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Dr Laura Varnam

@drlauravarnam.bsky.social

2.7K followers 1.2K following 1.3K posts

Tutor in English Lit at Univ, Oxford. Medievalist. Poet. She/her. Co-founder @guildmedmak. Church as Sacred Space (2018). Encountering Margery Kempe (2021). Primers Volume Seven: Grendel’s Mother Bites Back (2024). Next books on Du Maurier, and Beowulf.

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 2h

Aw 🥹💞

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 3h

I thought of you immediately!

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 5h

I feel like this will please @ccurran.bsky.social ☝️

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 5h

I was glad to see that the bust of Tolkien from the old English Faculty library is now in the new Schwarzman Centre Humanities Library! 📚

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 9h

I had a lovely time with my new Team English students at our freshers’ dinner last night at Univ! 💙💛 Really looking forward to teaching starting properly on Monday!

Chocolate brownie pudding with strawberries and cream

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 1d

New commemorative Royal mugs for the office collection! 👑👸 (I often find that they are a very pleasing shape to drink from!!) Picked up these beauties in an antique shop in Lyme Regis on holiday last month 💖

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 1d

🤭🤭🤭

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 2d

OMG 😳😂

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Reposted by Dr Laura Varnam

The Guild of Medievalist Makers @guildmedmak.bsky.social · 7d

Those who teach and research Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will be interested in this fantastic research hub concerned with historic and contemporary creative responses to the late medieval poem. They're also looking for contributors, so do get in contact with @michaeledenart.bsky.social! 👇

Representing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Representing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a research hub concerned with historic and contemporary creative responses to the late medieval poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (circa 1370). Illu...

www.representing-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight.com

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 3d

You’ve reminded me that that episode made me want to seek out Charlie Bubbles because it stars Billie Whitelaw, who I was lucky enough to meet a couple of years before she died.

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 3d

It’s really quite something!

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 3d

It sure is! 🤩

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 3d

Made it over to the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities today, the new home of the English Faculty and where I’ll be lecturing this term ✨

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 4d

Academic generosity really DOES matter! We need more of it 💞

Rachael Squire @squirerachael.bsky.social · 9d

Today i'm grateful for a paper reviewer. It got major revisions with critical & challenging comments but they were delivered with kindness, thought & enthusiasm when there were plenty of opportunities (through my own ignorance and clumsiness in the paper) to do otherwise. This generosity matters 👍

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 4d

I love the title ‘She Speaks’- very much in line with my poetic adaptation of Beowulf, the women tell their side of the story!

Veronica Price @vonprice.bsky.social · 4d

Today I’m recommending 2 beautiful #NonFiction titles for #MG readers, both written by #HonorCargillMartin
#SheSpeaks… is published by @magiccatpublishing.bsky.social & #ShakespearesHeroines is published by @hachettechildrens.bsky.social
#UkKidLit

vsviewfromthebookshelves.home.blog/2025/10/05/f...

Fabulous Non-Fiction from Honor Cargill-Martin: Shakespeare’s Heroines and She Speaks: The Women of Norse Myths in their own Words

Cover art by Pauliina Hannuniemi, published by Magic Cat Publishing, 25 September 2025, ISBN:978-1917044813 Cover art by Jaimee Andrews, published by Hachette Children’s Books, 23 October 202…

vsviewfromthebookshelves.home.blog

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 5d

Cracking afternoon watching American football at Tottenham Hotspur! 🏈 Sadly the Cleveland Browns lost (my Dad’s team!) 🧡 but we had a super time, AND the cast of Ted Lasso were in attendance!!! 🤩😱🤯

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 5d

Aw thanks Matthew!! Great to meet you yesterday!

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 5d

This was such a wonderful day! Enormously grateful to @cathamclarke.bsky.social for chairing the discussion & poetry reading with the astonishingly brilliant Caroline Bergvall 🤩 (Such a thrill to share a platform with her!) And I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop session with Catherine too! ✨

Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 5d

I hugely enjoyed hosting a discussion with the brilliant @drlauravarnam.bsky.social & Caroline Bergvall today on creative engagement with #Chaucer and #medieval literature, including readings from their #poetry. Thank you @ies-sas.bsky.social & @englishassociation.bsky.social for an excellent day!

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Oh that’s so good to hear, esp from you, Una! Thank you!

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Hurrah!!! I’m very interested!!

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Oh this is intriguing!!

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Oh thanks so much, Ben! 🥰 Hope they enjoy!

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Yes I am! It’s great.

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you so much! And excellent, I love that! (I have some other versions coming up in my poetry collection too!)

Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 6d

Couldn’t agree more!! 😆