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‘Mary Shelley’ Film Review: Beauty? Yes! Truth? Not so much… (& new podcast!)
July 4, 2018 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Reviews No Comment

“Her greatest love inspired her darkest creation.” So reads the poster tagline of the 2018 film Mary Shelley, starring Elle Fanning. A creative re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s life leading up to the publication of Frankenstein – the novel for which Shelley is still best known – the film presents itself as a biopic that will reveal “the real life story of Mary Shelley”, which, it posits, is “the life that inspired Frankenstein.” Such a premise sounds wonderful indeed: Mary Shelley deserves a lot more attention, and her life was certainly one of the most exciting, tragic and inspiring that you could read about. Even a chronological reenactment of events recorded in her journals and letters (of which there are many) would reveal a wealth of real-life drama. Certainly too, elements of her life inspired her writing. However, there is one problem (more…)

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Interview: Mary Shelley, Mental Health and Travel Writing
February 17, 2018 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Conferences No Comment

I was recently interviewed by the Keats-Shelley Association of America (KSAA) about my research into Mary Shelley, mental health, travel writing and the gothic, which I presented last September at The Shelleys conference in London. This morning I awoke to the delightful news that the interview has now been published online. This research resonates with me on a very personal level (as you’ll see by reading the interview), so I was deeply touched and heartened to read the wonderful feedback it has already received from some Shelley scholars online.

In the interview I answer three excellent questions about my research posed by Ellen Nicholls, who did a wonderful job of chairing the panel on which I spoke at the conference. My responses explore ideas relating to Mary Shelley’s grief, depression and emotional trauma following the many tragic events in her life, not least the deaths of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and several of their infant children. I discuss what we can learn from the ways that Shelley handles this grief by turning to the dual outlets of travel and creative writing, and the ways that she thereby constructs a space within which to navigate, understand and attempt to heal her mental anguish. I also look at the competing and complimentary influences upon her writings: her blurred personal and professional agendas; the influences of the gothic, sentimental, and epistolary genres; and the perennial question of how close and how equal was the collaboration between Mary and Percy Shelley (my opinion on this is quite strong, in rebuff of a long tradition of overlooking the genius of Mary Shelley in favour of her husband).

You can read the full interview here:

< Shelley Conference: Kirstin Mills on Mary Shelley and the Landscapes of the Mind >

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Alice in Wonderland Sand Sculpture Exhibition – Sydney, Australia, 2018
January 29, 2018 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Reviews No Comment

This January saw the marvellous and topsy-turvy world of Wonderland brought to life in three-dimensional glory in the sun-baked grounds of Blacktown Showground on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. Using more than 250 tonnes of sand, ten Australian and International Sand Sculptors worked for twelve days to create huge sand sculptures depicting characters and scenes from Lewis Carroll’s classic book. Wrought in stunning detail, the sculptures bore a mix of styles (more…)

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Lunar Folklore: Moon Magic, Weather Lore and Science
November 16, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Folklore No Comment

Silver-sickled, celestial, circling satellite suspended in star-slung, far-flung skies.
Full-bellied billowing, voluminously glittering, luminously glistering in lunatics’ eyes.
The thrice-spinning moon threads stories through time, spun with the world-wending wisdom of old.
Prophesying poetry: there is magic in words; the weather-witch speaks of secrets foretold.

‘Lunar Lore’ by Kirstin Mills.

The poem above was inspired by a little nineteenth-century volume of collected Weather Folklore, in which the author, introducing a section on lore of the moon, referred to our luminous orb as a “weather witch.” “The moon too has always had her votaries, as a weather-witch,” he writes, (more…)

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Lewis Carroll’s Letter on Kindness & New Illustration for World Kindness Day
November 13, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Art & Illustration 2 Comments

Today, the 13th of November, is World Kindness Day – a day, established in 1998, to celebrate and embody kindness in all its forms. I truly believe that above beauty, above talent, above success, above wealth, above anything else, one should always strive to be kind. It is the most important trait to nurture, cultivate and value within oneself, and to project outwards into the world.

Many of the world’s most famous authors (more…)

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Werewolves, Witches and Ghosts (Oh My!): New Halloween Podcast Episode
October 27, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts News, Announcements & Events Reviews No Comment

As a Gothic scholar and long-time lover of all things eerie, spooky, and supernatural, I was honoured to chat recently about some of my favourite scary texts and traditions for a new Halloween-themed episode of From the Lighthouse, the podcast run by the English Department at Macquarie University in Sydney. The timing was perfect. A chill has blown over the North of England lately, and as the days grow shorter and the nights longer, it is easy to turn one’s thoughts to what may lurk in the shadows. Pumpkins have sprouted on doorsteps, cobwebs are draped in foggy shop windows, and the last of the golden leaves cling to the spindly fingertips of trees in the woodland graveyard across the road. (more…)

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New Podcast Episode: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 20 Year Anniversary
October 25, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts News, Announcements & Events Reviews No Comment

As someone who grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my Dad would stay up to record it for me when it was aired too late on a school night), I’ve been enjoying the resurgence of Buffy nostalgia around its 20th Anniversary this year (apart from the accompanying shock that, yes, it really has been two whole decades since I would rush home from school and plant myself in front of the TV with my bowl of cereal, eager to watch the episode taped from the night before). With its double-barrelled premise of Gothic Supernatural and a strong female lead, how could I not love this show? But it soon (more…)

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A Sketch for Mad Hatter Day!
October 6, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Art & Illustration 2 Comments

If you’re a fan of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, then today is a rather special day – Mad Hatter Day! In some parts of the world (not any part I’ve ever lived in, but hey, I’ll take any chance for a bit of Carrollian fun!), the 6th of October corresponds to 10/6 – the number on the Hatter’s iconic hat in the original John Tenniel illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s classic book. To celebrate today (and as a wonderful way to unwind after marking essays) I dug out my sketch book and pen, and sketched this quick little portrait of the Hatter. (more…)

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Strawberry Hill: Horace Walpole’s Gothic Fairytale Castle
September 27, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Gothic Landscapes Literary Landscapes: In the Footsteps of Authors & Characters Wanderings 4 Comments

As the crisp London days grew shorter, and Christmas rolled ever closer, I found myself on a train trundling towards the outskirts of London to visit one of the most unique and magical houses in the country. ‘Strawberry Hill’ is an intricate bauble nestled within Twickenham on the banks of the Thames (of whose waters the gardens once boasted picturesque views, though they are now curtailed, juxtaposed instead with surrounding surburban houses). Leaving the street and stepping through the gates is like stepping through a magic portal – not only back in time to the late eighteenth century when the villa and gardens were designed and built (they’ve been beautifully preserved and are currently being expertly, painstakingly restored), but also off into a magical, otherworldly space straight off the pages of a fairy tale (or a Gothic novel). That’s because (more…)

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  • Dr Kirstin Mills, writer, artist, illustrator, travel writer, explorer, academic

    Kirstin Mills is an Australian artist, writer, researcher and perpetual adventurer following her endless curiosity into realms of imagination and wonder. Read more about her life & projects here.

  • Recent Posts

    • Moving Monsters: The First Frankenstein Film, 1910 (Anniversary Series #8)
      October 31, 2018
    • Frankenstein, Galvanism & the Science of Raising the Dead (Anniversary Series #7)
      October 30, 2018
    • Frankenstein's Phantoms: Mary Shelley on Ghosts (Anniversary Series #6)
      October 29, 2018
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    • Moving Monsters: The First Frankenstein Film, 1910 (Anniversary Series #8)
      October 31, 2018
    • Frankenstein, Galvanism & the Science of Raising the Dead (Anniversary Series #7)
      October 30, 2018
    • Frankenstein's Phantoms: Mary Shelley on Ghosts (Anniversary Series #6)
      October 29, 2018
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      October 28, 2018
    • Mary Shelley & her Mother's Ghost: Mary Wollstonecraft's Grave, London
      October 27, 2018
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