Mrs Holmes Taught Sherlock all he Knew:
Uncovering the Truth About Victorian Women Detectives
Dr Sara Lodge,
School of English, University of St Andrews
Date: 21st of January 2026
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation.
From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves.
About the speaker:
Sara Lodge is Senior Lecturer in the School of English at the University of St Andrews, specializing in nineteenth-century literature and culture. She is the author of Thomas Hood and Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Jane Eyre: A Reader’s Guide to Criticism. Lodge has also worked as a speechwriter for the United Nations Secretary-General in New York and, as a journalist, writes regularly for the British and American press.
Image attribution - "Old Dirty Magnifier (48456840831)" by Dejan Krsmanovic is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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The Unlikely Spies of Medieval Europe
Date: 20th of May 2026
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Prof Jenny Benham, Medieval History, School of History, Archaeology & Religion, Cardiff University
Spies were a common feature of political, diplomatic and courtly life in the period of early medieval Europe. In this article, Jenny Benham explores some interesting contemporary representations of spies, in both literature and art. These stories and images reveal key features of the culture and practices surrounding these so-called ‘little birds’ who listened to and passed on important secret information.