Adventures in Imagination: The Art and Writing of Kirstin Mills

A Sketch for Mad Hatter Day!

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…)

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…)

Designing a Logo for Macquarie University’s Literature Podcast

August 12, 2017 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Art & Illustration No Comment

One of my favourite things is when my artistic and academic worlds collide, and I get to delight in my passions for drawing, books, photography and academia all at once! This year I was excited to be asked to design a logo and photographic material for ‘From the Lighthouse’, a new literature podcast from the Department of English at Macquarie University in Sydney (where I also teach). Of course, I jumped at the chance, and so between classes I soon found myself with my sketchbook and a hot chocolate in (more…)

Ballarat: A Victorian Adventure

April 3, 2017 In All Blog Posts Conferences Wanderings No Comment

“We had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang“

– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1891

It was a bright and clear Winter’s day in 2015 when I left Sydney for a short trip to Ballarat – a city, located at the foot of the Grampian mountains in central Victoria, Australia, which even today evokes the ghost of its colonial goldrush origins in a curious blend of historic and modern. I was headed to deliver a paper at the Australian Victorian Studies Association’s “Victorian Margins” conference, but I was also eager to explore a place so steeped in history. (more…)

Magic, Mystics & George MacDonald, Trinity Hall, Cambridge

October 5, 2016 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Conferences Wanderings No Comment

Over three sun-drenched summer days in July of 2016, the magical grounds of Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge, England, cast their spell over a group of scholars who had travelled to this ancient seat of learning in order to explore a fascinating and mysterious history. George MacDonald, Victorian fantasist (more…)

Video: International Scholars at ‘Consuming the Victorians’, Cardiff

September 28, 2016 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Conferences No Comment

The first of two short documentaries filmed and narrated by Kirstin Mills for the BAVS2016 ‘Consuming the Victorians’ conference in Cardiff, Wales. This film traces Kirstin’s footsteps as she travels to Cardiff, Wales and interviews some of the international scholars attending the conference.

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Video: ‘Consuming the Victorians’, A Cardiff Conference

September 26, 2016 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Conferences Wanderings No Comment

The second of two short documentaries filmed and narrated by Kirstin Mills for the BAVS2016 ‘Consuming the Victorians’ conference in Cardiff, Wales. This film traces Kirstin’s footsteps as she travels to and experiences the many and varied aspects of the conference.

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Alice in Wonderland 150th Anniversary, Cambridge

July 7, 2016 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Conferences Wanderings No Comment

What does a week of tea parties, croquet, banquets, and cards, all within the beautiful English gardens of Cambridge University look like? In September 2015, I packed my notebooks, pencils, and my most Alice-in-Wonderlandesque dress into a suitcase and headed for Cambridge to find out. (more…)

George MacDonald, the Inklings, and Victorian Fantasy Conference, Oxford, UK

June 25, 2016 In Academic Research All Blog Posts Conferences Wanderings 2 Comments

In August 2014 I was honoured to travel to the beautiful University of Oxford in England and present my research at The George MacDonald Society 2014 conference, ‘Re-Imagining the Inklings: the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy’. I was particularly excited to present at this conference, since it was so closely aligned with the topic of my own research, and the PhD thesis I had only recently completed the year before. The final chapter of that thesis looks at George MacDonald and Lewis Carroll (among other writers), and the ways that their writing engages with Victorian concepts of dreams, alternative states of consciousness, the supernatural, and early ideas of higher-dimensional space. When offered, I jumped at the chance to present these ideas not only among such expert scholars on George MacDonald and Victorian Fantasy, but also at Oxford – that ancient city of literary dreaming, and the home of many of the world’s most beloved authors, including Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) and the Inklings J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) and C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia). (more…)

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