Delighted to announce my YA debut THE QUEEN OF THE SPIRIT WOODS is coming out with Atheneum, Fall 2026!

The first in a duology inspired by Korean history, you can expect:
🍄 Palace political intrigue
🍄 A magic system grounded in Korean shamanism
🍄 Dae Jang Geum vibes (iykyk)

Such a fulfilling couple of days in Paris at the London-Paris Romanticism Symposium. What a group of generous scholars. It was a pleasure to meet & laugh with everyone, & listen to incredible papers on Shock and Surprise.

Thanks to David Duff & Laurent Folliot for organising a wonderful event!

A wonderful week at the Bodleian digging through Thomas Percy’s Notebooks to confirm a couple of research hunches!

But a favourite surprise for me was seeing 18yo Percy’s book catalogue where he had decorated and titled the cover with the 18C version of bubble letters.

10/10, no notes 👌🏼😌

Back at det KGL. Bibliotek today. I’ve been enjoying spending time with this collection of James Johnstone texts over the last 2 weeks & thinking about translation approaches… also there’s a lot of fun death imagery which is a big win 🪦

I’m giving an online talk in January about this translation/parallel text that does a handful of things that other 18th-century translations of “The Death Song of Ragnar Lodbrok” don’t do.

Perhaps not the most exciting translation, but every time I return to it I find something new ✨

Info below 👇🏼

The Jongdeokjung Pavilion built by King Jeongjo in 1798. Part of the Secret Garden at Changdeokgung Palace, Seoul.

The plaque at the back holds a poem written by the king about his desire to restore royal authority through a metaphor of the stars & moon.

In my natural element, squatting like a gremlin at the entrance of an ancient Korean tomb (2023)