"If you go to the shelf on Austen in a university library, there are a lot of books of literary criticism about her novels. Most of those published in the last forty years focus on what the books are about, with remarkably little about how she writes." philosophersmag.com/how-good-was-j…

‘Flight Past’ Gillian Mowbray English painter Love the almost stained glass alike colours Acrylic artworks ‘bringing calm and tranquility’ say the critics. Right again says I .

A miraculous survival 😲 This late medieval fish trap was found in the Tower of London’s moat 🐟 It is made from woven willow twigs, with two large pieces of flint to help it sink. It was discovered in the 1990s during an archaeological dig 🪏 #InsideTheTower

This was excellent. Hope to get word when the lecture is published. #janeausten

Reader card renewed for the first time after the hack. Nice to be back!

Today, Clutching My Pearls is clutching pearls over a BBC #Shakespeare documentary I saw recently. lonamanning.ca/blog/cmp236-co…

"The first thing I did after reading Emma was reread Emma... I’d morphed from the kind of person who lies about reading Jane Austen novels into the kind of person who rereads Jane Austen novels." A fine editorial about #JaneAusten. commonwealmagazine.org/nixon-emma-jan…

"The Revealer of Secrets, or the House that Jack Built," is an 1817 novel narrated by a house. The latest at Clutching my Pearls. link in next.

All I want for Christmas is ... a good book! But which one? As Christmas is drawing ever nearer, we thought we might aid the present buying dilemma, with the help of our guests. Derek Birks - Author and I pick the brains of Kathryn Warner, Patricia Bracewell, Helen Castor,Scott Mariani,

“Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, by P. G. Wodehouse: The idyllic, imaginary world of foolish Bertie Wooster and his intrepid gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves, is both completely unbelievable and totally credible. And if Wodehouse doesn’t make you laugh, you have

I’ve got 50 minutes to make it look like I’ve been flossing for the last 6 months

Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler in the perfect scene from the marvelous "Dinner At Eight" (1933) I adore this film -are you a fan?

I don’t have an advent calendar so I’m just opening cupboard doors and eating what’s in there.

Many, though not all, products and services are becoming more abundant in the United States. Those becoming less affordable—medical care, childcare, and college education—are also the ones most heavily influenced by government intervention. humanprogress.org/time-pricing-m…

Woman of the Day diplomat Aracy de Carvalho, born OTD in 1908 in Brazil, the only Brazilian woman recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. She was head of the visa section of the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg and became a resister when the coordinated nationwide

The Male Choir from Treorchy, Wales, singing Myfanwy in a pub on a 1986 TV show called Corau Mawr and reenacting their origins when the choir formed in 1883. Myfanwy" is a secular love song, specifically a "saddest love song" or lament, popular with Welsh male voice choirs.