Dr Penny Goodman
@pjgoodman.bsky.social
Senior lecturer in Roman history. Appreciator of the Gothic. Lib Dem. She / her.
Just picked up my contributor's copy of The Cambridge Urban History of Europe, a MIGHTY three-volume tome extending from antiquity to the present day in which I am lucky enough to have a chapter co-authored with @cpdickenson.bsky.social on Zoning the City.
November 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Just picked up my contributor's copy of The Cambridge Urban History of Europe, a MIGHTY three-volume tome extending from antiquity to the present day in which I am lucky enough to have a chapter co-authored with @cpdickenson.bsky.social on Zoning the City.
Yes, that was a career highlight! 😁
November 11, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Yes, that was a career highlight! 😁
Update: CUP have also signed! 😁
November 11, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Update: CUP have also signed! 😁
A little milestone moment today: I have signed the contract with Cambridge University Press for my book, 'Augustus Around the World: The Bimillennial Commemorations of 1938'. 🥳
November 11, 2025 at 12:27 PM
A little milestone moment today: I have signed the contract with Cambridge University Press for my book, 'Augustus Around the World: The Bimillennial Commemorations of 1938'. 🥳
Classics friends may enjoy this. Some of the Latin pronunciation is a bit weird, but the essence is spot on! 😆
October 13, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Classics friends may enjoy this. Some of the Latin pronunciation is a bit weird, but the essence is spot on! 😆
Thank you to @lindsaypowell.bsky.social for the signed copy of his new biography of Tiberius! I wrote the foreword for it, and was pleased to do so, especially as it's the first biography of Tiberius to give serious attention to his reception history. Congratulations to Lindsay on the publication. 😊
August 30, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Thank you to @lindsaypowell.bsky.social for the signed copy of his new biography of Tiberius! I wrote the foreword for it, and was pleased to do so, especially as it's the first biography of Tiberius to give serious attention to his reception history. Congratulations to Lindsay on the publication. 😊
Sudden realisation: the original poster for The Wicker Man owes quite a visual debt to the one for Hammer's The Mummy. It's mostly the glowing hole in the figure's chest, but also the angle of the body, the shape of the fingers, the small figures to the left and the watery background.
August 6, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Sudden realisation: the original poster for The Wicker Man owes quite a visual debt to the one for Hammer's The Mummy. It's mostly the glowing hole in the figure's chest, but also the angle of the body, the shape of the fingers, the small figures to the left and the watery background.
I believe there's been Discourse lately about how much social media helps authors sell books, so worth mentioning that it was my birthday yesterday and I got these two books by @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social and @pjrobichaud.bsky.social because I'd learnt of their existence here and requested them.
August 3, 2025 at 10:44 AM
I believe there's been Discourse lately about how much social media helps authors sell books, so worth mentioning that it was my birthday yesterday and I got these two books by @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social and @pjrobichaud.bsky.social because I'd learnt of their existence here and requested them.
Matthew Lewis looking good for his age. 😉
June 18, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Matthew Lewis looking good for his age. 😉
If you see this, post a photo from your device with no explanation.
February 13, 2025 at 8:13 PM
If you see this, post a photo from your device with no explanation.
I'm watching The Red King at the moment, a six-part Wicker Man-esque murder series set on a remote island. Was tickled to learn in ep 5 last night that Gruffudd's daughter, Bethan, is at the University of Leeds doing our very real degree in Sustainable Fashion: courses.leeds.ac.uk/j391/sustain...
February 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
I'm watching The Red King at the moment, a six-part Wicker Man-esque murder series set on a remote island. Was tickled to learn in ep 5 last night that Gruffudd's daughter, Bethan, is at the University of Leeds doing our very real degree in Sustainable Fashion: courses.leeds.ac.uk/j391/sustain...
Nosferatu in Love by Jim Shepard has been my most striking read of recent years. It's a fictional biography of F. W. Murnau, with lots of great thinking about queer love, the impact of war, and the nature and possibilities of film as an art form. Stylistically clever too, but not pretentious.
January 14, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Nosferatu in Love by Jim Shepard has been my most striking read of recent years. It's a fictional biography of F. W. Murnau, with lots of great thinking about queer love, the impact of war, and the nature and possibilities of film as an art form. Stylistically clever too, but not pretentious.
The 1979 Yorkshire TV production of 'Casting the Runes' begins with shots of a snowy landscape featuring a canal lock and railway arch, where we see John Harrington dying in the fields of his brother's farm. The recent UK weather meant this was the perfect weekend for a spot of location matching.
January 12, 2025 at 9:20 PM
The 1979 Yorkshire TV production of 'Casting the Runes' begins with shots of a snowy landscape featuring a canal lock and railway arch, where we see John Harrington dying in the fields of his brother's farm. The recent UK weather meant this was the perfect weekend for a spot of location matching.
Not really! Here's one my brother-in-law made a few years ago. It's not chunks of steak in a sauce, but a joint of best beef, so that each individual slice of the beef wellington is like a steak in its own right. Incredibly flavoursome and tender. I'm sure a mushroom-substitute can be found, too.
December 9, 2024 at 5:36 PM
Not really! Here's one my brother-in-law made a few years ago. It's not chunks of steak in a sauce, but a joint of best beef, so that each individual slice of the beef wellington is like a steak in its own right. Incredibly flavoursome and tender. I'm sure a mushroom-substitute can be found, too.
This comment immediately made me think of this picture.
December 6, 2024 at 10:35 AM
This comment immediately made me think of this picture.
The block where I live does advent windows, and today is my day. So here's this year's design - a nice cheery Mari Lwyd. 😊
December 5, 2024 at 8:25 AM
The block where I live does advent windows, and today is my day. So here's this year's design - a nice cheery Mari Lwyd. 😊
I spent a very congenial afternoon yesterday in the Red Deer pub in Sheffield. They had a roaring fire, good food, and a massive collection of beer-mats on the ceiling. Here are a few of the Classically-themed ones.
November 24, 2024 at 2:37 PM
I spent a very congenial afternoon yesterday in the Red Deer pub in Sheffield. They had a roaring fire, good food, and a massive collection of beer-mats on the ceiling. Here are a few of the Classically-themed ones.
3. What I think of as 'The Surprisingly Buff Augustus', set into the retaining wall of the square outside the Quirinal Palace, built by Pius IX in 1866. It's clearly modelled on the recently-discovered Prima Porta statue, but through a weirdly idealising, aestheticising, perhaps homoerotic lens.
November 18, 2024 at 7:37 PM
3. What I think of as 'The Surprisingly Buff Augustus', set into the retaining wall of the square outside the Quirinal Palace, built by Pius IX in 1866. It's clearly modelled on the recently-discovered Prima Porta statue, but through a weirdly idealising, aestheticising, perhaps homoerotic lens.
2. The bronze statue of Augustus erected by the Fascist regime in the early 1930s in front of the remains of his forum. It's based on an ancient marble statue found at Prima Porta in 1863, but tries to be more 'authentic' than that by recreating the appearance of a presumed lost bronze original.
November 18, 2024 at 7:37 PM
2. The bronze statue of Augustus erected by the Fascist regime in the early 1930s in front of the remains of his forum. It's based on an ancient marble statue found at Prima Porta in 1863, but tries to be more 'authentic' than that by recreating the appearance of a presumed lost bronze original.
1. A rather bling modern bust standing on a table in the lobby of the hotel where I was staying. It's just standard Italian hotel decor really, but as I had come to Rome partly to do Augustus-related research, it made me smile to find he was waiting there in the hotel lobby, checking up on me. 😉
November 18, 2024 at 7:37 PM
1. A rather bling modern bust standing on a table in the lobby of the hotel where I was staying. It's just standard Italian hotel decor really, but as I had come to Rome partly to do Augustus-related research, it made me smile to find he was waiting there in the hotel lobby, checking up on me. 😉
Fixed taxi fares from Ciampino airport into Rome. So the Aurelianic Wall remains a meaningful urban boundary eighteen centuries after it was built! ❤️
November 12, 2024 at 8:17 PM
Fixed taxi fares from Ciampino airport into Rome. So the Aurelianic Wall remains a meaningful urban boundary eighteen centuries after it was built! ❤️
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,373,296!
I'm hardly one of the most active, but I am here reading. 😊
I'm hardly one of the most active, but I am here reading. 😊
September 17, 2024 at 9:48 AM
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,373,296!
I'm hardly one of the most active, but I am here reading. 😊
I'm hardly one of the most active, but I am here reading. 😊
For tonight's election watch with the boyf. One cake each to be eaten when the first seat is declared for Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and Other, plus a @countbinface.bsky.social wildcard. That goes to the first person to yell "COUNT BINFACE!" on spotting him on TV.
July 4, 2024 at 12:51 PM
For tonight's election watch with the boyf. One cake each to be eaten when the first seat is declared for Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and Other, plus a @countbinface.bsky.social wildcard. That goes to the first person to yell "COUNT BINFACE!" on spotting him on TV.
I'm very pleased to have a chapter in this new book, called 'Retrospective parentage: Augustus as a Father of Europe'. It's about how Augustus has come to be seen in that light when the concept would have baffled him. (Spoiler: it's imperialism!) If you want to read it, drop me a line: I have a pdf.
April 19, 2024 at 9:27 AM
I'm very pleased to have a chapter in this new book, called 'Retrospective parentage: Augustus as a Father of Europe'. It's about how Augustus has come to be seen in that light when the concept would have baffled him. (Spoiler: it's imperialism!) If you want to read it, drop me a line: I have a pdf.
Contributor copies, just arrived today! My chapter is called 'Augustus and his bimillennium in the soft power strategy of the Fascist regime', and I also have a pdf of it. So if you'd like to read it, let me know and tell me where I should send it.
February 1, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Contributor copies, just arrived today! My chapter is called 'Augustus and his bimillennium in the soft power strategy of the Fascist regime', and I also have a pdf of it. So if you'd like to read it, let me know and tell me where I should send it.