Dr Janette Leaf
@janetteleaf.bsky.social
Honorary Research Fellow: Birkbeck, Uni of London. 2023-2026. Cultural Entomology; Victorianism; Hypnotic Gothic; Egyptomania; Redheads; Shop Girls; Pre Raphaelite Art; Ghost Ships; Neo-Victorianism. Co-editor BL Insect Weird anthology.
Delighted to take up my 3rd Birkbeck Honorary Research Fellowship today. Looking back at some of the 30 conference papers I've presented since being awarded my doctorate, I'm excited for 2025-2026. @19birkbeck.bsky.social @theprofrog.bsky.social @drvickymills.bsky.social @luisacale.bsky.social
October 1, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Delighted to take up my 3rd Birkbeck Honorary Research Fellowship today. Looking back at some of the 30 conference papers I've presented since being awarded my doctorate, I'm excited for 2025-2026. @19birkbeck.bsky.social @theprofrog.bsky.social @drvickymills.bsky.social @luisacale.bsky.social
Bathed in blood-red light at #Dracula @lyrichammersmith.bsky.social soaking up the staging, centring of the relationship between Mina and Lucy, & Mina's key editorial role. Nice nod to those in the know with the appearance of the yellow-backed 1897 edition! Loved it! #Gothic @indiekid.bsky.social
September 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Bathed in blood-red light at #Dracula @lyrichammersmith.bsky.social soaking up the staging, centring of the relationship between Mina and Lucy, & Mina's key editorial role. Nice nod to those in the know with the appearance of the yellow-backed 1897 edition! Loved it! #Gothic @indiekid.bsky.social
Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter: born 28 July 1866! An incredible woman: a writer, illustrator, nature lover and natural scientist, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, zoologist, archaeologist . . .
July 28, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter: born 28 July 1866! An incredible woman: a writer, illustrator, nature lover and natural scientist, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, zoologist, archaeologist . . .
#BAVS2025 you were a blast! 5 x Birkbeck papers from @drvickymills.bsky.social @nonfictioness.bsky.social @helenaesser.bsky.social Julia Kuehn and me! Great to hang with @jeremynewton64.bsky.social too! Such fun and sociability with so many great #Victorian scholars! @19birkbeck.bsky.social
July 26, 2025 at 9:49 AM
#BAVS2025 you were a blast! 5 x Birkbeck papers from @drvickymills.bsky.social @nonfictioness.bsky.social @helenaesser.bsky.social Julia Kuehn and me! Great to hang with @jeremynewton64.bsky.social too! Such fun and sociability with so many great #Victorian scholars! @19birkbeck.bsky.social
Still buzzing after an amazing #VPFAextremes conference! What a treat to hear so many talented speakers and to present on Hypnotic Gothic alongside Birkbeck pals!
@vpfa.bsky.social #Gothic #victorian
@vpfa.bsky.social #Gothic #victorian
July 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Still buzzing after an amazing #VPFAextremes conference! What a treat to hear so many talented speakers and to present on Hypnotic Gothic alongside Birkbeck pals!
@vpfa.bsky.social #Gothic #victorian
@vpfa.bsky.social #Gothic #victorian
Roses are red
Violets are purple
Brain's flailing about
Like an upside-down turtle!
#AcademicValentine #AmNotWriing
Violets are purple
Brain's flailing about
Like an upside-down turtle!
#AcademicValentine #AmNotWriing
February 14, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Roses are red
Violets are purple
Brain's flailing about
Like an upside-down turtle!
#AcademicValentine #AmNotWriing
Violets are purple
Brain's flailing about
Like an upside-down turtle!
#AcademicValentine #AmNotWriing
May your insects bring more singing and less stinging in the coming year!
December 31, 2024 at 9:48 AM
May your insects bring more singing and less stinging in the coming year!
Seasons Greetings! Hope you're enjoying it as much as Starevich's 1913 insects gathered around the Christmas tree!
December 25, 2024 at 10:29 AM
Seasons Greetings! Hope you're enjoying it as much as Starevich's 1913 insects gathered around the Christmas tree!
Christina Rossetti was born #otd in 1830. Her poem 'In the Bleak Midwinter' was originally published by Scribners in January 1872 as 'A Christmas Carol'. Gustav Holst set it to music in 1906. It was my father's favourite! @wikivictorian.bsky.social @19birkbeck.bsky.social
@c19qmul.bsky.social
@c19qmul.bsky.social
December 5, 2024 at 9:52 AM
Christina Rossetti was born #otd in 1830. Her poem 'In the Bleak Midwinter' was originally published by Scribners in January 1872 as 'A Christmas Carol'. Gustav Holst set it to music in 1906. It was my father's favourite! @wikivictorian.bsky.social @19birkbeck.bsky.social
@c19qmul.bsky.social
@c19qmul.bsky.social
#Macbeth west end. Tennant, as always, was great at Shakespearean unhinged. All sound through headphones. No on-stage witches. Atmospheric music. Minimalist monochrome staging. Glass screen divided acting space. Lady Macbeth's white dress invited blood, but remained spotless! Prefer Terry's beetles!
December 4, 2024 at 6:54 PM
#Macbeth west end. Tennant, as always, was great at Shakespearean unhinged. All sound through headphones. No on-stage witches. Atmospheric music. Minimalist monochrome staging. Glass screen divided acting space. Lady Macbeth's white dress invited blood, but remained spotless! Prefer Terry's beetles!
As a cultural entomologist (among my other C19th preoccupations) I am really happy to see the Rev J. G. Wood up there! I'm citing his Insects at Home (1872) and his Insects Abroad (1874) on a pretty regular basis!
December 3, 2024 at 2:54 PM
As a cultural entomologist (among my other C19th preoccupations) I am really happy to see the Rev J. G. Wood up there! I'm citing his Insects at Home (1872) and his Insects Abroad (1874) on a pretty regular basis!
I love the response of @dreframss.bsky.social to the question asked by @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social about which novel demands a Muppet re-make! I couldn't agree more that The Beetle would be an instant hit. I'm suggesting Miss Piggy for Marjorie Lindon, Kermit for Robert Holt & Animal for Atherton!
December 3, 2024 at 1:08 PM
I love the response of @dreframss.bsky.social to the question asked by @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social about which novel demands a Muppet re-make! I couldn't agree more that The Beetle would be an instant hit. I'm suggesting Miss Piggy for Marjorie Lindon, Kermit for Robert Holt & Animal for Atherton!
The best way to enjoy a #Victorian Christmas is with an intelligent #Dickens #ConanDoyle mash-up: A Sherlock Carol! Holmes is haunted by ghosts until he solves a case. Great fun. Lots of in-jokes for Victorianists! @drchrislouttit.bsky.social @victorianlondon.bsky.social @dickenssociety.bsky.social
December 3, 2024 at 12:44 PM
The best way to enjoy a #Victorian Christmas is with an intelligent #Dickens #ConanDoyle mash-up: A Sherlock Carol! Holmes is haunted by ghosts until he solves a case. Great fun. Lots of in-jokes for Victorianists! @drchrislouttit.bsky.social @victorianlondon.bsky.social @dickenssociety.bsky.social
On 03 December 1926, #AgathaChristie disappeared into the night. Her abandoned car was discovered containing her driving licence, fur coat and dressing case, but no clue to her whereabouts. Conan Doyle enlisted a clairvoyant to find her. 11 days later, she was found! (Image: Daily Mirror 07.12.26)
December 3, 2024 at 1:52 AM
On 03 December 1926, #AgathaChristie disappeared into the night. Her abandoned car was discovered containing her driving licence, fur coat and dressing case, but no clue to her whereabouts. Conan Doyle enlisted a clairvoyant to find her. 11 days later, she was found! (Image: Daily Mirror 07.12.26)
Sometimes Christmas accidentally acquires a tinge of the #Gothic - epitomised for me by a partially-mummified, zombie snowman pursued by relentless reindeer!
November 23, 2024 at 2:34 PM
Sometimes Christmas accidentally acquires a tinge of the #Gothic - epitomised for me by a partially-mummified, zombie snowman pursued by relentless reindeer!
I envisage Evelyn de Morgan's seated, concentrating woman in The Love Potion (1903) as Leighton's indolent Flaming June (1895) awoken as a Medieval scholar if her books are any indication! Both are depicted as redheads (even brunette Jane Morris) clad in cascading folds of rich orange! Thoughts?
March 26, 2024 at 12:25 PM
I envisage Evelyn de Morgan's seated, concentrating woman in The Love Potion (1903) as Leighton's indolent Flaming June (1895) awoken as a Medieval scholar if her books are any indication! Both are depicted as redheads (even brunette Jane Morris) clad in cascading folds of rich orange! Thoughts?
Agrigento is an incredible architectural site! Here is a miniscule me inadvertently colour co-ordinated with a gigantic fallen statue in the foreground. Brings to mind thoughts of our own smallness against the vastness of history - or maybe a Sicilian Ozymandias and fallen Empires!
March 25, 2024 at 11:12 AM
Agrigento is an incredible architectural site! Here is a miniscule me inadvertently colour co-ordinated with a gigantic fallen statue in the foreground. Brings to mind thoughts of our own smallness against the vastness of history - or maybe a Sicilian Ozymandias and fallen Empires!
Wilkie Collins was also born today (1824). It just gets better! Of the people born on 08 January, Collins and Russel Wallace were in my PhD thesis, Bowie was in my recent article for AJVS, and my husband is in my living room!
January 8, 2024 at 3:08 PM
Wilkie Collins was also born today (1824). It just gets better! Of the people born on 08 January, Collins and Russel Wallace were in my PhD thesis, Bowie was in my recent article for AJVS, and my husband is in my living room!
Born on this auspicious day for music and science: Alfred Russel Wallace (1823), Elvis Presley (1935), Steven Hawking (1942), David Bowie (1947) - and my husband! Photo of the first in the list, not the last!
January 8, 2024 at 1:30 PM
Born on this auspicious day for music and science: Alfred Russel Wallace (1823), Elvis Presley (1935), Steven Hawking (1942), David Bowie (1947) - and my husband! Photo of the first in the list, not the last!
Here's hoping 2024 is filled with music, and nothing bugs us! Happy New Year!
December 31, 2023 at 3:48 PM
Here's hoping 2024 is filled with music, and nothing bugs us! Happy New Year!
Egyptomania & ghosts are two of my favourite subjects! Beneath the C19th Egyptian pyramid tomb in Rodney Street, Liverpool, sits William MacKenzie, who (legend has it) refused to lie down & be buried in the hope of cheating the devil out of his soul. His unquiet spirit now walks! #gothic #ghosts
December 15, 2023 at 6:39 PM
A film centred on Dracula's assistant & exploring his psychology & entomophagy-fuelled superpowers made "Renfield" a must see for me. 🧛🪰But under-use of acting talent and over-use of gore made it a bore! It took me 3 attempts to get through it because I fell asleep twice!! Great idea badly executed.
December 5, 2023 at 7:16 PM
A film centred on Dracula's assistant & exploring his psychology & entomophagy-fuelled superpowers made "Renfield" a must see for me. 🧛🪰But under-use of acting talent and over-use of gore made it a bore! It took me 3 attempts to get through it because I fell asleep twice!! Great idea badly executed.
Jan Sanders Van Hemessen's "Vanity" (1535) is unusual in depicting an angel with insectile wings. The artists is using the butterfly's associations with the soul which triumphs over the skull of death in the mirror. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille. #GothicInsects
November 30, 2023 at 10:39 AM
Jan Sanders Van Hemessen's "Vanity" (1535) is unusual in depicting an angel with insectile wings. The artists is using the butterfly's associations with the soul which triumphs over the skull of death in the mirror. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille. #GothicInsects
Revelling in Egyptological refs in Netflix's "The Fall of the House of Usher": scarab revivification icon used as Gold Bug branded beauty product; illicit trade in mummification tools exposing lack of ethics; collapsing hopes for immortality; a blank-eyed jewelled stare! #EdgarAllanPoe #egyptomania
November 29, 2023 at 1:03 AM
Revelling in Egyptological refs in Netflix's "The Fall of the House of Usher": scarab revivification icon used as Gold Bug branded beauty product; illicit trade in mummification tools exposing lack of ethics; collapsing hopes for immortality; a blank-eyed jewelled stare! #EdgarAllanPoe #egyptomania
Today in #Gothic conference mode! I'm exploring Boothby's Pharos, Corelli's Ziska and Orientalist art in "The Consumer Becomes the Confused". Excited to be presenting on the same online panel as @c19thceleb.bsky.social. Hope the weird faeries of tech are feeling kindly disposed to us!
November 28, 2023 at 9:36 AM
Today in #Gothic conference mode! I'm exploring Boothby's Pharos, Corelli's Ziska and Orientalist art in "The Consumer Becomes the Confused". Excited to be presenting on the same online panel as @c19thceleb.bsky.social. Hope the weird faeries of tech are feeling kindly disposed to us!