A short poem written during my PhD work on Gone With The Wind.
My Journey To Breakfast At Tiffany’s
My first encounter with Breakfast At Tiffany’s was Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy and rhinestones. Like a lot of little girls, I had the calendar and the costume jewellery and a battery-powered vintage-looking alarm clock that had the Robert McGinnis poster emblazoned on it in technicolour - one that I kept long after it stopped functioning... Continue Reading →
Takeaways of Tolstoy: How Are We Compelled to Live A Certain Way?
In Tolstoy's work we see a kernel of ourselves reflected back; by reading his books we can develop an understanding of what it means to make choices when we 'live in a society' or have made incorrect choices in the past. Now as much as ever the lessons in his books are something we can turn to for relief from choices we ourselves are compelled to make.
The ‘Bright Young Things’ Cinematic Universe
In the novels of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, the same characters crop up over and over again - whether it’s Bridey (the priggish elder brother from Brideshead Revisited) falling for Adam Symes’ faux fashion hacks in Vile Bodies or Linda Radlett being a minor character in Polly Hampton’s book, the British scene of the... Continue Reading →
15 reads for people who love the idea of the Romantics but find Wordsworth boring.
My top picks for engaging with Romanticism for somebody who has previously been bored by it. These texts are weird, in different genres, or written for modern audiences about Romanticism - in short, they’re not really the kind of thing you’d come across in school, or even university, really. I picked these to represent much of what there is to love about this style of writing and relating to art, so hopefully everybody will find something to enjoy among these suggestions.
Why Am I Rewriting Phantom of the Opera?
In re-writing Phantom of the Opera, I am trying to connect with a Sensibility that I found in the original, marrying modern writing practices with the emotion and tension of the original, and expanding Leroux’s seminal work into something a modern reader might enjoy more, but which also connects to the Romantic ideals of a past conception of literature.
Ten Dark Academia Reads to Match Your New Year’s Resolutions
Here's my reading list of ten dark academia books that will remind you to get into the library and get on with your goals - plus some runners-up.
Anne Brontë – why should you read her?
Is Anne really worth the time investment for the less-than-hardcore Brontë readers and the casual literature buffs?
Why I Hate Flash Fiction
Flash fiction is a writer’s genre. Often shorter than a tweet, the whole genre is built on competitions and exercises for creative writers rather than keeping a reader in mind – when we consider where flash fiction comes from and what it gives us, is it time we stop engaging with this ridiculous form?
Banquet for Bibliophiles: The Imaginary Dinner Party Game
A short story imagining how the 'fantasy dinner party game' would play out in real life.
Late Romantic 