Lucy Allen-Goss
@lucyallengoss.bsky.social
Medievalist, feminist, dabbles in horticulture. Writing more and more about infertility/reproduction. Yorkshire.
https://lucyallengoss.substack.com/
My book is Female Desire in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women and Middle English Romance
https://lucyallengoss.substack.com/
My book is Female Desire in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women and Middle English Romance
I'm very chilled, very laid-back, no fangirling here ... WAIT YOU GUYS HELEN CASTOR LIKED MY WRITING! 😀 It's this piece btw: lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/apples-apr...
August 19, 2025 at 1:51 PM
I'm very chilled, very laid-back, no fangirling here ... WAIT YOU GUYS HELEN CASTOR LIKED MY WRITING! 😀 It's this piece btw: lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/apples-apr...
Why do we love gossipy history so much? And what do apples and apricots, and a French gardener, have to do with Anne Boleyn? lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/apples-apr...
August 19, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Why do we love gossipy history so much? And what do apples and apricots, and a French gardener, have to do with Anne Boleyn? lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/apples-apr...
What was your first introduction to the history of Anne Boleyn/Elizabeth I? And did you know how dramatically Anne's pregnancy craving for apples worked its way into later retellings of that bit of history? My post here: lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/apples-apr...
August 18, 2025 at 8:30 PM
What was your first introduction to the history of Anne Boleyn/Elizabeth I? And did you know how dramatically Anne's pregnancy craving for apples worked its way into later retellings of that bit of history? My post here: lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/apples-apr...
Popping this out there for the evening crowd. It's part of a new writing project - I'm excited and nervous, so any support would be welcome! Here, I'm writing about how a long-ago writer captured grief for a wanted baby that didn't come to be.
lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/grief-care...
lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/grief-care...
July 6, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Popping this out there for the evening crowd. It's part of a new writing project - I'm excited and nervous, so any support would be welcome! Here, I'm writing about how a long-ago writer captured grief for a wanted baby that didn't come to be.
lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/grief-care...
lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/grief-care...
Here's my post about Mediterranean gardens, the legacies of plants, and the hidden romances that haunt garden writing. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/fragments-...
June 7, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Here's my post about Mediterranean gardens, the legacies of plants, and the hidden romances that haunt garden writing. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/fragments-...
Reading Kepler this frosty morning, who saw a snowflake fall onto his coat as he crossed the Charles Bridge in Prague, and decided to make his friend a New Year's gift of a treatise on the form of the snowflake, 'since it comes down from heaven and looks like a star'.
January 11, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reading Kepler this frosty morning, who saw a snowflake fall onto his coat as he crossed the Charles Bridge in Prague, and decided to make his friend a New Year's gift of a treatise on the form of the snowflake, 'since it comes down from heaven and looks like a star'.
It was *so* cold today. This was my work. I have never spent so long putting logs on a furnace.
November 21, 2024 at 6:40 PM
It was *so* cold today. This was my work. I have never spent so long putting logs on a furnace.
Today I've been trying to get my mind around Petrus Christus' amazing 'Madonna of the Dry Tree,' while potting up the thorny bare root roses in the nursery and feeding the fire (we need it to keep the plants warm) with pine logs whose smoke smells like incense. A good, thoughtful combination!
November 20, 2024 at 6:35 PM
Today I've been trying to get my mind around Petrus Christus' amazing 'Madonna of the Dry Tree,' while potting up the thorny bare root roses in the nursery and feeding the fire (we need it to keep the plants warm) with pine logs whose smoke smells like incense. A good, thoughtful combination!
I just came across the new-to-me name 'river lily' for schizostylis. Why is it that some flowers (lily, daisy, rose) become epithets for dozens of unrelated plants?
November 15, 2024 at 8:19 AM
I just came across the new-to-me name 'river lily' for schizostylis. Why is it that some flowers (lily, daisy, rose) become epithets for dozens of unrelated plants?
This beautiful soft gold is making me so happy this morning.
November 14, 2024 at 10:57 AM
This beautiful soft gold is making me so happy this morning.
I wrote a post for Pride Month, about Derek Jarman's roses, and the Roman de la Rose, and the reclaiming of queer history. And about the romance of plant nurseries! 😀
vertigrow.substack.com/p/a-rose-for...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/a-rose-for...
June 12, 2024 at 1:53 PM
I wrote a post for Pride Month, about Derek Jarman's roses, and the Roman de la Rose, and the reclaiming of queer history. And about the romance of plant nurseries! 😀
vertigrow.substack.com/p/a-rose-for...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/a-rose-for...
I'm writing about primrose sex, Jack-in-the-Green, Galligaskins, and a really snotty Edwardian plantsman. You know you want to know more. vertigrow.substack.com/p/pins-thrum...
February 25, 2024 at 2:15 PM
I'm writing about primrose sex, Jack-in-the-Green, Galligaskins, and a really snotty Edwardian plantsman. You know you want to know more. vertigrow.substack.com/p/pins-thrum...
We've been looking beautiful winter tree bark and lichen - so pretty! vertigrow.substack.com/p/winter-bir...
November 29, 2023 at 6:53 PM
We've been looking beautiful winter tree bark and lichen - so pretty! vertigrow.substack.com/p/winter-bir...
I love this bit of November. Bright leaves and woodlands in the making.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/ordinary-b...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/ordinary-b...
November 17, 2023 at 1:23 PM
I love this bit of November. Bright leaves and woodlands in the making.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/ordinary-b...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/ordinary-b...
At work, we've got these amazing tree ferns - they have the most beautiful, crown-like structure of fronds (and of course, they illustrate the Fibonacci sequence). vertigrow.substack.com/p/tree-fern-...
November 10, 2023 at 8:57 PM
At work, we've got these amazing tree ferns - they have the most beautiful, crown-like structure of fronds (and of course, they illustrate the Fibonacci sequence). vertigrow.substack.com/p/tree-fern-...
This is what we've been planting this week. Absolutely fascinating to find out how the medicinal histories of these plants are encoded in their fabulous array of weird-and-wonderful common names.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/wake-robin...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/wake-robin...
November 3, 2023 at 11:07 PM
This is what we've been planting this week. Absolutely fascinating to find out how the medicinal histories of these plants are encoded in their fabulous array of weird-and-wonderful common names.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/wake-robin...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/wake-robin...
I am currently deep in footnotes about Langland's Tree of Charity, but I get to take respite in my day job in a plant nursery, where the witchhazels are turning autumn colours and the robins are singing. I'm writing about it here. Please share; it helps.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/the-witch-...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/the-witch-...
October 10, 2023 at 5:42 PM
I am currently deep in footnotes about Langland's Tree of Charity, but I get to take respite in my day job in a plant nursery, where the witchhazels are turning autumn colours and the robins are singing. I'm writing about it here. Please share; it helps.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/the-witch-...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/the-witch-...
Here's my post #fromthenursery this week. I'm writing about witchhazels and their gorgeous, witchy, bonfire-y autumn colours. vertigrow.substack.com/p/the-witch-...
October 9, 2023 at 7:44 PM
Here's my post #fromthenursery this week. I'm writing about witchhazels and their gorgeous, witchy, bonfire-y autumn colours. vertigrow.substack.com/p/the-witch-...
Who knew reading medieval poems would help me understand growing salvias in a plant nursery! Thanks Gower.
Vertigrow.substack.com/p/jewel-toned-salvias-for-autumn-balm
Vertigrow.substack.com/p/jewel-toned-salvias-for-autumn-balm
October 2, 2023 at 8:17 PM
Who knew reading medieval poems would help me understand growing salvias in a plant nursery! Thanks Gower.
Vertigrow.substack.com/p/jewel-toned-salvias-for-autumn-balm
Vertigrow.substack.com/p/jewel-toned-salvias-for-autumn-balm
Want this, in about eight weeks? Read this. vertigrow.substack.com/p/saffron-cr...
September 26, 2023 at 7:45 PM
Want this, in about eight weeks? Read this. vertigrow.substack.com/p/saffron-cr...
Did you know saffron crocuses - which grow in your ordinary twenty-first-century garden - are basically clones of plants that grew in Minoan Crete, hundreds of years before Homer? Blows my mind. vertigrow.substack.com/p/saffron-cr...
September 25, 2023 at 8:23 PM
Did you know saffron crocuses - which grow in your ordinary twenty-first-century garden - are basically clones of plants that grew in Minoan Crete, hundreds of years before Homer? Blows my mind. vertigrow.substack.com/p/saffron-cr...
They're too high and tiny to photograph, but the sky over my house is full of dozens and dozens of house martins, all chirping away. It's lovely.
September 3, 2023 at 6:03 PM
They're too high and tiny to photograph, but the sky over my house is full of dozens and dozens of house martins, all chirping away. It's lovely.
Well, this is exciting! I'm still working this site out. For now, here's my new, slightly experimental blog. I'm thinking about gardens and nature.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/spotlight-...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/spotlight-...
September 3, 2023 at 9:48 AM
Well, this is exciting! I'm still working this site out. For now, here's my new, slightly experimental blog. I'm thinking about gardens and nature.
vertigrow.substack.com/p/spotlight-...
vertigrow.substack.com/p/spotlight-...