Dr Eleanor Baker
@eleanormaybaker.bsky.social
📖Writing and teaching on Middle English literature in Oxford
💀Wrote BOOK CURSES for Bodleian Publishing
✏️Being creatively critical @guildmedmak.bsky.social
🍂Liker of university access and outreach, folk horror, and print making
She/her
💀Wrote BOOK CURSES for Bodleian Publishing
✏️Being creatively critical @guildmedmak.bsky.social
🍂Liker of university access and outreach, folk horror, and print making
She/her
I just watched a female sparrowhawk descend on a pigeon, dispatch it, and begin to imperiously pick it apart in the centre of Oxford. Entirely unbothered by passers by.
November 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I just watched a female sparrowhawk descend on a pigeon, dispatch it, and begin to imperiously pick it apart in the centre of Oxford. Entirely unbothered by passers by.
Despite being in the warm and claggy grip of a horrible cold, I have completed my two medieval mummers masks. They are distinctly unnerving.
November 16, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Despite being in the warm and claggy grip of a horrible cold, I have completed my two medieval mummers masks. They are distinctly unnerving.
Better lit photos of the hare mask, which is now complete! Next up is the stag...
November 10, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Better lit photos of the hare mask, which is now complete! Next up is the stag...
I've lost the light now, but last night I papier-mached the lot and it was dry by morning. Today I've been painting in layers.
November 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I've lost the light now, but last night I papier-mached the lot and it was dry by morning. Today I've been painting in layers.
This morning was spent hacking up one of the masks to make it more hare-ish and, importantly, to enable eating. Its still a bit rabbity but hopefully I can make it more boxy with the papier-mache layer.
November 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
This morning was spent hacking up one of the masks to make it more hare-ish and, importantly, to enable eating. Its still a bit rabbity but hopefully I can make it more boxy with the papier-mache layer.
@leahveronese.bsky.social and I have been teaching at @queenscollegeox.bsky.social this term, and so we have been invited to their Yule Feast! As our 'medieval accessory' I will be making us hare and stag masks inspired by the mummer illustrations from Bodley MS. 264, fol. 21v.
November 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
@leahveronese.bsky.social and I have been teaching at @queenscollegeox.bsky.social this term, and so we have been invited to their Yule Feast! As our 'medieval accessory' I will be making us hare and stag masks inspired by the mummer illustrations from Bodley MS. 264, fol. 21v.
Halloween party ready with @robertculshaw.bsky.social (I'm a moth, he's a lamp).
November 1, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Halloween party ready with @robertculshaw.bsky.social (I'm a moth, he's a lamp).
If you like your Halloween served with a heaped helping of book history, may I recommend ✨Book Curses✨, whose pages are darkened by curses from antiquity to the present day. Come for particularised gory threats, stay for perceptions of the material text. Written by some woman.
October 31, 2025 at 11:37 AM
If you like your Halloween served with a heaped helping of book history, may I recommend ✨Book Curses✨, whose pages are darkened by curses from antiquity to the present day. Come for particularised gory threats, stay for perceptions of the material text. Written by some woman.
I had a FRIGHTFULLY good time this evening with the Oxford Talking Movies group discussing all things folk horror on film (with a focus on The Wicker Man, The Blair Witch Project, The VVitch, and Midsommar) at the Chequers pub. This necessitated the donning of my witchy dress.
October 22, 2025 at 9:41 PM
I had a FRIGHTFULLY good time this evening with the Oxford Talking Movies group discussing all things folk horror on film (with a focus on The Wicker Man, The Blair Witch Project, The VVitch, and Midsommar) at the Chequers pub. This necessitated the donning of my witchy dress.
So I poached them for 2.5 hours in a syrup of honey, sugar, and water with some lemon rind and tinfoil over the lot, then baked them for 20 mins without the foil. Ate them with yoghurt and granola (for pizzaz). 8/10, would make again, they taste like mild apples and roses.
October 19, 2025 at 5:12 PM
So I poached them for 2.5 hours in a syrup of honey, sugar, and water with some lemon rind and tinfoil over the lot, then baked them for 20 mins without the foil. Ate them with yoghurt and granola (for pizzaz). 8/10, would make again, they taste like mild apples and roses.
I have come into the possession of some quinces, the hardest naturally occurring substance next to diamonds. I've never knowingly had a quince so I'm trying a poaching and then roasting method. I will report back.
October 19, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I have come into the possession of some quinces, the hardest naturally occurring substance next to diamonds. I've never knowingly had a quince so I'm trying a poaching and then roasting method. I will report back.
It was a pleasure, nay, an HONOUR to celebrate the launch of @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social 's monograph from @universitypress.cambridge.org , Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile.
October 16, 2025 at 7:03 PM
It was a pleasure, nay, an HONOUR to celebrate the launch of @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social 's monograph from @universitypress.cambridge.org , Medieval Responses to Ovid's Exile.
The information boards outside the new humanities building detail the findings of the Radcliffe Infirmary burial ground excavation. The burial ground was active 1770-1885, and apparently the skeletons exhibited lots of printing machine injuries!
October 16, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The information boards outside the new humanities building detail the findings of the Radcliffe Infirmary burial ground excavation. The burial ground was active 1770-1885, and apparently the skeletons exhibited lots of printing machine injuries!
October 12, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Printing my wolf linocut in a burgundy ink on cream and grey card. I'm pleased with him, but my red ink is always very watery (and therefore has a tendency to both fill fine lines and print blotchy) so I'm looking forward to printing in plain black tomorrow.
October 11, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Printing my wolf linocut in a burgundy ink on cream and grey card. I'm pleased with him, but my red ink is always very watery (and therefore has a tendency to both fill fine lines and print blotchy) so I'm looking forward to printing in plain black tomorrow.
Scrappy test printing for visual legibility - completed. My next step is chatter elimination and adding just a bit more hairy detail.
October 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Scrappy test printing for visual legibility - completed. My next step is chatter elimination and adding just a bit more hairy detail.
Today is the day I decorated my Halloween twigs (freshly snapped from the storm)! I also made a banana malt loaf - banana bread with half a cup of Ovaltine in the mix. The cosiest of cakes.
October 4, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Today is the day I decorated my Halloween twigs (freshly snapped from the storm)! I also made a banana malt loaf - banana bread with half a cup of Ovaltine in the mix. The cosiest of cakes.
You are very welcome, have some more!
September 27, 2025 at 10:29 AM
You are very welcome, have some more!
I had the most fantastic time presenting my paper ''Wykud spyritus þat wonon in þat wylde place': Folk Horror in Middle English Sermon Exempla' at @standrewsenglish.bsky.social. I couldn't have asked for a warmer audience with more interesting questions, what a wonderful place!
September 27, 2025 at 10:27 AM
I had the most fantastic time presenting my paper ''Wykud spyritus þat wonon in þat wylde place': Folk Horror in Middle English Sermon Exempla' at @standrewsenglish.bsky.social. I couldn't have asked for a warmer audience with more interesting questions, what a wonderful place!
Tomorrow I am giving a talk on folk horror and Middle English sermon exempla at @standrewsenglish.bsky.social but tonight, TONIGHT, I am watching the sea while eating scampi and chips.
September 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Tomorrow I am giving a talk on folk horror and Middle English sermon exempla at @standrewsenglish.bsky.social but tonight, TONIGHT, I am watching the sea while eating scampi and chips.
Thoroughly enjoyed The Society of Wood Engravers 87th Annual Exhibitions which was chock full (wood joke) of amazing work. It was in Summertown which is a bit rich for my blood with its Gail's, Daunt Books and M&S in quick succession. But then again I was wearing a chore jacket. Glass houses.
September 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Thoroughly enjoyed The Society of Wood Engravers 87th Annual Exhibitions which was chock full (wood joke) of amazing work. It was in Summertown which is a bit rich for my blood with its Gail's, Daunt Books and M&S in quick succession. But then again I was wearing a chore jacket. Glass houses.
Cosy autumn Sunday baking experiment: mixed spice apple rolls with cream cheese icing. It's hard working at the coalface of cottagecore.
September 14, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Cosy autumn Sunday baking experiment: mixed spice apple rolls with cream cheese icing. It's hard working at the coalface of cottagecore.
It was fantastic to hear @cathamclarke.bsky.social talk about her new book 'A History of England in 25 Poems' to a packed Senate House tonight! Her conversation with Hannah Lowe was full of warmth, sensitivity, and reflections on the stories we tell ourselves and others in poetry.
September 9, 2025 at 8:44 PM
It was fantastic to hear @cathamclarke.bsky.social talk about her new book 'A History of England in 25 Poems' to a packed Senate House tonight! Her conversation with Hannah Lowe was full of warmth, sensitivity, and reflections on the stories we tell ourselves and others in poetry.
A healthy second-hand book haul. And two nice conkers.
September 7, 2025 at 12:19 PM
A healthy second-hand book haul. And two nice conkers.
Today I went to Howe Flower Farm for a PYO flowers session. I'll not win awards for flower arranging but it's hard to go wrong when they're all pretty.
September 6, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Today I went to Howe Flower Farm for a PYO flowers session. I'll not win awards for flower arranging but it's hard to go wrong when they're all pretty.