not the problem which is driving our NEET malaise; the weakness of local economies is. Any Labour administration should therefore tread very carefully before dismantling any part of the comprehensive educational settlement created by the Labour governments of the 1960s. Burnham's proposals also misunderstand the multi-layered nature of the modern university, which in many cases is as likely to offer vocational courses as strictly academic ones.
In any case, let's stop the obsession with STEM subjects and
"practical" training. There is already too much snobbery in the assumption that working-class students are somehow less interested in the arts and humanities. And we've never needed those graduates more. In an age in which we are already outsourcing so much of our critical thinking to machines, and in which none of us can be entirely sure of the truth of what we see, where the world's complexity is ever deepening, subjects like philosophy, history, political science, linguistics, classics and literature have rarely been more important.
I'm sure our English graduate prime minister might agree.

Philippa East (Author)@philippaeast.bsky.social · 2mo ago

😆🫣🤣

Jon Adcock@jonadcock.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Book blurbs deciphered #booksky

Bloody Scotland @bloodyscotland.bsky.social · 2mo ago

And a massive well done to @franapunk.bsky.social for taking home the the McDermid Debut Prize. You can see her on the 'Gory Glesga' panel on Sunday 20th Sep: bloodyscotland.com/event/gory-g...

The Crime Writers' Association @thecwa.bsky.social · 2mo ago

📚 HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY to Cathy Ace (@cathyace.bsky.social) with The Corpse with the Steely Gaze! #BookLaunch #BookRelease #CrimeReads #CathyAce #TheCorpseWithTheSteelyGaze

Alice Bell @abeewords.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Book 27 this year was The Bells of Westminster by Leonora Nattrass, of whom I’m a huge fan. She does historical fiction with a big slosh of old school comedy-of-manners hijinks. This is no exception! Edward Longshanks is exhumed and unexplained deaths ensue. Feat. comic relief talking parrot.

Me holding up the hardback copy of The Bells of Westminster. It has an engraving style illustration of said abbey, with the title in gothic script. There’s also a shiny gold picture of a crown, and a few drops of red blood in one corner

SHADOW OF MADNESS out now!@dvbishop.com · 3mo ago

Unboxing SHADOW OF MADNESS, out in 10 days on July 9th from @panmacmillan.bsky.social, pre-order links here: linktr.ee/D.V.Bishop?u... @jennybrownagency.bsky.social

The Crime Writers' Association @thecwa.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The CWA Daggers will be awarded this Thursday! If you have a ticket, we’ll see you there; if not, keep an eye on this account and the 🗡 #CWADaggers hashtag, and we’ll post live updates. Did you miss the shortlists? Watch them now:

2026 CWA Daggers – Shortlists Announcement

The official shortlists for the 2026 CWA Daggers. Congratulations to all those selected! For a text version of the lists, visit our website: https://thecwa.co.uk/the-daggers The 2026 Dagger winners…

buff.ly

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 3mo ago

What is it about the great British detective that fascinates his devotees so? ft.trib.al/9IRsNMk

Kenny Stewart @kennystew.art · 3mo ago

I thought kick off was later and I’m sad I somehow missed it but that’s a great result for Scotland.

David (W) Goodman @davegoodman.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Well deserved, this is a really good, consistently well produced and excellent format podcast that hasn't had a bad episode since launch. The pairing of debuts with veteran authors is a huge part of how well it works.

Bloody Scotland@bloodyscotland.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We're super chuffed that our podcast has been shortlisted in TWO categories at the Scottish Podcast Awards (Fiction & Drama and True Crime, Mystery & The Dark Stuff). We'll be getting the glad rags on for the ceremony on Thursday ;) scottishpodcastawards.scot

Roger Luckhurst @theprofrog.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Burnham’s Manchester is vibrant in part because of two giant universities with thousands of students thronging the streets. It’s great he’s an English graduate, so maybe the rhetoric of a feckless humanities will calm down a bit. Fixing this collapse wd help several aspects of our polycrisis

Bloody Scotland @bloodyscotland.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Unpublished writers - WE WANT YOU! Pitch Perfect, our annual opportunity for unpublished writers to pitch their work to a panel of industry experts is now open for applications: bloodyscotland.com/take-part/#p...

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is very sweet from @roberthutton.co.uk - how the Abbey National ended up writing back to correspondence for Sherlock Holmes after they moved into 221B Baker Street www.ft.com/content/004c...

that the Abbey Road Building Society built its new headquarters from 219-229 Baker Street, a block that effectively included 221B. In 1935, the first letter arrived.
The bank decided that letters to Holmes should get replies and, in a light-hearted decision that would have long-lasting consequences, opted to play along. A correspondence secretary would explain to writers that, as explained in the books, Mr Holmes had retired to Sussex. The letters began to flood in and continued for decades.
There were invitations to speak, requests for signatures and, of course, pleas for help in solving crimes. They continue to this day,

Martin Willis @profwillis.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Crime fiction obsessive deliberates over Scotland team: Karen Pirie in the holding role. Great man-marker. Never switches off. Likely to attract a yellow card or two. Worth it for the commitment. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #nationalcrimereadingmonth

christhebarker @christhebarker.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 3mo ago

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

The FIFA Prize for Literature

Following the success of their Peace Prize, FIFA establishes a literary prize judged by the footballers at the world cup.

(image of trophy)

All does not go well...

Players arrive at games exhausted by reading hundreds of novels and heatedly debating their merits long into the night.

(image of tired players on pitch reading)

The south American teams boycott the tournament when an official disparages Isabel Allende's use of magic realism.

(Image of players angrily leaving)

Seventeen plavers receive red cards after a discussion of radical honesty in the works of Karl Ove Knausgaard turns into a brawl.

(Image of players fighting)

However, all is forgiven as Joyce Carol Oates takes the thrilling final to extra time, before losing on penalties to Haruki Murukami.

(image of Haruki holding the trophy aloft)

@siobhanwalsh.bsky.social · 3mo ago

👏👏

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Watch as Boston Mayor, Michelle Wu, says that now she’s seen the Tartan Army, she understands “it took a Scot to send the British packing” in the city 251 years ago 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇸 In partnership with Spar Scotland

Nic the Bookseller @nic-v.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Jack Parlabane is back! And I’m thrilled to encounter him again, in this super new murder mystery by @brookmyre.bsky.social. A brisk & clever plot (character names a bit tricky). I loved the up-to-the-minute themes of hard right social media, billionaire businessmen and Russian influence. Fun! 💙📚⚡️

Quite Ugly One Evening
By Chris Brookmyre.
A Jack Parlabane Mystery:
“Blood is thicker than water. And much messier.”

James Oswald @sirbenfro.bsky.social · 3mo ago

And then this happened. #TheViolentHour

Freshly opened cardboard box containing hardback copies of the novel The Violent Hour by James Oswald.

Christopher Pittard @christopherpittard.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Have just been told that *Literary Illusions: Performance Magic and Victorian Literature* is available to pre-order in paperback ahead of publication in July. It's £19.99 (a bargain in academic publishing), but you can get 30% off with the code PAPER30. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-literar...

Literary Illusions

edinburghuniversitypress.com