Rachel Willie
@racheljwillie.bsky.social
Professional bookworm, amateur hill wanderer, cake, music, and #EarlyModern enthusiast. If lost, likely to be found in the dustier corners of the seventeenth century. Researches early modern English literary history and culture https://shorturl.at/uXujC
Reposted by Rachel Willie
Heads up, #earlymodern #skystorians! Get your books in for the next SRS Book Prize. Always a marvel to see the wonderful work being produced by scholars of this period.
Who's entering our Biennial Book Prize 2026, to celebrate the best monographs in Renaissance studies published in 2024 and 2025? Send your scintillating scholarship to the Chair of the Book Prize Committee, @racheljwillie.bsky.social, by 31st January 2026.
www.rensoc.org.uk/funding-priz...
www.rensoc.org.uk/funding-priz...
December 16, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Heads up, #earlymodern #skystorians! Get your books in for the next SRS Book Prize. Always a marvel to see the wonderful work being produced by scholars of this period.
Where’s his cat? 🐈⬛ 🤔
Henry Wriothesley b. 1573 d. 1624, 3rd Earl of Southampton Unknown artist, c. 1600. #Flamboyant (National Portrait Gallery, London)
December 15, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Where’s his cat? 🐈⬛ 🤔
Oooo, scintillating scholarship! Send your lovely books to not so scintillating me!
December 13, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Oooo, scintillating scholarship! Send your lovely books to not so scintillating me!
Reposted by Rachel Willie
Justin Webb, in a far more consequential position as presenter of a flagship news programme, has repeatedly violated impartiality rules. If he had a similar warning, it clearly had no effect and he’s been allowed to continue.
December 13, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Justin Webb, in a far more consequential position as presenter of a flagship news programme, has repeatedly violated impartiality rules. If he had a similar warning, it clearly had no effect and he’s been allowed to continue.
Colleague last week: have you gone down with any of the bugs that have been doing the rounds?
Me: Luckily I’ve seem to have escaped them.
Other colleague: Don’t say that! You’ll jinx yourself!
Me today:
Me: Luckily I’ve seem to have escaped them.
Other colleague: Don’t say that! You’ll jinx yourself!
Me today:
Sick Duck GIF
ALT: Sick Duck GIF
media.tenor.com
December 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Colleague last week: have you gone down with any of the bugs that have been doing the rounds?
Me: Luckily I’ve seem to have escaped them.
Other colleague: Don’t say that! You’ll jinx yourself!
Me today:
Me: Luckily I’ve seem to have escaped them.
Other colleague: Don’t say that! You’ll jinx yourself!
Me today:
December 5, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Looking for that perfect News Years Gift for the Nashe Lover in your life? From January, “Thomas Nashe and Literary Performance” will be available in paperback!
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526195524/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526195524/
Manchester University Press - Thomas Nashe and literary performance
Thomas Nashe and literary performance - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Thomas Nashe and literary performance by Chloe Kathleen Preedy
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
December 5, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Looking for that perfect News Years Gift for the Nashe Lover in your life? From January, “Thomas Nashe and Literary Performance” will be available in paperback!
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526195524/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526195524/
What does king on a thing do? Look down despotically on your children to encourage them to behave like mini tyrants before they grow up to abuse, bunk off and divorce their spouses while disowning their own children until a nice step parent gets them to remember their parental responsibilities?
Forget the Elf on the Shelf - here's King on a Thing!
Make your own Henry VIII to sit on your shelf, bookcase, desk or 16th century warship!
maryrose.org/things-to-ma...
Make your own Henry VIII to sit on your shelf, bookcase, desk or 16th century warship!
maryrose.org/things-to-ma...
December 5, 2025 at 9:44 AM
What does king on a thing do? Look down despotically on your children to encourage them to behave like mini tyrants before they grow up to abuse, bunk off and divorce their spouses while disowning their own children until a nice step parent gets them to remember their parental responsibilities?
The disappointment when you realise this is a postcard and no replica shoes are available…
www.vam.ac.uk/shop/exhibit...
www.vam.ac.uk/shop/exhibit...
Mercy Artois shoe by Manolo Blahnik shaped postcard | Stationery | V&A Shop
Victoria and Albert Museum Shop
www.vam.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 9:51 PM
The disappointment when you realise this is a postcard and no replica shoes are available…
www.vam.ac.uk/shop/exhibit...
www.vam.ac.uk/shop/exhibit...
This pretty much sums up my frustration with current public discourse. There’re so many who reach for non-sequitur gotcha & who desire to keep the political soap opera going. This is in no one’s interest. Obviously hold to account but this can only happen if people are boringly reflective about it.
A lot of journos got addicted to the years of chaos. It made for clicks and content and that's deeply fucking problematic if we want this country to actually work.
Yes - hold the government to account and do it robustly. But partisan news coverage has leaked into mainstream from the GB news sewer.
Yes - hold the government to account and do it robustly. But partisan news coverage has leaked into mainstream from the GB news sewer.
December 1, 2025 at 2:12 PM
This pretty much sums up my frustration with current public discourse. There’re so many who reach for non-sequitur gotcha & who desire to keep the political soap opera going. This is in no one’s interest. Obviously hold to account but this can only happen if people are boringly reflective about it.
Reposted by Rachel Willie
Thinking of the wonderful Milton scholar Neil Forsyth today after news of his passing. An essay of his that stays in my mind is "Of Man's First Dis" (1991). I'll always remember what I learned was characteristic Miltonist commitment, when Neil came to the Exeter symposium... 1/
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Thinking of the wonderful Milton scholar Neil Forsyth today after news of his passing. An essay of his that stays in my mind is "Of Man's First Dis" (1991). I'll always remember what I learned was characteristic Miltonist commitment, when Neil came to the Exeter symposium... 1/
Reposted by Rachel Willie
✍ Introducing ✍
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Sharpie
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for apprentice Early Modern palaeographers
gjhilton.github.io
November 12, 2025 at 11:11 PM
✍ Introducing ✍
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography
gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/
AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.
#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.
Love g 🗃️
“Coincidence? Sarah Blizzard is a weather presenter, Ellie Cook is a pastry chef and David Limb is an orthopaedic surgeon”
No comment…
No comment…
‘You get more attention than you would choose’: how an unusual name can shape your life – for better or worse
‘You get more attention than you would choose’: how an unusual name can shape your life – for better or worse
From Peach to Riot to Aquaman, anything goes now when it comes to kids’ names. There are even companies to help you pick one …
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:53 AM
“Coincidence? Sarah Blizzard is a weather presenter, Ellie Cook is a pastry chef and David Limb is an orthopaedic surgeon”
No comment…
No comment…
Why do I ALWAYS lose the game of pedestrian, puddle bus? 🥺 🚌
a person is laying in a waterfall in the woods
ALT: a person is laying in a waterfall in the woods
media.tenor.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Why do I ALWAYS lose the game of pedestrian, puddle bus? 🥺 🚌
Listening to David Hare and @anitaanand.bsky.social on PM discuss the problems faced by regional theatre and thinking they need to also chat with @rob-myles.bsky.social & his Stage Bright Idea award-winning proposals for a regional theatre network.
October 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Listening to David Hare and @anitaanand.bsky.social on PM discuss the problems faced by regional theatre and thinking they need to also chat with @rob-myles.bsky.social & his Stage Bright Idea award-winning proposals for a regional theatre network.
It’s a good thing I don’t have an Oxbridge leadership role: I’d likely propose a process for centralising JRF recruitment, then assigning colleges (& respective perks) to the successful candidates via a sorting hat/first come first serve or whatever. A bloody civil war would most likely break loose.
October 20, 2025 at 4:22 PM
It’s a good thing I don’t have an Oxbridge leadership role: I’d likely propose a process for centralising JRF recruitment, then assigning colleges (& respective perks) to the successful candidates via a sorting hat/first come first serve or whatever. A bloody civil war would most likely break loose.
It’s just dawned on me that my peers and I began our PhDs in October 2005 and I’m in denial about the passage of time.
a man with white hair is sitting in a park with the word hmm written on his jacket
ALT: a man with white hair is sitting in a park with the word hmm written on his jacket
media.tenor.com
October 15, 2025 at 1:20 AM
It’s just dawned on me that my peers and I began our PhDs in October 2005 and I’m in denial about the passage of time.
Reposted by Rachel Willie
God, imagine being driven by unevidenced fears of people you've made no effort to understand, making outlandish claims about who they are and what they do, then stoking those fears in others and making it all worse.
And then making a show about witches with Alice Roberts.
And then making a show about witches with Alice Roberts.
Witches of Essex: Rylan and Prof Alice’s look at one of history’s most shameful periods is unfailingly moving
Witches of Essex: Rylan and Prof Alice’s look at one of history’s most shameful periods is unfailingly moving
This engaging if slight show sees the unlikely duo reopen witch trials from 400 years ago on the hunt for justice. It’s Blackadder crossed with CSI – with a sprinkling of Philomena Cunk
www.theguardian.com
October 11, 2025 at 3:48 PM
God, imagine being driven by unevidenced fears of people you've made no effort to understand, making outlandish claims about who they are and what they do, then stoking those fears in others and making it all worse.
And then making a show about witches with Alice Roberts.
And then making a show about witches with Alice Roberts.
Pity my mother, with offspring such as me…
October 9, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Pity my mother, with offspring such as me…
This may be my favourite postscript of all time. The author and his son-in-law were being investigated for plotting against Oliver Cromwell in 1656.
'I desire my daughter to send me a Cheese, for this my restraint hath forced me to eate them she sent before sooner then was intended'.
#stresscheese
'I desire my daughter to send me a Cheese, for this my restraint hath forced me to eate them she sent before sooner then was intended'.
#stresscheese
October 3, 2025 at 8:40 PM
There are also instances of women preaching and in positions of power in various sects throughout the Middle Ages and women also had a priestly role in the Early Church.
As the first female Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed, it’s worth remembering that dissenting women were preaching to mixed sex congregations in London as early as 1645. My book Voices of Thunder has a whole section on 17th-century “she-preachers”
#earlymodern
#earlymodern
October 3, 2025 at 11:35 AM
There are also instances of women preaching and in positions of power in various sects throughout the Middle Ages and women also had a priestly role in the Early Church.
Remembering the time we tried to explain pelican, puffin, toucan, zebra and pegasus crossings to @matthewharrison.bsky.social, though I suspect he still doesn’t believe us…
a group of ducks are walking down a sidewalk in front of a bank
ALT: a group of ducks are walking down a sidewalk in front of a bank
media.tenor.com
September 29, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Remembering the time we tried to explain pelican, puffin, toucan, zebra and pegasus crossings to @matthewharrison.bsky.social, though I suspect he still doesn’t believe us…
Reposted by Rachel Willie
Lily Dunn's 'Into Being' is a milestone text in the art of life writing. I'm looking forward to chairing a discussion with her at @rilch-ljmu.bsky.social next month. It will be a great evening about how we raise raw personal material and make it powerfully universal.
Join us next month as @lilydunn.bsky.social hits the road next month to launch her new book, 'Into being', sharing the secrets of writing memoir.
Coming to a bookshop, festival or university near you, visit our Events page for more info and tickets: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events #booksky
Coming to a bookshop, festival or university near you, visit our Events page for more info and tickets: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events #booksky
September 19, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Lily Dunn's 'Into Being' is a milestone text in the art of life writing. I'm looking forward to chairing a discussion with her at @rilch-ljmu.bsky.social next month. It will be a great evening about how we raise raw personal material and make it powerfully universal.
Fabulous turnout to hear our very own Kate Walchester discuss travel writing with Michael Palin as part of the Smithdown Litfest. Your correspondent might have not picked the best spot for paparazzi images of our two celebrities, but is very much enjoying hearing tales of travel 🫣🥴
September 26, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Can’t believe this book is TEN????
Very excited to dig into this little beauty by @racheljwillie.bsky.social
September 25, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Can’t believe this book is TEN????