Lingering Inland: Mark Twain in Dollis Hill

 

Delighted to have an essay in this great collection on Mark Twain's time in Dollis Hill on the edge of London. Also available to read here in The New Territory. Thanks to Andy Oler!

Christmas Media Round-Up 2025

The release of Searching for Santa Claus meant that it was a bumper year for Christmas media appearances, including multiple articles in BBC History Magazine's History of Christmas and Christmas issues, a TV appearance on Anglia News, blogposts for The Conversation on the 40th anniversary of Santa Claus: The Movie and LBC on Christmas giving, an interview for an AP story on the history of Christmas, a return to Brian Earl's Christmas Past podcast, and social media posts for UEA. Let's see what next year brings!

Searching for Santa Claus

 

Available for pre-order now! The first ever anthology of the poems, stories and illustrations that helped shape the Santa Claus that we all know and love. From familiar favourites to delightful obscurities, I've scoured nineteenth century newspapers, books and magazines to provide a definitive portrait of the growth and development of a true global icon. This collection reshapes our understanding of not just a beloved cultural figure but also the development of popular culture in the nineteenth century more broadly. Plus, it's a beautiful Christmas gift book for young and old. 

Here are some kind words about the book from some real Christmas luminaries:

"Much has been written about Santa Claus' origins in European folk and religious tradition, the 'jolly old elf' slipping down an American chimney on the night before Christmas to signal the end of the story. This collection makes it clear that Santa still had a long way to go, evolving along with and very much through American children's literature. We see him as a king, a factory boss, and even as Mother Goose's groom! Especially interesting are the letters to Santa written by real-life nineteenth-century children and the section devoted to the much neglected, and uniquely American, subject of Mrs. Claus. Searching for Santa is both a lovely gift book for serious Santa fans and an important resource for anyone studying the history of American children's literature."
- Linda Raedisch, author of The Old Magic of Christmas.

"Thomas Ruys Smith doesn’t just search for Santa Claus; he finds him in the forgotten corners of the 19th-century American imagination. Searching for Santa Claus is a fascinating trove of stories, poems, and images chronicling the creation of an icon. Essential reading for anyone who’s ever wondered where Santa really came from."
- Brian Earl, host of the Christmas Past podcast and author of Of Christmases Long, Long Ago.
 
"Santa Claus is the most important fictional character in history, a legendary figure who fills our media, drives our economy, and lives in the imagination of millions upon millions of children. In this splendid book, Thomas Ruys Smith traces the development of the magical gift-bringer through the art, poetry, and stories of the nineteenth century. This is a wonderful trip through time for lovers of Christmas and an indispensable anthology for lovers of history."
- Gerry Bowler, author of Santa Claus: A Biography
 
“Like Santa’s annual journeys, Smith’s anthology is exhaustive, including virtually every story about Santa. Collectively they create the story of not only an American icon, but a British icon as well. Anyone interested in the history of Santa Claus should have this on their book shelves.”
- Tom A. Jerman, author of Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers.

More soon!

A Wonder-Book for Girls & Boys: Children's Corner Critical Edition

 

The latest book in our Children's Corner Critical Edition series - as ever, co-produced with our final year students - is available for pre-order now. This timely edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's groundbreaking book of Greek myth for children (first published in 1851) should delight a new generation of rewaders, young and old, and has already garnered some wonderful words of praise:

"This splendid edition will allow new readers of all ages to enjoy Hawthorne’s high-spirited, inventive retellings of ancient myths. The Introduction helpfully relates the collection both to Hawthorne’s own life and times and to today’s remarkable upsurge of interest in classical mythology." - Professor Sheila Murnaghan, editor of Childhood and the Classics: Britain and America, 1850-1965 (Oxford University Press 2018).
 
"This is an excellent edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls that will appeal to children and adults alike. The editors do an excellent job in their thorough introduction and the educational resources for teachers, including prompts, questions, exercises, and projects, are quite impressive. All in all, this is a delightful companion to Hawthorne studies and to children’s studies." - Professor Monika Elbert, Editor, Nathaniel Hawthorne Review.
"Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys is truly a wonder. For over 170 years, it has been introducing children to the realm of myths. Hawthorne not only recounts mythological tales, but also – and above all – teaches empathy and respect for the world. His Wonder-Book is a classic that adults may also want to return to. This new edition provides a wonderful opportunity to embark on such a journey, beyond time and space – into the essence of our humanity. A set of educational resources prepared by the editors provides the readers with materials for in-depth reflections, while the appendix with some extracts from other texts engaged with mythology before and after Hawthorne offers an interesting context. What is particularly valuable about this edition is also the participation of students, who were able to develop their research skills while working on the comprehensive introduction and contribute to giving new life to the Wonder-Book.” - Professor Katarzyna Marciniak, editor of Our Mythical Childhood... The Classics and Literature for Children and Young Adults (Brill, 2016). 
Order now!

Time and Tide Museum: Black Beauty, Anna Sewell and Great Yarmouth

 I'm giving a talk about Mary and Anna Sewell on Friday January 17th at the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth:

Inside the Newport Mansions: Christmas Past

 I appeared on the Inside the Newport Mansions podcast to talk about Christmas Past:

Associated Press: Santa Claus

I spoke to the Associated Press about Santa Claus - available here - which got picked up around the world, including by Time magazine, here. 

USA Today: White Christmases

I'm quoted in this USA Today article about White Christmases:

UN Today Magazine: Here to Sleigh

I'm in this month's UN Today magazine (the magazine of United Nations civil servants) with an article about Christmas traditions around the world. You can read the whole thing here or below.  

Guardian: Christmas Movies

I've been quoted in The Guardian in a fun article about contemporary Christmas movies - enjoy here. 

Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize 2024: Winner

 

Delighted to announced that our edition of Lydia Maria Child's writing for children, co-produced with our students, was awarded The Literary Encyclopaedia's biennial prize for Scholarly Editions.

The full announcement can be found on The Literary Encyclopaedia's pages here and below.

National Geographic History Magazine

I'm quoted in this month's National Geographic History Magazine in an article about the ongoing significance of A Visit from St. Nicholas - a snippet below:

 

Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize 2024: Shortlisted

 

Our collection of Lydia Maria's Child's writing for children has been shortlisted for a Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize in the category: Scholarly editions of works originally in the English language. Results in December!

Frank Stockton: The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales

I'm delighted to say that the fourth book produced in collaboration my co-editor Hilary Emmett, our students, and the UEA Publishing Project, will be published in September as part of the Children's Corner Editions series! This time, we're bringing the groundbreaking fairy tales of Frank Stockton to a new generation of readers, young and old. Professor Jack Zipes, the pre-eminent fairy tale academic, has already described this edition as "simply superb"!  

Order your copy direct from the UEA Publishing Project here.

More advance praise below:

Mary Sewell

During the research that I've been doing on Black Beauty for my project with Redwings Horse Sanctuary, I became so captivated by the neglected life and work of Anna Sewell's mother, Mary, that I have collected some of her poetry in a new edition. Homely Ballads and Stories in Verse: The Poetry of Mary Sewell is the first modern collection of her work. Mary was one of the biggest-selling poets of the Victorian era and it's a privilege to be able to be bring this gathering of her most popular verses back to life. Now available!

Just not cricket: Baseball, youth and national identity in late nineteenth-century children’s magazines

My article "Just not cricket: Baseball, youth and national identity in late nineteenth-century children’s magazines" has just been published in European Journal of American Culture. Here's the abstract:

In the late nineteenth century, baseball became enshrined as America’s national sport. Across American culture, the game became imbued with a series of values and characteristics that seemed redolent of life in the Gilded Age and beyond. This article explores the ways in which this process played out in the pages of popular magazines directed at the children of the nation’s elite. These neglected resources provide us with an extraordinary lens through which to chart both the changing place of the national game within the lives of American children and the changing meaning of baseball within the life of the nation. In poems, stories, illustrations, editorials and even reader’s letters, children were newly acculturated into the sporting life in ways that had profound implications for wider questions of childhood, gender, race, class and national identity.

Transforming Educations Awards: Winner

 

Back in May our ongoing children's literature project (see more here, here and here) won a UEA Transforming Education Award for Employability and Experiential Learning. All of the books published so far through this project are now part of their own UEA Publishing Project imprint, Children's Corner Editions, and are available here.

Seaside Heritage Network

Alongside my colleague Malcolm McLaughlin, I spoke about our work on the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome at a Seaside Heritage Network event - recording below...

'Twas the Night Before Christmas: The Economist

I've been quoted in this article from The Economist about the 200th anniversary of "A Visit from St. Nicholas":

Comparative American Studies: Christmas Special

I've guest edited a special Christmas-themed double-issue of Comparative American Studies featuring a host of excellent articles which reshape our understanding of the place of the holiday in American life and culture and beyond. Available here (plenty of open access too...). Table of contents below.