Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 10/08/2026'Having set out to clean the glass of her shop cupboard, I was fired to go on and clean all the windows. She was not as pleased as I was. Indeed, it is seldom that the pleasure of those who are ministered to equals the pleasure of those who minister' Sylvia Townsend Warner, Diary, 10 August 1960 010
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 24/07/2026This was a lovely opportunity to have an extended conversation about the genius of Emily Bronte, in the expert company of Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...podcasts.apple.comThe TLS PodcastSociety & Culture Podcast · Updated twice weekly · A weekly podcast on books and culture brought to you by the writers and editors of the Times Literary Supplement. To read more, welcome to the TLS. ... 000
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 24/07/2026'the awesomeness and strangeness of having exclusive access to yourself, and the place of that self in the cosmos': some thoughts on Emily Bronte's untrammelled mind: www.the-tls.com/lives/biogra...the-tls.comFreeing life from factsA striking image of the actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, from the latest film version of Wuthering Heights, appeared on buses all over the country this spring, advertising a streaming service. N... 000
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Three outstanding memoirs are in the running for this year's TLS Ackerley Prize; Joe Dunthorne Children of Radium, Geoff Dyer Homework and Charlotte Northall Practicing Dying. The winner will be announced at Foyles, Charing Cross Road, on 23 July. eventbrite.co.uk/e/tls-ackerl... 010
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026'Perhaps the strangest answer to the woman question yet proposed' - celebrating Sylvia Townsend Warner's extraordinary debut novel Lolly Willowes, 100 years on: @stwsociety.bsky.social @visiblewomenuk.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...newstatesman.comSylvia Townsend Warner's obscure forcesSylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, published a century ago, is a powerful reverie on women’s interwar status 020
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 02/04/2026A large hoard of unpublished poems was discovered in the attic after Iris Murdoch's death. What did she think about them? My review of the latest addition to her oeuvre in this week's @thetls.bsky.social: www.the-tls.com/literature/p...the-tls.comSoliloquiesIn 2016, the scholars Anne Rowe and Miles Leeson were invited to inspect papers remaining in Iris Murdoch’s last home in Oxford, and among the cobwebbed 0115
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 27/01/2026Some powerfully resonant quotes from 'Salvation by Words' near the end of @backlisted.bsky.social on Iris Murdoch: 'Tyrants always fear art because tyrants want to mystify while art tends to clarify. The good artist is a vehicle of truth' @irismurdoch.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/256...backlisted.fm256. The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch — BacklistedIan Patterson, author of Books: A Manifesto (W&N), returns to Backlisted for a joyful discussion of Iris Murdoch and her sixteenth novel The Sacred and Profane Love Machine  ... 21510
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 13/12/2025This is happening tomorrow! www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...theguardian.comDorset to unveil statue of feminist writer and LGBTQ+ pioneer – and a catTribute to Sylvia Townsend Warner follows campaign to nominate overlooked women 061
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 12/12/2025One of the last stories - possibly the very last? - from the pen of Sylvia Townsend Warner, written in 1977, published this week in @thetls.bsky.social: www.the-tls.com/literature-b...the-tls.comThe Pursuit and the EndProlific and versatile for more than forty years, Sylvia Townsend Warner nonetheless surprised herself when, nearing eighty and recently bereaved, she started writing about fairies and elfins. Her fir... 0114
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 06/12/2025Happy Birthday Sylvia Townsend Warner, born 6 December 1893. Here she is, reciting her poem Gloriana Dying, recorded in Frome Vauchurch in February 1978 by Fraser Steel and Michael Schmidt, two months before her death: poetryarchive.org/explore/?key... 1105
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 04/12/2025Brontë fans and others might enjoy this free online event organised by the wonderful Toronto Public Library Book Club, a midwinter gothic treat in honour of the masterpiece Jane Eyre. Friday 19 December - book now: www.eventbrite.ca/e/classics-o...eventbrite.caClassics of Gothic & Horror: Jane EyreJoin novelist and screenwriter Moira Buffini and critic Claire Harman as they discuss Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece with Naben Ruthnum. 031
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 21/11/20251/12 Jane Austen breaks her silence in celebrity interview! A thread in celebration of #JaneAusten250 Questions posed by The Age: answers from Jane Austen (as told to Claire Harman), illustration by Chris Riddell, from cover of the audiobook, Jane's Fame. 152
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 27/10/202527 October 2025 - To celebrate Jane Austen's 250th anniversary, Jane's Fame, the landmark study of Austen's authorship and reputation history, is now available as an audiobook, read by the author. Available on Spotify, Apple Books, BookBeat, Kobo, Everand & more. 191
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 01/09/2025'What can you make of a person so determined from the start to hold a stand-off with posterity?' - my review of The Letters of Muriel Spark in the September issue of Literary Review: literaryreview.co.uk/fighting-wor...literaryreview.co.ukClaire Harman - Fighting WordsClaire Harman: Fighting Words - The Letters of Muriel Spark, Volume 1: 1944-1963 by Dan Gunn 020
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 09/08/2025Another chance to hear Katie Hims's enchanting 'And Other Stories: Katherine Mansfield', featuring Hattie Morahan as KM, broadcast on R4 this afternoon: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...bbc.co.ukBBC Radio 4 - And Other Stories: Katherine Mansfield, 2. Daughters of the Late Colonel, The Garden Party, Ma Parker & Her First Ball.Stories of a father’s disapproval, a garden party, grief and short-lived joy. 030
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 30/07/2025'Thought followed thought - star followed star Through boundless regions on, While one sweet influence, near and far, Thrilled through and proved us one' Happy Birthday, Emily Brontë, genius poet, born 30 July 1818 040
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 25/07/2025'A young woman made of highly flammable material' - my review of The Letters of Emily Dickinson, for Literary Review: literaryreview.co.uk/postmark-amh...literaryreview.co.ukClaire Harman - Postmark AmherstClaire Harman: Postmark Amherst - The Letters of Emily Dickinson by Cristanne Miller & Domhnall Mitchell (edd) 051
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 01/06/2025'We think she's a moralist, but surely she's far too worldly for that. The degree to which she might be misunderstood is already calculated by the author, and allowed for.' The Real Jane Austen, from 2011: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/notting-hill... 011
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025'Austen’s chameleon quality makes her eminently safe for mass consumption; a life companion, or, if you’re seeking one, life coach'. My review of Janet Todd's Living with Jane Austen, in this week's @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/literature-b...the-tls.co.ukOur secret friendJane Austen’s novels are full of readers: Catherine Morland, Anne Elliot, Charlotte Heywood, Fitzwilliam Darcy, who, piqued at being disturbed by Miss Bingley, reminds her that the most important task... 021
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 23/03/2025I'm delighted to be taking part in this Bronte event at fabulous Seamus Heaney Homeplace, in just two weeks' time. 050
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 14/02/2025On Deborah Levy's 'intellectually flirty' collection of essays, for this week's TLS: www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat...the-tls.co.ukThe Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy | Book review | The TLSThis short collection of occasional writing, gathered from a career spanning more than forty years, provides vivid, albeit oblique, insights into Deborah 010
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 09/02/2025'I, so wary of traps, So skilful to outwit Springes and pitfalls set Am caught now, perhaps' Sylvia Townsend Warner asleep with Thomas the cat, caught by her lover Valentine Ackland. From 'The True Voice of the Heart', now online at journals.uclpress.co.uk/stw/article/... 010
Claire Harman @claireharman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025'The hidden treasure within this story is the powerful, barely expressed knowledge of each other that both the Misses Austen took to their graves'; my Literary Review piece on Gill Hornby's 'Miss Austen', premiering tonight on BBC 1. literaryreview.co.uk/sense-sister...literaryreview.co.ukClaire Harman - Sense & SisterhoodClaire Harman: Sense & Sisterhood - Miss Austen by Gill Hornby 042