We do hope speakers at #VPFAPurity will consider submitting their papers to us. There was so much publishable already after the first day!

Well that's #VPFAPurity over with for 2022. Thank you everyone who made our first hybrid conference such a success. I can now safely put my feet up and officially start my maternity leave!

Finally, we have Janine Hatter and Craig Johnson with 'Illuminating the hidden Spaces of Victorian Ghost-Writing Practices: A Case Study of Brandon's Bound to John Company'. The paper seeks to use ghost-authorship to illuminate the hidden spaces of publishing practice #VPFAPlaces

Hatter and Johnson used computer software including Stylo and Burrows Delta with Cosine Delta distance to uncover potential author contributions to Bound to John Company. They had to make sure that the computer could pick out Braddon's fiction by uploading her Louvre #VPFAPlaces

they found it likely that Braddon only contributed to the first four instalments. other authors included Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Emma Robinson and/or Henry Robert Addison, and Frances Cashel Hoey #VPFAPlaces

A fantastic quote: #VPFAPlaces

Dr Janine Hatter & Craig Johnson (online) delivering some riveting detective work on the ME Braddon brand, hushed-up writer's block, & the secret lives & networks of (surpringly well-known!) Victorian ghost writers here at #VPFAPlaces

Q for Janine: are ghost-writers trying to write in Braddon's style, and does it impact results? A: yes it does, but that is the point of using the computer software, as it picks up the words most likely used by the author. That is why they also used a range of genres #VPFAPlaces