Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen) header
Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen) profile picture

Prof Rob Maslen

@DrMaslen

Fantasy, Early Modern Literature, Anime, Life. Blog: The City of Lost Books, https://xitter.gq/t.co/uK5vcuVWX5. He, him

 Glasgow, Scotland
Joined March 2020
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Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)Photo by Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
Just a reminder that The City of Lost Books has moved to a new URL, thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.a…. The old URL is being used for our new Glasgow Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic!
The City of Lost Books

The City of Lost Books

Fantasy MLitt at Glasgow University

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I have now left x. You can find me over at BlueSky.
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Watch She-ra and the Princesses of Power now! It’s a wonderful show and needs your support!
ND Stevenson (@Gingerhazing) profile pictureND Stevenson@Gingerhazing17 Dec 2025
Unfortunately, we’ve known about this for a while, and it’s already happened to several other Dreamworks shows as their licenses with Netflix expire. Years of hard work by many talented crews have ended up without a home. We showrunners have no control over this.
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Over at The City of Lost Books: Christmas illustrations for the most colourful of books in dazzling black and white. A despatch from the past, when I thought of being an artist. With compliments of the season! thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.a…
Jo Heaton, Red Button: A Story for Christmas (c. 1984). Illustrations.

Jo Heaton, Red Button: A Story for Christmas (c. 1984). Illustrations.

In about 1984, at the age of twenty-one or twenty-two, I had thoughts of trying my luck as an illustrator. Unfortunately I’d concentrated nearly all my efforts up to that point on black-and-white p…

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Over at The City of Lost Books: Elizabeth Maslen, Poems on Death. They're much more cheerful than the title suggests! thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.a…
Elizabeth Maslen: Poems on Death

Elizabeth Maslen: Poems on Death

[My mother, who died in September, was interested in death for much of her life. She wrote a number of poems on the subject in the 1970s, some of which were published by Chatto and Windus in a book…

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An article by Alex Hearn in the Jewish Chronicle and linked here tries to retell the history of Cable Street. Here's link to Hearn's article and my reply @hearnimator thejc.com/opinion/the-cable-…
Image from Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 (@MichaelRosenYes)
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In honour of my late mother, Elizabeth Maslen, there's an essay of hers on Storm Jameson and Doris Lessing at the City of Lost Books. It seems right to be promoting it today, when the last volume of Pullman's The Book of Dust is being released... thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.a…
Elizabeth Maslen: ‘Witness Literature’ in the Postwar Novels of Storm Jameson and Doris Lessing

Elizabeth Maslen: ‘Witness Literature’ in the Postwar Novels of Storm Jameson and Doris Lessing

[My mother, Elizabeth Maslen, passed away peacefully on the weekend of 27-28 September 2025, a little after her 90th birthday. Here’s a brief biography, supplementing the one you can find on the we…

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In May this year I had a conversation with Graham Foster about Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946), which he recorded for his brilliant podcast Ninety-Nine Novels. Here it is! anthonyburgess.org/podcasts/… @UofGFantasy @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi @MJRSangster
Ninety-Nine Novels: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake - The International Anthony Burgess Foundation

Ninety-Nine Novels: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake - The International Anthony Burgess Foundation

In 1984, Anthony Burgess published Ninety-Nine Novels, a selection of his favourite novels in English since 1939. The list is typically idiosyncratic, and shows the breadth of Burgess’s interest in...

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If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here: 👇👇👇 fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.… @UofGFantasy @UofGArtsHums
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
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An anniversary blog post at The City of Lost Books: Ten Years of The City of Lost Books! Find out what I've learned and failed to learn in a decade of blogging! @UofGFantasy @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi @MJRSangster thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.a…
Ten Years of The City of Lost Books

Ten Years of The City of Lost Books

On Monday 29 September this blog, The City of Lost Books, celebrated its tenth birthday. This seems like the ideal time for a retrospective, partly because I’m planning to change things here in day…

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Another illustration, another insect!
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
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Stars read @MichaelRosenYes poem ‘Don’t mention the children’ in new film by @savechildrenuk & Choose Love Guy Pearce “Rosen’s brutal commands stare directly into our soul & force us to confront the cruelty of erasing a child, erasing their name, their memory & their life” #Gaza
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My latest effort in the illustration line. That’s a mayfly in the corner!
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
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There's a new blog post over at The City of Lost Books, on Amal El-Mohtar wonderful novella The River Has Roots. Don't read it, though, until you've read the book! @UofGFantasy @MJRSangster @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.a…
Amal El-Mohtar, The River Has Roots (2025)

Amal El-Mohtar, The River Has Roots (2025)

[Warning: this post contains spoilers, and is best read after you’ve read the book!] Amal El-Mohtar’s first solo novella is a work of fantasy, a fairy tale with supernatural beings and magic …

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Prof Rob Maslen retweeted
This Is My Glasgow (@is_glasgow) profile picture
This Is My Glasgow@is_glasgow7 Sep 2025
With the universities starting up again for another academic year, here's three bits of advice for those who are new to Glasgow: 1. Always look up: Glasgow has some amazing architecture, but you have to look up to really appreciate it. Cont./ #glasgow #welcometoglasgow
Image from This Is My Glasgow (@is_glasgow)
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Today’s piece for #TolkienTuesday #TolkienTrewsday examines Tolkien’s Silmarillion “beasts”, dinosaurs, and representations of the prehistoric past in Middle-earth.🦕 Link in 2nd tweet. @UofGFantasy @UofGArtsHums @TolkienSociety @TolkienWonder @FanLit
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
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Today’s piece is a tribute to a beloved children’s author, focusing on his story of The Snail House, illustrated by Gillian Tyler. RIP Allan Ahlberg. Thank you for all the lovely stories! 🐌 🏠 @UofGFantasy @UofGArtsHums @IRSCL_News Link on 2nd tweet
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
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If you want to listen to me waffling about fantasy worlds on @bbc5live (but fair warning: this has in the early hours so was rather sleepy!), link here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002gg… (I'm on from around 2:31:28). Many thanks to @tonylivesey and co for the hospitality! @TolkienSociety
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
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Today’s piece is the first of a series on Beatrix Potter, miniature fantasies, and mice! 🐁 🐁 🐁 Link in 2nd tweet. @UofGFantasy @UofGArtsHums @BeatrixPotterSo @BeatrixPotter @BeatrixPotter__
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
Image from Prof Dimitra Fimi (@Dr_Dimitra_Fimi)
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There’s a wonderful Paula Rego exhibition at the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock, featuring three series of lithographs illustrating nursery rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre. Totally brilliant! @UofGFantasy
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
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I found this wonderful book at the Hyndland Bookshop, Glasgow, which has a fine selection of art books and Nordic writers. I’ve love John Bauer’s work for years and it’s wonderful to have it joined to the fine stories that inspired it. @UofGFantasy @Dr_Dimitra_Fimi @MJRSangster
Image from Prof Rob Maslen (@DrMaslen)
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