Dr Sara Lodge
victoriandetective.bsky.social
Dr Sara Lodge
@victoriandetective.bsky.social
Writer. Latest Book, The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective (Yale UP, 2024). Teach 19thc Lit & Culture at Uni of St Andrews. Writing for a greener world.
Fantastic show of Emily Kam Kngwarray’s work at Tate Modern. A way of dreaming landscape in its full ecological richness and variety onto fabric and canvas. The patterns we are part of; the colourful, intricate matrices of life.
November 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Enormous pumpkin spotted today. £150. Big enough to take Cinderella to the ball. But with a green and crocodilian sheen perhaps better suited to becoming a vehicle for the evil stepmother.
October 28, 2025 at 7:41 PM
At Glasgow’s Necropolis today, ahead of a warm & lively StoryCafe event at the Women’s Library.

If you’ve never visited, I can highly recommend both places. Lots of great views & well-chosen words. More biscuits at the library, though.

@womenslibrary.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Sheffield looking exceptionally lovely today. I was speaking at the Off the Shelf Festival of Words. Incredibly well organised and well attended. I can heartily recommend this Octoberfest to writers and readers alike.
October 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Launch day for the paperback of my book, The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective!

Humbug notes that it makes excellent bedtime reading.

Do you have a book club or local literary/historical society? I could drop by & give a talk or answer questions.

Will be doing a giveaway too.
October 7, 2025 at 1:32 PM
V grateful to @thevicsoc.bsky.social for sponsoring my conversation with Jojo Silva about Victorian Female Detectives at Chiswick Book Festival this Saturday 13th September. Please do come along at 12.30 pm and stay for a drink & a chat.

W4 was crawling with 19th-c sleuths...🕵️
September 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Fabulous & dark & twisty things at the Royal Academy exhibition of Victor Hugo’s artistic experiments. A huge atomic mushroom atop an apocalyptic landscape. Roiling seas. Inky castles caught in moonlight. Octopi.

Writing & drawing are like speech & song: twins always tugging at each others’ hair.
May 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Leaving Ireland with very happy memories of my visit to Connemara and especially Inishbofin with @clairerockfinch.bsky.social

I can’t believe the sunshine & sparkling water we’ve enjoyed while making a radio programme about Rosa Mulholland. I even swam in a loch this morning!
May 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Gorgeous views in Connemara where I’m doing research and making a radio documentary about neglected Irish Victorian writer Rosa Mulholland.

She was a major figure at the beginning of the Irish revival, a feminist, Catholic, scourge of bad landlordism & spinner of supernatural tales.
May 11, 2025 at 8:32 AM
My book’s been shortlisted for a prize! I’m honoured & delighted to be in this distinguished company & to get to go to lovely Bristol & meet crime writers & readers for a weekend of virtual murder & mayhem.

Many thanks to all concerned.
May 2, 2025 at 5:21 AM
It must be Spring.

Met an urban fox on the school run today. This one has a des res den on the banks of the District Line.
March 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Great to be back in Edinburgh & take a daunder up Arthur’s Seat before giving a talk about Victorian female detectives at the Royal Scots Club.
March 4, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Enjoyed talking to the Canadian Sherlock Holmes Society on Saturday about Victorian female detectives. Conan Doyle ended up finishing Grant Allen’s Hilda Wade in 1900, as Allen lay dying, so he wrote a fem tec himself too.
February 24, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Recovering from Flu. I am officially in the Fug of Blah - that monotone landscape full of administrative hangovers & bleakness at the global Omnishambles.
Went to BL exhibition on Mediaeval Women. Inhaled the scarlet, lapis & intricate flowers of an illuminated MS. Liquid gold like bling Tippex.
February 13, 2025 at 10:47 AM
London’s Chinatown today, where we celebrated the Year of the Snake. 🐍 Bright winter sunshine & blue skies. Everything hazy, soft & pale, including me. But glad to be emerging from the grey phase of the winter toward Spring.
February 2, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I love the way low sun illuminates the palm house at Kew Gardens. I’d never seen the lake iced over until the weekend. It made me think of Frost Fairs on the Thames. Kids were wildly excited to try to break the ice. Which turns out to be, unironically, a really good way to make new friends.
January 14, 2025 at 12:25 PM
The tree is up. Only exam marking & wrapping up a pile of awkwardly shaped long-postponed tasks stand between me & collapsing into the Xmas pudding. What’s your fav Xmas food? Mine was my mum’s tiny mince pies, w mincemeat of dates & currants muddled in brandy. Cocktail mince pies: naughty & nice.
December 16, 2024 at 12:06 PM
It’s St Andrews Day tomorrow & Fisher & Donaldson’s — the baker at the heart of St Andrews — has saltire shortbread for the patriotically minded.

Or you could just go for a ginger Rudolf. 🤷🏻‍♀️
November 29, 2024 at 6:04 PM
I’ve been in the Scottish Highlands for a few days, researching a new project and having a birthday treat. Snow! Sublime views. These are pictures from the train window, coming back to Glasgow. So beautiful, I couldn’t read.
November 29, 2024 at 6:05 AM
Here I am on the blue planet. Looking for fellow writers, artists, eco-worriers in my circle (& those I don’t know yet) who made it out alive when the Twittership combusted.

I’ve never felt as supported by a creative community as I did before the Xplosion. Let’s regroup hug & continue the party.
November 18, 2024 at 7:18 AM