Melissa Edmundson
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melissae.bsky.social
Melissa Edmundson
@melissae.bsky.social
2.4K followers 360 following 350 posts
PhD in Victorian lit. Editor/researcher/lecturer. Women’s ghost stories & the supernatural. Lots of posts about books. And ghosts. And Margery Lawrence.

Violet Hunt’s The Tiger Skin and Other Tales of the Uneasy out now with The British Library.
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melissae.bsky.social
Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · Nov 10
Hello to my new followers! I specialize in ghost stories by women writers, mostly from the Victorian period into the early 20th c. Expect lots of photos of old books and photos of my cat Simone. Here's a pic that combines the two. 💙📚🐈
A black cat looking at a shelf of books by women authors.
melissae.bsky.social
Saturday Simone #caturday (sign by @hiddenbritain.bsky.social)
A black cat with white bib sitting next to a sign that says “Hobbs Lane.”
November 1, 2025 at 5:07 PM
melissae.bsky.social
Wrapping up #31days31books with Margery Lawrence's MASTER OF SHADOWS (1959). One of the best djs out there, designed by Val Biro.

Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻
Dust jacket to Margery Lawrence's MASTER OF SHADOWS (1959). It shows a moon to the left, a bat, and a skull.
October 31, 2025 at 12:01 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For day 30 of #31days31books, here is Rosemary Timperley’s Child in the Dark (1956). Jacket design by Biro.
Dust jacket to Rosemary Timperley’s Child in the Dark: Three Haunting Novelettes (1956).
October 30, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Melissa Edmundson
asls.org.uk
#WritingCommunity!
Submissions invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, #Gaelic, & #Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct!

Submit free via Submittable 👇
nws.submittable.com/submit
New Writing Scotland Submission Manager
New Writing Scotland publishes works by writers resident in Scotland or Scots by birth, upbringing, or inclination. Prose (fiction and nonfiction); poetry; drama; screenplays; and graphic artwork (mon...
nws.submittable.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Melissa Edmundson
batconservation.bsky.social
(1/2) 🦇 A group of bats can be called a colony, a cauldron, a cloud or even a camp but with 1,500 bat species worldwide (and 18 right here in the UK!), we think it’s time to get a little more imaginative.

Surely our brilliant bat species deserve some names as unique as they are?

#NameThatBat
Comical illustrations of three different options to describe a group of noctules. Option 1: a chorus of noctules showing three bats dressed in a traditional white choir dress. Option 2: a screech of noctules showing two bats ‘shouting’ and one covering its ears. Option 3: a thunder of noctules, showing three bats and a dark cloud with thunder lightning. Comical illustrations of three different options to describe a group of common pipistrelles. Option 1: a reliance of common pipistrelles showing three bats, one of which has a ‘bat spotting’ checklist with ‘common pipistrelle’ ticked off. Option 2: a flicker of common pipistrelles showing three bats around a lit candle. Option 3: a shimmer of common pipistrelles, showing three bats with a flick of light on their wings.
October 29, 2025 at 1:07 PM
melissae.bsky.social
My students always find this story interesting when we discuss the painting at the beginning of my Polar Gothic course. 🐻‍❄️
cwreeve.bsky.social C.W. Reeve @cwreeve.bsky.social · 16d
Edwin Landseer's allegedly haunted painting Man Proposes, God Disposes hangs in the exam hall at the University of London. According to myth, a student once committed suicide during exams by stabbing a pencil into their eye, writing "The polar bears made me do it" on their exam paper.
#WyrdWednesday
Two polar bears tear apart the sail of a stranded boat.
October 29, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Melissa Edmundson
coppertapestry.bsky.social
Coming very, very soon…
Eleanor Dobson and I have co-edited a special issue of @edinburghup.bsky.social Victoriographies - titled Marie Corelli Reconsidered. There are clues to its contents in the beautiful cover image, below… we can’t wait for the work of our contributors to be out in the world!
The cover image of Victoriographies journal volume 15, number 3, 2025, titled Marie Corelli Reconsidered. The image of an ornate’V’ is paired with a collage picture that includes an image of Marie Corelli with representations of ancient Egypt, mesmerism, provincial newspaper mastheads, Japanese text, and subtle references to twins.
October 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For #WyrdWednesday here's a thread of demon lovers! Elizabeth Bowen’s “The Demon Lover,” from The Demon Lover and Other Stories (1945). During WWII, a woman is haunted by a former love from WWI who keeps his promise to come back for her...
Black and white photo of Elizabeth Bowen. Front cover of The Demon Lover and Other Stories.
October 29, 2025 at 12:11 PM
melissae.bsky.social
Day 29 of #31days31books brings Louisa Baldwin's THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND (1895).
Front cover to Louisa Baldwin's THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND (1895). It shows a woman holding a book.
October 29, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Melissa Edmundson
wyrdwednesday.bsky.social
Wyrdlings! With Halloween looming large over us this week, it's time for our annual #WyrdWednesday Spooky Spectacular!

Bring us ghosts, goblins, and ghouls; witches, werewolves, and will-o'-the-wisps!👻🧙‍♀️🧟‍♂️👿
October 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For days 26, 27, and 28 of #31days31books here’s a trio of Margaret Irwin.

📘 Madame Fears the Dark (1935)
📙 Still She Wished for Company (1924)
📕 Bloodstock (1953)
Three books by Margaret Irwin. Left: Madame Fears the Dark (1935) Center: Still She Wished for Company (1924) Right: Bloodstock (1953), a blue dust jacket featuring a man in a red coat riding a white horse.
October 27, 2025 at 7:34 PM
melissae.bsky.social
It’s #caturday and less than a week until Halloween, so here’s Simone perusing some shelves of supernatural fiction. 👻🐈‍⬛🎃
A black cat with a super curly tail looking at shelves of old books.
October 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For day 25 of #31days31books we have Cynthia Asquith’s THIS MORTAL COIL (1947).
Dust jacket to This Mortal Coil (1947). A man’s face looks from behind the title.
October 25, 2025 at 1:24 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For this spectral #BookWormSat here’s a thread of ghostly revenge stories! Cynthia Asquith's "The Playfellow" first appeared in SHUDDERS (1929). A family inherits an ancestral house, and the malevolent ghostly child who comes with it.
Black and white photo of Cynthia Asquith. Orange cover with black bats of Shudders.
October 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
melissae.bsky.social
A pair of Margery Lawrence books for days 23 and 24 of #31days31books. To the left is Ferry Over Jordan, published by Robert Hale in 1944. To the right is the two volume paper edition published by the Psychic Book Club (1944).
To the left is the blue and white dust jacket for Ferry Over Jordan, published by Robert Hale in 1944. To the right is the tan two volume paper edition published by the Psychic Book Club (1944).
October 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM
melissae.bsky.social
Treadwell’s is here!
treadwells-books.bsky.social Treadwell's Books @treadwells-books.bsky.social · 21d
Treadwell's is happy to be here at last. Bookshop at midnight. Haunted? Maybe, or maybe the books are alive and just waiting for the door to lock so they can be alone to come to life.
October 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For days 20, 21, and 22 of #31days31books here’s a trio of books by Helen Simpson.

The Baseless Fabric (1925)
The Woman on the Beast (1933)
Cups, Wands and Swords (1927)
Three books by Helen Simpson. Left: The Baseless Fabric Middle: The Woman on the Beast Right: Cups, Wands and Swords
October 22, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Melissa Edmundson
wyrdwednesday.bsky.social
This week in #WyrdWednesday we invite you to our Wyrd Masquerade ball. Let's explore lore and history behind masks, costumes and disguises!
a person wearing a mask with horns on their head .
ALT: a person wearing a mask with horns on their head .
media.tenor.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:55 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For day 19 of #31days31books we have Margery Lawrence's THE MADONNA OF SEVEN MOONS, published in 1931. Here’s her presentation copy to Norah C. James and Margaret L. Goldsmith. This book shows how inscribed copies can take you down some wonderful literary and cultural rabbit holes. Thread/
Photo of Margery Lawrence. Inscription from Lawrence to James and Goldsmith. Title page to The Madonna of Seven Moons.
October 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
melissae.bsky.social
For day 18 of #31days31books we have Mary E. Wilkins’s The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903). The book is extra special because it includes illustrations for the supernatural stories.
The front cover to Mary E. Wilkins’s The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903). The cover is light green with a winding rose bush pattern at the top under the title.
October 18, 2025 at 5:37 PM
melissae.bsky.social
Day 17 of #31days31books is L. Adams Beck’s collection of occult stories, The Openers of the Gate (1930).
Dust jacket for L. Adams Beck’s The Openers of the Gate (1928). A white swan in the foreground with a snowy mountain range in the back. Shades of pink and purple.
October 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
melissae.bsky.social
So glad to see these reviews find a new home.
October 16, 2025 at 5:52 PM
melissae.bsky.social
Days 15 and 16 of #31days31books brings two collections by D. K. Broster.
To the left is the tan cloth cover of Broster’s A Fire of Driftwood. To the right is the blue cover of Couching at the Door.
October 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Melissa Edmundson
ehunineteen.bsky.social
We are delighted to announce the first seminar in our 25/26 series: the wonderful @drreznicek.bsky.social will be presenting on ‘Too Bodily: Disability, Care, & Belonging in Romantic Novels’ on Wednesday 29th October at 6pm.

Free! Online! All welcome!

Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
This is a sneak preview of our poster image as we finalise details - it’s a coloured etching by Thomas Rowlandson after G M Woodward from 1801 called ‘The Quack Doctor’s Prayer’ with a kneeling doctor praying over a box with a duck drawn on it. In the background there’s a candelabra and pink hangings.
October 10, 2025 at 12:54 PM
melissae.bsky.social
Icelandic books on witchcraft and magic at The National Museum of Iceland and The Culture House, Reykjavík. #WyrdWednesday
An open book with ink writing. Icelandic books on witchcraft and magic at The National Museum of Iceland and The Culture House, Reykjavík. An open book with ink writing and drawings. Icelandic books on witchcraft and magic at The National Museum of Iceland and The Culture House, Reykjavík. An open book with ink writing and drawings. Icelandic books on witchcraft and magic at The National Museum of Iceland and The Culture House, Reykjavík. An open book with ink writing and drawings. Icelandic books on witchcraft and magic at The National Museum of Iceland and The Culture House, Reykjavík.
October 15, 2025 at 3:20 PM