Wishing everybody a happy Christmas.

"Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, or The Christmas Bowl"--not so well known but a lovely picture of Scrooge reassuring his clerk that from now on, things would be very different for him! By John Leech yet again. He was a kindly soul. victorianweb.org/victorian/art/…

Today is Childermas, the feast of the Holy Innocents, on the fourth day of Christmas. It's a fitting day for the Coventry Carol and other medieval lullaby-laments, which give voice to the grief that lies near the heart of the Christmas season aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2014/12/lullay…

The Bridge Troll The Three Billy Goats Gruff, 1968 Artist: Robert Lumley

Veridical Apparitions Are Not Very Rare: futureandcosmos.blogspot.com/2024/12/veridi…

Since 1967, this small division at the University of Virginia has investigated the possibility of reincarnation: whro.org/education-news…

A woodcut peering out from a 16th century binding. It's been used as the pastedown on a 1596 Frankfurt printing of Aristotle's Physics, but we can't see enough of it to know what it's from #Printed #Fragments #Bindings

A digital exhibition for those interested in AI, historical images (and cathedrals). Based on work we are doing with LambethPalaceLibrary shorturl.at/vCIQt

This is not a catacomb or an eccentrically-lit dungeon ~ it’s the inside of a 19th century cello (photo: Adrian Borda) messynessychic.com/2018/08/13/13-…

cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2895…

Ladybird book pictures on request. ‘A sea of porridge’ The Magic Porridge Pot, 1971 Artist: Robert Lumley

According to ZSL Library it's #WorldHippoDay, so here's Harrison Weir's wonderful chromolithograph of one, from "The Pictorial Cabinet of Marvels," 1878 victorianweb.org/art/illustrati… (just hoping it's too much of a mouthful for the crocodile!)

DARK FAIRYLAND The entrance to fairyland is said to be in forests, hills, or in mountains. It is associated with the land of the dead in mythology. Mortals who enter may disappear forever unless they are able to perform some task of value to the fae 🎨Doré, 1870

Died #OTD 1875, the artist Robert William Buss, leaving unfinished his best known work: "#Dickens's Dream." Take a closer look: which of these iconic characters can you identify? victorianweb.org/art/illustrati…

It’s finally happened. This recommendation is a career highlight. (I have a new book out, by the way!)

Aphantasia: education’s blind spot in teaching reading tes.com/magazine/teach…

Have you ever thought about what you see — or don’t see — in your mind’s eye when you read? Take a look at this piece I’ve just written about aphantasia and reading: tes.com/magazine/teach…

'Ghosts among the philosophers - Cambridge, home of analytic philosophy, was also a hotbed of psychical research. How did this spooky subject take root?' (the 'ectoplasm' featured is in the archive of the SPR, held at Cambridge University Library): aeon.co/essays/when-ps…

Randolph Caldecott was born on this day, March 22, in 1846. In Maurice Sendak’s words, Caldecott’s balance of pictures and words heralded “the beginning of the modern picture book”.

A new case of anthropodermic binding ⁦Ken Gibb⁩ Who was the Suffolk Red Barn murderer Willam Corder? - BBC News bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…