Rob Maslen
profrmaslen.bsky.social
Rob Maslen
@profrmaslen.bsky.social
Fantasy books, films, anime, comics, Early Modern Literature, life. He/him. I blog at The City of Lost Books. Come and see! https://thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/
The magnificent Romanesque nave of Dunfermline Abbey!
January 24, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Seize your chance!
Today’s the last day to take advantage of this sale!
If you’re in the UK & are so inclined, from Dec 25 to Jan 5 you can get the Kindle edition of THE RIVER HAS ROOTS for 99p as part of their 12 Days of Kindle event! This means in the UK you can also get that price matched at other etailers, like Kobo! Merry Christmas!

www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...
January 5, 2026 at 4:37 PM
This one was intended for Christmas but took too long so it’s the first picture for 2026. Christmas tree darts!
January 5, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
If you’re in the UK & are so inclined, from Dec 25 to Jan 5 you can get the Kindle edition of THE RIVER HAS ROOTS for 99p as part of their 12 Days of Kindle event! This means in the UK you can also get that price matched at other etailers, like Kobo! Merry Christmas!

www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...
The River Has Roots ebook by Amal El-Mohtar - Rakuten Kobo
Read "The River Has Roots The Sweeping, Magical Solo Debut by the Best-Selling Co-Author of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR" by Amal El-Mohtar available from Rakuten Kobo. Follow the river Liss to t...
www.kobo.com
December 25, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here:

fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...

@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social
October 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
✨GIFCon is back for 2026! ✨
We’re very excited to launch the Call for Papers for GIFCon 2026, with the theme “Technologies of the Fantastic”
You can find out more here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
December 15, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Over at The City of Lost Books: Christmas illustrations for the most colourful of books in dazzling black and white. A despatch from the past, when I thought of being an artist. With compliments of the season!
thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/jo-heaton-re...
Jo Heaton, Red Button: A Story for Christmas (c. 1984). Illustrations.
In about 1984, at the age of twenty-one or twenty-two, I had thoughts of trying my luck as an illustrator. Unfortunately I’d concentrated nearly all my efforts up to that point on black-and-white p…
thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk
December 14, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
in case you missed our announcement

We're seeking short stories in Jan 2026 for our upcoming anthology, Modern Decadent, which embraces the fin de siècle literary & arts of the decadents, along with 19th century symbolism and aestheticism. We also welcome stories with a good dash of proto-Weird 🖤
December 4, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Over at The City of Lost Books: Elizabeth Maslen, Poems on Death. They're much more cheerful than the title suggests!
thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/elizabeth-ma...
Elizabeth Maslen: Poems on Death
[My mother, who died in September, was interested in death for much of her life. She wrote a number of poems on the subject in the 1970s, some of which were published by Chatto and Windus in a book…
thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
And we are hiring! We have been incredibly lucky to get this funding and are very grateful for the opportunity to work on this. Please circulate to people who would be interested in applying. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN147/p...
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Edinburgh
Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on jobs.ac.uk!
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
A reminder that we're hosting the first European Conference on the Fantastic, Fantasy's Present Pasts, in Glasgow next summer (23rd-25th June 2026). The Call for Papers and Sessions can be found here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20.... Closes 12th December. Please do consider submitting!
Fantasy’s Present Pasts – Call for Papers and Sessions – Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk
November 9, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
The 1st instalment of my 1st serialized short story has landed in people's inboxes care of @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social! If you want to read "A Road Less Taken" over the course of this week, sign up! You'll get access to previous instalments too. www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Book Week Scotland: Amal El-Mohtar in your inbox
Sign up to receive an exclusive serialised story from Amal El-Mohtar during Book Week Scotland.
www.scottishbooktrust.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
Ruth M. Arthur's books captivated me as a child - they were a blend of past and present, with a hint of the paranormal (Margery Gill was the illustrator). One favorite was The Saracen Lamp. tinyurl.com/bdf22dnd #Bookvember #booksky
The Saracen Lamp (Book Review)
Ruth M. Arthur, The Saracen Lamp, review
tinyurl.com
November 2, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
Naomi Mitchison (née Haldane, 1897–1999) was born #OTD, 1 Nov, & saw almost every day of the #C20th. A hugely influential writer, with 80+ books – poetry, politics, #HistoricalFiction, #ScienceFiction, #Fantasy, #ChildrensFiction & more – to her credit, she deserves more attention
A 🎂🧵
💙📚
1/10
November 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
Just in time for Halloween...
Thank you NewCon Press for this wondrous bounty.
For which we must pay ... in blood.
October 23, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
This time next week, the world(s) of Fantasy descend on Brighton for #WorldFantasycon2025! Your GSFWC pals'll be along to speak on injuries in genre, *not* kicking arse, getting smoochy, Monster on Monster action, and much, much more!

(1/4) @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social @hws.bsky.social
Glasgow SF Writers' Circle
World Fantasycon ahoy! This time next week, the world(s) of Fantasy descend on Brighton for World Fantasy Convention 2025. Your GSFWC pals'll be along, speaking on injuries in genre, *not* kicking...
www.facebook.com
October 23, 2025 at 7:11 PM
In honour of my mother, Elizabeth Maslen, there's an essay of hers on Storm Jameson and Doris Lessing at the City of Lost Books. It seems right to be promoting it today, when the last volume of Pullman's The Book of Dust is being released...
thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/elizabeth-ma...
Elizabeth Maslen: ‘Witness Literature’ in the Postwar Novels of Storm Jameson and Doris Lessing
[My mother, Elizabeth Maslen, passed away peacefully on the weekend of 27-28 September 2025, a little after her 90th birthday. Here’s a brief biography, supplementing the one you can find on the we…
thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk
October 23, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
It's here.

BAD LANGUAGE
13/11/25

"made with love and horror, & a guidebook for our time" — @adamzmith.bsky.social
"Mayer's words & a gift and a gateway" — @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social
"incantation & spell distil a complex argument" — Lola Olufemi

Pre-order: peninsulapress.co.uk/products/bad...
September 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Great news for Le Guin fans in Glasgow!
October 11, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
# Long lead time scheduled post fail FTW.

It's not summer anymore, but that just means it's perfect weather for some chilly chills.
October 7, 2025 at 3:44 PM
In May this year I had a conversation with Graham Foster about Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946), which he recorded for his brilliant podcast Ninety-Nine Novels. Here it is!
www.anthonyburgess.org/podcasts/nin...
Ninety-Nine Novels: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake - The International Anthony Burgess Foundation
In 1984, Anthony Burgess published Ninety-Nine Novels, a selection of his favourite novels in English since 1939. The list is typically idiosyncratic, and shows the breadth of Burgess’s interest in fi...
www.anthonyburgess.org
October 8, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Rob Maslen
📣 TODAY! Don’t miss Of Us & Others – a powerful new film by Maya Rose Edwards 🎬 Screening 12–5pm at Civic House (drop in anytime!). One day only – Sat 4 Oct! AGA’s first visual art commission supported by @creativescots.bsky.social & the Edwin Morgan Trust
October 4, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Woolf’s fantastical side has a new expression. So excited to read these stories as a lover of Orlando!
October 1, 2025 at 11:02 AM