Black Beauty: Redwings Horse Sanctuary Edition

March 30th is Anna Sewell's birthday, which made it the perfect moment to announce an exciting project that has been in the works for a while. Working in collaboration with Redwings Horse Sanctuary and the UEA Publishing Project I've edited and written an afterword for a new edition of Black Beauty - pictured above! Rather thrillingly, Jacqueline Wilson has also written an original foreword for the book. Every copy sold will raise money for Redwings and we've got lots more planned for this collaboration. Below, some of the early coverage, including an interview with Radio Norfolk and a feature on ITV Anglia News.

East Anglian Book Awards

 

It was a thrill and an honour to serve as a judge for the East Anglian Book Awards this year. Reading the entries for the The Mal Peet Children’s Award was a complete joy - and an eye-opener too. So many extraordinary creatives producing books for children in the region!

My final shortlist below...

Nineteenth-Century Literature: Enchantments of Waverley

Many years in the making, my article on Walter Scott and the reading lives of nineteenth-century American children is out now in Nineteenth-Century Literature. Abstract below...

UEA Christmas Lectures for Children 2022

Video of our 2022 UEA Christmas lecture for children: A Child's Christmas in Nineteenth Century America:

Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast: Five Little Peppers

In what is fast becoming a Christmas tradition, I went on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast - along with my colleague and co-editor Hilary Emmett - to discuss our new edition of Five Little Peppers. Props to Hilary for the reading!

UEA Christmas Lectures for Children 2022

Well, it's been a decade since I last gave one of the UEA Christmas Lectures for Children, and I'm doing it again! This time, in the company of my colleague Hilary Emmett. We're going to be exploring what A Child's Christmas in 19th Century America was like, drawing on plenty of my research from the last few years and our children's literature publishing project. Get your free ticket here.

Five Little Peppers: Launch Event

This Wednesday we officially launched Five Little Peppers at the wonderful Norwich bookshop Bookbugs and Dragon Tales. It was great to introduce the book the staff and pupils from Queen's Hill Primary. Get your own copy here.

Five Little Peppers

 

I'm thrilled that the second book produced in collaboration my co-editor Hilary Emmett, our students, and the UEA Publishing Project, will be published in November. This time, we're breathing new life into Margaret Sidney's Gilded Age bestseller, Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1882)! As with last year's edition of What Katy Did, students enrolled on our final year children's literature module co-wrote the introduction and were involved in all aspects of the design. Bonus content: this edition also includes two early short stories by Sidney featuring the Pepper children, including the original version of the hard-to-find "Polly Pepper's Chicken Pie", first published in Wide Awake magazine in 1877! 

Order your copy direct from the UEA Publishing Project here.

BrANCA 2022: Pedagogical Possibilities

Had a great time at BrANCA 2022 discussing our new edition of What Katy Did produced in collaboration with our students and the UEA Publishing Project. Here we are! News about this year's edition coming soon!

Review: Journal of Southern History

Deep Water got a great review in the Journal of Southern History. Here are some snippets:

Podcast: Our Missouri

 

I appeared on the State Historical Society of Missouri's Our Missouri podcast as part of their Water and Waterways series, discussing all things Twain and the Mississippi. Check it out below.

Christmas Past: Media Round-Up

A round-up of publicity for Christmas Past. 

First, I wrote a blog post for Louisiana State University Press - available here.

And I was a guest on three of my favourite podcasts - Christmas Past, Weird Christmas, and the Gilded Age and Progressive Era! Thanks to all the hosts for having me on. Embedded below!

Plus, Christmas Past was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, here. 

What Katy Did: Launch Video

Watch here.

What Katy Did: Book Launch

Over the past year I've been working on a very special book project: along with my colleague Hilary Emmett, students from our final year module on nineteenth century children's literature, designer Emily Benton, and UEA's Boiler House Press we've been busy producing a new edition of Susan Coolidge's beloved book for children, What Katy Did. 2022 is its 150th anniversary, so this is timely on a number of levels! Working collaboratively on this new critical edition - the first of its kind - has been a wonderful experience and I'm looking forward to talking more about the genesis and development of the project at our book launch on November 30th at 5pm. You can register for the event, for free, here. And you pre-order your copy here (or here on amazon).

Christmas Past: Facebook Live

To mark the release of Christmas Past I gave a talk as past of LSU's Facebook Live Author Series - available here! More updates soon!

 

Christmas Past: Official Announcement

 

As publication day approaches next month, here's the official announcement that will be hitting inboxes soon. 

Readex: Using Digital Newspapers for Biographical Research

 

Belatedly, my Readex article on Ralph Keeler was included in this free ebook - Using Digital Newspapers for Biographical Research, Volume 1. 

Deep Water: Reviews

Deep Water just got a lovely review in the Journal of American History by Gregg Andrews. Available here for those with access - some choice snippets:

Plus, Joe B. Fulton also reviewed the book for the Mark Twain Journal, and had equally kind things to say about it:

Comparative American Studies: Following the River

I've guest edited a Special Issue of Comparative American Studies dedicated to rivers! Available here for those with institutional subscriptions. Some great work by some brilliant young scholars. Also includes my own essay on Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell's account of a summer on the Thames. That's available here.  

Christmas Past: Catalog Copy

Click to read - full catalog available here.