International Centre for Victorian Women Writers (ICVWW)

Keep the summer reading coming! 'The Drunkard in Victorian Fiction and Culture From Conviviality to Cursed Thirst' by
Pam Lock is just out. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-drunkard-in-victorian-fiction-and-culture.html

All fiction titles from the English Catalogue, Volume 4 have now been added! That means 1862–1889 are complete. Next up: the 1890s...

• 27,471 title entries
• 6,770 author entries (most with bios)

Big thank you to my students from last semester who assisted me to this milestone.

Saw it. Summer. Sorted. https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Ella-Hepworth-Dixon-Sidelights-on-Feminine-Temperament

This looks fascinating!

Redrawing Europe's Literary Map "Redrawing Europe's Literary Map" published on 14 Jul 2026 by Brill.

Thanks to everyone who sang along at the Sensory Humanities symposium (brilliantly organised by Claire Turner). The Ode to Ozone goes to the tune of 'Oh where, or where has my little dog gone?'. Try it if you don't believe us...

Talk by our very own Michelle Crowther coming up!

📣 Announcing our next lunchtime talk: Monday 13th July, 1-2pm — and this time we're celebrating the National Year of Reading! 📖
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''I looked at the grey of it then, I lived in the grey of it now': The rural fiction of S. C. Nethersole' presented by Dr Michelle Crowther (Canterbury Christ Church University)
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📍 Venue: Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone, ME14 1LQ
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About the talk:
Susie Colyer Nethersole (1869-1956) was the author of eight novels set in East Kent and was one of the first authors signed by Mills and Boon in 1908. This talk will explore her works and consider the ways in which she wrote about the Kentish landscape. Although born into a farming family, Nethersole admitted that she had 'never actually gone out with the hoe herself’; however, her attention to detail is finely observed, with the colours of the fields, the flowers, the seasons and the weather creating a rich tableau which her characters inhabit. As one reviewer wrote: ‘here are people who are, bone and flesh, farming folk, in a countryside that is as freshly English as they are’. Nevertheless, her stories are not chocolate-boxy, but grittily realistic. Rural life is tough, and characters struggle as well as thrive, as modernity threatens their traditions. For Nethersole this was her world, albeit often as an observer, but that world could also be grey and monotonous, and it is her 'warts and all' portrayal of Kent's rural past that marks her out as more than just a writer of romance fiction.
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Dr Michelle Crowther is an Academic Librarian at Canterbury Christ Church University and a co-lead of the Kent Maps Online project. Her doctoral thesis explores the works of the Persistent Scribblers Society, a Canterbury-based manuscript magazine society from the 1870s. Her research interests include Victorian and Edwardian literature, manuscript magazines, biography, rural writers, and nineteenth century Canterbury.
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This free talk is part of Kent Libraries and Archives wider support for the National Year of Reading, a nationwide initiative encouraging people to read more for pleasure. The campaign promotes a simple message: “If you're into it, read into it” — and what better way to bring a subject that you love to life than at your local archive?
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📸 Image ID: Shown here is a tinted postcard depicting a view of the Parish Hall at Barham. Published by J. G. Charlton, Photographer, Canterbury. Postmark dated 1909 [ref. KHLC-IMG/PO/1/BAM/UNCAT/1]
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National Literacy Trust | Department for Education | The Reading Agency | BookTrust | The Queen's Reading Room | British Library | British Association For Local History - BALH | Kent Family History Society | North West Kent Family History Society | The Kent Archaeological Society | Visit Maidstone | Maidstone Borough Council | Maidstone Libraries | Kent Libraries, Registration & Archives | The National Archives | Explore Your Archive

This is definitely one to read over the summer (or any other time)!

Exploring the Non-Human and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Writings: Colonial Idols in British Curation and Culture Exploring the Non-Human and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Writings: Colonial Idols in British Curation and Culture examines the curatorial and literary representations of colonial idols in British writings of the long nineteenth century as they emerged in the imperial heartland as alien art, invasi...

The Being Human Festival programme preview has gone live today - and guess who's in the highlights! Better sharpen up your critical thinking skills...

2026 Being Human Festival Programme Preview From soil-powered photography to an escape room in a Victorian prison cell, here’s a snapshot of what you can expect at Being Human Festival 2026.