Jenny Kenyon
banner
jennykenyon.bsky.social
Jenny Kenyon
@jennykenyon.bsky.social
20th century literature & sound | SWW DTP funded PhD @bristoluni.bsky.social & @exeter.ac.uk | PG rep @modernistudies.bsky.social | Patrick Hamilton appreciation society
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
📣 BAMS 2026 election is now open!

📌 5 vacant senior positions on the Committee and 2 open positions for PG reps.

📅 Important date: Please send a brief biography and a 250-word proposal to Barbara Cooke (b.cooke@lboro.ac.uk) by 9am (GMT) 30 January 2026.

bams.ac.uk/2025/11/19/b...
BAMS Elections 2026
Call for Nominations for the 2026 Election of the Executive Steering Committee of the British Association for Modernist Studies (BAMS) There are five vacant senior positions on the Committee. The C…
bams.ac.uk
November 21, 2025 at 2:16 PM
TIL: Roger Moore's first TV role was in the 1949 adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's The Governess. No photos of the production unearthed as yet, so please enjoy his career as a knitwear model instead, from around the same time. Say what you like, Bond could rock a scarf: www.vintag.es/2024/10/roge...
Did You Know That Pre-Bond, Roger Moore Flourished as a Knitwear Model?
In the early 1950s, before to become the James Bond we all loved, Roger Moore used to model knitting patterns for several knitwear companies...
www.vintag.es
November 20, 2025 at 3:39 PM
today's #ModWrite is another Ann Quin day, on the weirdness of telephone booths, tape recordings, radios, and unreliable sonic connections (and obsessing over the gloriously weird wig Richard E. Grant wore to play Quin's Berg in the 1989 film 'Killing Dad')
November 17, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
This piece was greenlit and then killed by a British newspaper, so I’ve decided to publish myself instead.

Trans People Deserve Better.
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right

open.substack.com/pub/wellread...
Trans People Deserve Better
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
While it may seem redundant to say “pump it up” after encouraging the listener to “pump up the jam,” the author is underscoring the urgency of pumping up said jam; leaving us to ponder the bleakness of living in a world devoid of it.
October 24, 2023 at 2:02 AM
what a joy to see Gas Light & Hamilton here (although now how I yearn for the lost version, sadly nowhere to be seen in Hamilton’s remaining archive)
Happy to have this new piece out in @publicbooks.bsky.social today about political #gaslighting, a lost version of the play #Gaslight, and how the latter can help us reframe the way we think about and push back against the former!
In 2023, @noragilbert.bsky.social uncovered a synopsis of a lost version of "Gaslight" in the MGM archives. This version's different ending is a lesson in radical solidarity—and, Gilbert argues, it should change the way we think of "gaslighting" as a term.
November 11, 2025 at 8:08 PM
today's #ModWrite is appropriately aqueous, as I write a paper about the waves crashing on the shore and over the self in Ann Quin's novel Berg, ready for the @bristolcms.bsky.social Brat Symposium 🎶 Quin's my favourite reference baby 🎶
November 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
in a world that gets more cruel, more uncertain, more divided by the day, there is much to be said for the hope and catharsis of standing in a crowd of people screaming along to a band and a song you all love (i’m too old for this and in dire need of replacement knees today)
November 6, 2025 at 1:33 PM
you will not regret viewing these Halloween advertisements - especially as the full version of this fun/terrifying jack o’lantern acorn ad claims ‘you will have no trouble at all with THE BOGIE BOOK to plan your decorations, games and stunts’. will someone buy me THE BOGIE BOOK for Halloween?
Recently I’ve been combing through newspapers from a hundred years ago, and in the spirit of the season (and in the spirit of procrastination) I’ve assembled a little gallery of Halloween advertisements from 1925 on my site: dansinker.com/posts/202…
October 31, 2025 at 1:06 PM
the way this poem haunted me from secondary school to undergrad entrance exams and beyond. but now, i am healed (Ozzed up in my turn)
October 30, 2025 at 8:04 PM
“Eventually, the manuscript becomes real and possesses you, making you do terrible things.”
"You encounter a strange, cult-like group that lives in almost total isolation from the outside world. They jealously guard their arcane knowledge and practice some exceedingly cruel rituals."
Critically Acclaimed Horror Film of the 2010s or Your PhD Program?
1. You encounter a strange, cult-like group that lives in almost total isolation from the outside world. They jealously guard their arcane knowledg...
buff.ly
October 29, 2025 at 9:18 PM
brat is back, baby. maybe one of my favourite academic events of all time, and the first paper I gave in Bristol to the best audience… it’s time for the remix 💚
Last year’s brat symposium is (and might very well always be) my favourite academic event. Super creative research in an informal, experimental space. Come along, it’ll be a blast! 🍏
Our brilliant PGRs are at it again! After last year's inaugural and highly-successful brat symposium (organised by CMS PGRs Shauna Roach, Sarah Collinson, Harry Lewis, and Isla Dawson), this year's committee is once again inviting Bristol PGRs to consider how 'brat' connects with their own research.
October 20, 2025 at 2:06 PM
today’s #ModWrite is a slow return to a UK time zone, but reflecting on the wonderful papers at MSA 25 @moderniststudies.bsky.social & the joy of presenting strategic incompetencies with @becimay.bsky.social, @vjoshuaadams.bsky.social, @jamesreath.bsky.social, Megan Quigley & Jess Payn
Another Monday, another #ModWrite! Share what you are working on today with us using the hashtag 📚
October 20, 2025 at 1:57 PM
today's #ModWrite I'm writing about illustrator Eric Fraser & his depiction of telephone trauma for Hamilton's radio play Money with Menaces. Fraser also invented 'Mr Therm' for British Gas: maybe the ultimate example of cute mascot & terrifying tagline?
www.modernillustration.org/archive/mrth...
September 29, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
John Reith of the BBC: ‘a soul in torment’?

My piece for the BBC looking back at the publication - 50 years ago this week - of the extraordinary ‘Reith Diaries’
Reith's Diaries
How the publication of private diaries fifty years ago this month changed forever the public image of the BBC’s first Director-General - John Reith.
canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk
September 17, 2025 at 5:23 PM
joyous week 1 Austin - not pictured, my new friend Lester the trumpet player, and the huge cache of fascinating Hamilton materials at the Ransom Center
September 18, 2025 at 7:07 PM
today's #ModWrite is from the Harry Ransom Center, with quirky drawings and unique turns of phrase that bring me closer than ever to Patrick Hamilton - if only his handwriting didn't turn each letter into a homogeneous scrawl, life would be perfect (but then wouldn't that be boring).
September 15, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
We're pleased to announce that the CFP for the TMR Virginia Woolf special issue is now open!
📆Important dates:
Expression of interest: September 15th, 2025
Submission due date: October 10th, 2025

Please get in touch with tmr@bams.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you! 🌻
September 9, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
We’re excited to share #TheModernistReview57, our first autumn issue! It includes seven reviews on diverse topics in modernist studies. Go check it out! we hope you enjoy reading:
modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/t...
The Modernist Review Issue #57
8th September 2025 All the months are crude experiments out of which the perfect September is made. (Virginia Woolf, ‘The Lands End’, 1905) September arrives again, and with the beginning of autumn…
modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com
September 9, 2025 at 11:17 AM
today's #ModWrite is more packing than writing - one week before I arrive at the Harry Ransom Center for a deep dive into Patrick Hamilton's archive. Please send recommendations for Austin (bookshops, coffee, live music, nature, and for surviving what looks like 33 degree heat...)
September 1, 2025 at 2:08 PM
weird modernists (and modernisms) unite!
We're delighted to share that the CFP for the joint @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social 2026 conference, Weird Modernisms, is now live!

1-4 July, Loughborough University @lborouniversity.bsky.social

More info here: moderniststudies.org/conference/MSA2026/CFP/
August 26, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
Our campaign for the continuation of independent access to the BBC Written Archive Centre is highlighted this morning by Vanessa Thorpe in The Observer. Her article, with excellent contributions from David Kynaston and Ian Greaves, outlines the issue with clarity.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to...
Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research
observer.co.uk
August 24, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Please consider signing! I've been incredibly fortunate to access materials at the BBC Written Archives Centre for both my MA and PhD: my research would be all the poorer without them. Losing open & independent access is a terrible blow for anyone researching the BBC, broadcasting, and so much more.
Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign here:

tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign
Open letter BBC Written Archives - August 2025
Join the campaign to protect the future of independent research at the BBC Written Archives Centre The following text is an open letter expressing the concern of historians and researchers about chan...
tinyurl.com
August 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
Pls sign and share this open letter to the Bristol VC, against the School of Humanities's decision to withdraw the BA in English Literature and Community Engagement (ELCE): the only part-time, flexible undergraduate degree programme available at the University forms.gle/SbyhXPSJgQTc...
Save our pioneering widening participation undergraduate degree in English Literature and Community Engagement at the University of Bristol
19 August 2025 Dear Evelyn Welch (Vice-Chancellor) cc Judith Squires (Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost), Tansy Jessop (Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students) The School of Humanities has ...
forms.gle
August 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Jenny Kenyon
the horrors persist, but so do the poor quality and unhinged nature of my Middlemarch memes
August 12, 2025 at 4:29 PM