Roger Luckhurst
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theprofrog.bsky.social
Roger Luckhurst
@theprofrog.bsky.social

academic/freelance writer, on Gothic, Science Fiction. Next up: Graveyards: A History of Living with the Dead (October 2025).

Roger Luckhurst is a British writer and academic and since 2020 the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth Century Studies at Birkbeck College. He was appointed professor in modern and contemporary literature in the Department of English, Theatre, and Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London in 2008 and was distinguished visiting professor at Columbia University in 2016. He works on Victorian literature, contemporary literature, Gothic and weird fiction, trauma studies, and speculative/science fiction. Luckhurst is notable for his introductions and editorships to the Oxford World's Classics series volumes -- Late Victorian Gothic Tales, Dracula, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Portrait of a Lady, H.P. Lovecraft's Classic Horror Tales, King Solomon’s Mines, and The Time Machine -- and for his books on J. G. Ballard (1997), The Invention of Telepathy (2002), Science Fiction (2005) The Trauma Question (2008), The Mummy’s Curse: The True Story of a Dark Fantasy, and Zombies: A Cultural History. He has also written two books for the British Film Institute classic film series on The Shining and Alien. .. more

Philosophy 28%
Art 23%

Nearly time for the family to gather around the telly for the annual ritual rewatch of Satantango on Christmas Day eve

Always lovely to wake up on Christmas Day to a Daily Work Flow reminder from your employer

My annual reminder of the structural inequalities of capitalist modernity

Knives Out: Wake Up Script Editor (and cut at least 45 Minutes, for the Love of God)

Isn’t that Zizek’s agricultural business, Critical Theory Tractors?

Gotta Christmas light?

Well, Henry, what do you know?

Me: But how do I pay you? I just want to know how to give you some money.

Chatbot: I'm sorry, I don't understand this question, could you try a simpler question?

My book of the year (so far!)

Didn't C.S. Lewis argue that 1450 was about the time when it all went wrong in European Christianity?

Thank you!

Nice cozy Christmas chat about atrocity then!

Monday: double emergency fluffy kitten

Favourite moment at fab Robert Plant concert last night, average audience age about 71, were the enthusiastic cheers at the opening bars of Ramble On followed by a fair bit of shushing. Rock on, dudes

of a tiny, tiny committee. My command, however, still stands

finally, my time has come. KILL THEM ALL.

Nearly there, but here’s a Friday mid-morning emergency fluffy kitten just in case.

Brand new barista whispered to herself as she served me “wow, do we actually charge that much for a cup of tea?”
Victorian teetotalers, life insurance & health: Dr @jameskneale.bsky.social’s Temperance Lives shows how insurers shaped drinking habits 🏛️💼🍷.

Read more 👇 tinyurl.com/ucl-temp

#UCLGeography #VictorianBritain #Temperance #LifeAssurance #History @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social

They say when someone dies a library burns down. It's a whole world and ethos when someone like Michael goes. RIP.

He also had a great story about being in the Eagle and Child in Oxford and shouting slightly too loudly 'Not more fucking elves' when Tolkien was standing nearby him.

Reposted by Martin Paul Eve

Sad to hear of death of Michael Slater, the brilliant Dickens scholar and best source of scurrilous gossip about the post-war London subculture of gay men in the 50s and 60s. His recollection of being supervised by Lord Cecil, who was always mystifyingly in his tin bath, was worth the entry alone.

There’s a man in back of here. He’s the one who’s doing it.

Somehow I think this board game I’ve been randomly sent is not going to take off this Xmas

Just saw a screening of Kazakh Scary Tales, which is 20% Twin Peaks, 25% Von Trier’s The Kingdom, 5% Mighty Boosh and 50% nasty Kazakh folk tale horror — what’s not to like?!

Here is your Wednesday lunchtime/shouty budget emergency fluffy kitten

Proof that campuses continue to be radically divided, even as holiday season approaches

Here is your Tuesday afternoon emergency fluffy kitten

Lots of woozy chest tombs in there!