Natasha Simonova
@philistella.bsky.social
Research Fellow @ies-sas.bsky.social, Bougie London Literary Woman, cat concierge. Book on 18th-century women's letters forthcoming from Chatto & Windus. natashasimonova.com
Pinned
Excited for this energy! About me: one foot still in academia (17th/18th c., women's writing, manuscripts, fiction), working on a trade book about 18th-century women's letters, always up for freelance writing/reviewing gigs or new friends and events around London. Servant to small elderly cat.
W.H. Auden was totally right about the amorous effects of brass on spinsters of the middle class; I just received a shipment of doorknobs that made me say 'phwoar'.
January 3, 2026 at 2:29 PM
W.H. Auden was totally right about the amorous effects of brass on spinsters of the middle class; I just received a shipment of doorknobs that made me say 'phwoar'.
I don't want to say goodbye to my terrible friend Carol Sturka, whom I love :((
January 2, 2026 at 8:37 PM
I don't want to say goodbye to my terrible friend Carol Sturka, whom I love :((
Reposted by Natasha Simonova
People will read old newspaper clippings
January 1, 2026 at 6:01 PM
People will read old newspaper clippings
Selling these bookcases, which longtime readers may remember were the first 'nice', non-charity-shop pieces of furniture I ever bought 😢 (if anyone in London needs some bookcases..!)
January 1, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Selling these bookcases, which longtime readers may remember were the first 'nice', non-charity-shop pieces of furniture I ever bought 😢 (if anyone in London needs some bookcases..!)
In true London tradition I've watched the fireworks that I could literally hear out my window, on my screen.
January 1, 2026 at 12:17 AM
In true London tradition I've watched the fireworks that I could literally hear out my window, on my screen.
For years, I've seen these signs and longed to wash and dry my doubt.
December 31, 2025 at 12:10 PM
For years, I've seen these signs and longed to wash and dry my doubt.
Now in my annual long dark night of the soul (returning extremely jetlagged to the UK in late December).
December 29, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Now in my annual long dark night of the soul (returning extremely jetlagged to the UK in late December).
I mean it's true
everyone on here is 38 years old and loves star trek deep space 9
bsky killing it again
December 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
I mean it's true
""Happy"" parents-pausing-to-discuss-the-Heated-Rivalry-thumbnail-while-scrolling-through-HBO season to all who celebrate.
December 24, 2025 at 3:47 PM
""Happy"" parents-pausing-to-discuss-the-Heated-Rivalry-thumbnail-while-scrolling-through-HBO season to all who celebrate.
My giant nephew-cat's favourite holiday activity is to shut himself inside a kitchen cupboard and curl up in, e.g. a frying pan or serving platter, and truly this is the only reasonable response to the season.
December 20, 2025 at 4:40 PM
My giant nephew-cat's favourite holiday activity is to shut himself inside a kitchen cupboard and curl up in, e.g. a frying pan or serving platter, and truly this is the only reasonable response to the season.
Sometimes I get a link to something on the Other Place and am briefly exposed to my remaining TL back there, and it's all people who used to be normal writers and academics going 'maybe we SHOULD be allowed to hunt non-Latin-speakers for sport, but we can't, because of Woke'.
December 16, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Sometimes I get a link to something on the Other Place and am briefly exposed to my remaining TL back there, and it's all people who used to be normal writers and academics going 'maybe we SHOULD be allowed to hunt non-Latin-speakers for sport, but we can't, because of Woke'.
Watching Pluribus with my parents. Turns out - in a triumph for reader-response theorists, interpretative communities, the horizon of expectations etc. - that it's actually about a mean, miserable and unreasonable woman (much like me!) who isn't polite enough to the alien hive mind.
December 15, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Watching Pluribus with my parents. Turns out - in a triumph for reader-response theorists, interpretative communities, the horizon of expectations etc. - that it's actually about a mean, miserable and unreasonable woman (much like me!) who isn't polite enough to the alien hive mind.
L is for Lovelace, who Lost in a dueL.
our Clarissa reading group celebrated finishing the novel yesterday by visiting the Morgan Library for a personal display of their Richardson holdings. I just love this Edward Gorey-ish frontispiece to a children's adaptation (!) of Clarissa.
December 13, 2025 at 5:19 PM
L is for Lovelace, who Lost in a dueL.
Big year for me and Rightmove Unwrapped!
December 11, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Big year for me and Rightmove Unwrapped!
They have internet on planes now. Feels unnatural. I want to watch two (2) randomly-chosen films over the course of 10 hours, playing on a tiny screen hanging 8 rows in front of me, and also people are smoking.
December 11, 2025 at 8:11 PM
They have internet on planes now. Feels unnatural. I want to watch two (2) randomly-chosen films over the course of 10 hours, playing on a tiny screen hanging 8 rows in front of me, and also people are smoking.
May you all be given the confidence of my electrician, who, when he showed me something and I said 'perfect!' replied 'I know it's perfect.'
December 9, 2025 at 1:17 PM
May you all be given the confidence of my electrician, who, when he showed me something and I said 'perfect!' replied 'I know it's perfect.'
If I were running a sandwich shop by an Overground station advertised with a large picture of an aggressively Italian chef...granted that my name was Thomas and my siblings had children...I would perhaps not call it Uncle Tom's Cabin.
December 8, 2025 at 12:01 PM
If I were running a sandwich shop by an Overground station advertised with a large picture of an aggressively Italian chef...granted that my name was Thomas and my siblings had children...I would perhaps not call it Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Absolute scourge of superficially-convincing cute/political AI videos appearing on my feed right now via people who should know better, I Do Not Like It.
December 7, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Absolute scourge of superficially-convincing cute/political AI videos appearing on my feed right now via people who should know better, I Do Not Like It.
You know the thing where if you make a circle on the floor, a cat will come and sit in it? After laying out furniture placements in an empty flat with masking tape, I can confirm it absolutely also works on humans.
December 5, 2025 at 8:32 AM
You know the thing where if you make a circle on the floor, a cat will come and sit in it? After laying out furniture placements in an empty flat with masking tape, I can confirm it absolutely also works on humans.
So many people in my newly-bought flat, loudly making it look Worse.
December 4, 2025 at 11:26 AM
So many people in my newly-bought flat, loudly making it look Worse.
And an advertisement for Wicked on the side.
We did call at Limehouse to view two Busses that are building, that being a thing we are now very hot upon. Our call was to see what dimensions they are of, being 50 feet by the keel and about 60 tons.
December 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
And an advertisement for Wicked on the side.
Reposted by Natasha Simonova
mary oliver was wrong you have to be good
December 2, 2025 at 3:10 PM
mary oliver was wrong you have to be good
Already a mood!!
I do find that, through the fitting of my house this month, I have spent in that and kitchen 50l. this month; so that now I am worth but 660l., or thereabouts.
November 30, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Already a mood!!
Reposted by Natasha Simonova
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
November 29, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
Reposted by Natasha Simonova
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it...
November 29, 2025 at 5:26 PM
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it...