Timothy C. Baker
@timothycbaker.bsky.social
Lectures on Scottish and contemporary literature, writes about animals, tries to be hopeful. He/they. Currently trying to open a cinema in Aberdeen.
This is going to be pretty useful for all of you and your students! Available for pre-order now! www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
The Cambridge Companion to British Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945 | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
November 26, 2025 at 1:32 PM
This is going to be pretty useful for all of you and your students! Available for pre-order now! www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
"you'll be visited by three spirits"
the three spirits:
the three spirits:
November 25, 2025 at 9:24 PM
"you'll be visited by three spirits"
the three spirits:
the three spirits:
Another plug for my BookWeek Scotland event on Friday, talking about Nan Shepherd's Aberdeen contemporaries and pals. (My name is Timothy Baker, not Barker, and it's Lyn, not Lynn, Irvine, but so it goes...) www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Nan Shepherd and her friends
Friday 21 November | 14:30-15:30 - Aberdeen Central Library, Aberdeen
www.scottishbooktrust.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Another plug for my BookWeek Scotland event on Friday, talking about Nan Shepherd's Aberdeen contemporaries and pals. (My name is Timothy Baker, not Barker, and it's Lyn, not Lynn, Irvine, but so it goes...) www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-sc...
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
These policies, where they aren't just reiterating ones which already exist in a differently worded form, are just plain idiotic.
They show not only a complete disregard for people's lives, or basic humanity, but also reality. 1/
www.gov.uk/government/p...
They show not only a complete disregard for people's lives, or basic humanity, but also reality. 1/
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Restoring Order and Control: A statement on the government’s asylum and returns policy
www.gov.uk
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
These policies, where they aren't just reiterating ones which already exist in a differently worded form, are just plain idiotic.
They show not only a complete disregard for people's lives, or basic humanity, but also reality. 1/
www.gov.uk/government/p...
They show not only a complete disregard for people's lives, or basic humanity, but also reality. 1/
www.gov.uk/government/p...
I probably won't bother seeing the Fennell Wuthering Heights, when there's a very good Andrea Arnold version right there, but darned if this soundtrack isn't shaping up to my album of 2026.
November 17, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I probably won't bother seeing the Fennell Wuthering Heights, when there's a very good Andrea Arnold version right there, but darned if this soundtrack isn't shaping up to my album of 2026.
Today on my run an older couple were calling their dog, whose name seemed to be either ‘Glasgow’ or ‘Costco’, and either way, a choice.
November 15, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Today on my run an older couple were calling their dog, whose name seemed to be either ‘Glasgow’ or ‘Costco’, and either way, a choice.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
University of Vibes with Institutions of X, Y and Z 🫠
academeblog.org/2025/11/13/t...
My colleague has captured what is currently happening at my institution. I have found the chipper rhetoric announcing it particularly depressing.
My colleague has captured what is currently happening at my institution. I have found the chipper rhetoric announcing it particularly depressing.
The Eternal Synergy of the Spotless Mind
BY ADAM RZEPKA A large public university is wiping out all of its humanities departments. It isn’t sure why. As I write this, our Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS…
academeblog.org
November 14, 2025 at 10:42 PM
University of Vibes with Institutions of X, Y and Z 🫠
These Dundee students do a great job articulating how university staff cuts impact student experience - every HE Senior Manager should read this. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
How is the dispute at Dundee University affecting students?
Students say they are feeling the effects across studios, classrooms and workshops.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
These Dundee students do a great job articulating how university staff cuts impact student experience - every HE Senior Manager should read this. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It's perhaps a little cliché to read James Baldwin's Another Country at twenty and have it change your life, but I did and it did. And I didn't reread it for ages and now am on my third read in three years, and there's so much troubling and difficult about it but it is just so much the making of me.
November 11, 2025 at 8:50 PM
It's perhaps a little cliché to read James Baldwin's Another Country at twenty and have it change your life, but I did and it did. And I didn't reread it for ages and now am on my third read in three years, and there's so much troubling and difficult about it but it is just so much the making of me.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
I’m excited to return to Aberdeen University, where I studied for my PhD a long time ago. I’ll be discussing Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho before the library’s wonderful exhibition Fear and Fascination closes.
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
TALK: Lifting the Veil on Ann Radcliffe's 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' - Professor Angela Wright
We are delighted to welcome Professor Angela Wright for the final event as part of the Fear and Fascination Gothic Exhibition programme. This talk is a collaboration with the Centre for the Novel and ...
www.abdn.ac.uk
November 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I’m excited to return to Aberdeen University, where I studied for my PhD a long time ago. I’ll be discussing Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho before the library’s wonderful exhibition Fear and Fascination closes.
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
I am halfway through Flashlight, and it is excellent; I also very much liked The Land in Winter. Here endeth my thoughts on the Booker.
November 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
I am halfway through Flashlight, and it is excellent; I also very much liked The Land in Winter. Here endeth my thoughts on the Booker.
I agree with the calls not to get complacent, but for the moment, I'm just really happy.
November 10, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I agree with the calls not to get complacent, but for the moment, I'm just really happy.
Aberdeen friends! I’m going to be talking about Aberdeen friends (Nan Shepherd and Agnes Mure Mackenzie, mainly) for Bookweek Scotland. Come if you can! aberdeencity.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...
Book Week Scotland: Nan Shepherd and her friends | Aberdeen City Libraries
In recent years, Nan Shepherd has often been imagined as a solitary walker and
writer. This talk by Dr. Tim Baker looks at the importance of female friendship
in her writing and life, placing She...
aberdeencity.spydus.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Aberdeen friends! I’m going to be talking about Aberdeen friends (Nan Shepherd and Agnes Mure Mackenzie, mainly) for Bookweek Scotland. Come if you can! aberdeencity.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...
I bought Liadan Ní Chuinn's Every One Still Here knowing nothing about it other than that everyone said it was amazing, and oh gosh, this is amazing.
November 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I bought Liadan Ní Chuinn's Every One Still Here knowing nothing about it other than that everyone said it was amazing, and oh gosh, this is amazing.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
Yes! I wonder if there is a word in German (or perhaps Welsh) which captures the feeling of watching episodes of Morse in the late afternoon?
November 1, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Yes! I wonder if there is a word in German (or perhaps Welsh) which captures the feeling of watching episodes of Morse in the late afternoon?
If anyone does a full taxonomy of emotions, I’d propose the very specific sadness soothed only by ITV crime dramas for the list. (Just started Unforgotten. It’s fine! Soothing!)
October 31, 2025 at 11:34 PM
If anyone does a full taxonomy of emotions, I’d propose the very specific sadness soothed only by ITV crime dramas for the list. (Just started Unforgotten. It’s fine! Soothing!)
It’s a wonder of a novel.
Don't exactly know why this popped into my head but if anyone on #BookSky is looking for an INCREDIBLE work of historical fiction that kinda shreds a lot of the usual mechanisms of the genre but is also wise & kinda quiet I recommend The Corner that Held Them portersquarebooks.com/book/9781681...
portersquarebooks.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:06 PM
It’s a wonder of a novel.
This week I saw Emma Pollock (tiny gig in Aberdeen) and Gillian Welch (big gig in Glasgow), and a) my music taste in my 20s was really excellent and I picked right, but b) it now feels weird to have a night without weeping/reliving the last 30 years at a gig.
October 30, 2025 at 7:05 PM
This week I saw Emma Pollock (tiny gig in Aberdeen) and Gillian Welch (big gig in Glasgow), and a) my music taste in my 20s was really excellent and I picked right, but b) it now feels weird to have a night without weeping/reliving the last 30 years at a gig.
I'm not going to buy a first US edition of The Quarry Wood, but I like this cover so much more than any of the paperback reprints.
October 27, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I'm not going to buy a first US edition of The Quarry Wood, but I like this cover so much more than any of the paperback reprints.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
Barker called me up one night and without preamble said "It's opinions, not onions. Not onions. This is Clive Barker. I've been trying to track down and stop this error in editions for decades. OPINIONS."
(It wasn't until Jeff and Ann VanderMeer were working on their anthology The Weird that I learned that "onions" is a typo. Either Jeff or Ann mentioned to me that Barker asked them to fix the typo that had haunted the story in countless reprintings, incl in their own earlier antho The New Weird.)
October 25, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Barker called me up one night and without preamble said "It's opinions, not onions. Not onions. This is Clive Barker. I've been trying to track down and stop this error in editions for decades. OPINIONS."
Okay, I’ve broken. Closing the flat window, for my toes is froze.
October 25, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Okay, I’ve broken. Closing the flat window, for my toes is froze.
I've no beef with your Pynchons and your Danielewskis, but Janice Galloway's The Trick is to Keep Breathing takes bigger risks than any of that crowd. Every time I read it I find it impossible and new.
October 24, 2025 at 6:14 PM
I've no beef with your Pynchons and your Danielewskis, but Janice Galloway's The Trick is to Keep Breathing takes bigger risks than any of that crowd. Every time I read it I find it impossible and new.
'"This is horrifying and I want to go home," I said, although I pronounced it, "Ah, I see."'
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
October 15, 2025 at 8:45 PM
'"This is horrifying and I want to go home," I said, although I pronounced it, "Ah, I see."'
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...
October 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM
It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...