Category Archives: Critical thoughts

White Rabbit: Yuletide Adventures in Wonderland @BritishLibrary

Over the Christmas period I celebrated my unbirthday by going to the Alice in Wonderland Exhibition at the British Library (one of the best free exhibitions to be found in London ever). It really was very special looking at Lewis … Continue reading

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Creepy Merry Christmas Victorian Style

We’ve been sending Christmas cards since 1843 but the Victorians had a slightly different take on the festive season looking at these unsettling images. You can read more about the ghosts of Christmas past through the eyes of the Victorians … Continue reading

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The Publication of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

On this date (20 December) in 1812, the Grimm brothers published the first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales). Richard Cavendish writes about it here.

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Savage Girls and Wild Boys

Those of you who attended the OGOM Company of Wolves Conference will know that I have a special interest in wild or feral children and by coincidence one of the authors that Kaja has just posted on, Katharine Rundell, has … Continue reading

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A Festive Post on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Over on our Facebook page, Bill has just shared an article by the AV Club, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer staked its claim to a twist on a Christmas classic’. It’s a very thoughtful article on the Season Three episode, ‘Amends’, which … Continue reading

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L’Abbe Bordelon’s ‘Monsieur Oufle’ on Radio 4 Extra

There is currently a radio adaptation of Abbe Laurent Bordelon’s A History of the Ridiculous Extravagancies of Monsieur Oufle (1710) on the BBC iPlayer. In the story, the eponymous M. Oufle, a believer in the supernatural and reader of works such … Continue reading

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Bloody and Monstrous Flowers: These Tulips Should Be Behind Bars

There has been a lot of discussion about Poppies recently in relation to remembrance. I was outed as a botanist by a  journalist in The Independent  at the OGOM Company of Wolves conference because of my earlier work Botany, Sexuality … Continue reading

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Review of Gothic Manchester’s ‘What Lies Beneath’

There was a deep irony to my journey north for ‘‘What Lies Beneath’, the symposium to mark the Gothic Manchester Festival because what lay beneath the venue was a very big part of my youth – The Cornerhouse. Cornerhouse was … Continue reading

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Black Dogs and Hell Hounds

Ted Hughes described this time of year as ‘The month of the drowned dog’ in his evocative poem ‘November’ where after long rain ‘the land  was sodden as the bed of an ancient lake/ Treed with iron and was bird … Continue reading

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Wilderness, National Parks and Hybrid Wolves

My good friend Karen Graham (who I met at the inaugural OGOM conference) sent me this very interesting article, ‘Coydogs and Lynxcats and Pizzlies, Oh My’. Though the title is a little ridiculous, it is an interesting look at science’s … Continue reading

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