Helen Greetham 🐝

29 May

I'm a writer, illustrator and game developer from the UK who wears lots of hats, figuratively and literally. I often write stories that are gentle and comforting, but thematically deep and drenched in my love of history and literature. More about me and my projects!⬇️

20h

I guess sometimes in life you love a fictional detective so much that it kind of looks like money laundering to a mortgage broker.

Really feeling in the mood to put down all machinery hurtful to the commonality today.

If you want some old tea from the world of British comics studies - about ten years ago I submitted an abstract for a conference in Oxford. It was accepted, but at the time I was earning 20k and living in the London commuter belt, and I only had the legal minimum of annual leave days.

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We talk comics. He talks about the event. I say that I'd like to speak at it sometime. "I'll turn down that offer. We want people who can speak to the academic side of comics." I think about my education in anthropology, my day job, my creative practice How am I not academic enough for this man?

Was it the lack of a first? Something I said? My accent? My gender? It showed me that you can fight and fight for legitimacy, to be in "the room where it happens", and the gatekeepers still won't let you in. The dessert was a really nice cheesecake. We drank port.

I attended my college 'gaudy', a ten year reunion meal. (I did my undergrad at Oxford, propped up with bursaries as someone from a 'low income household'.) Over our smoked salmon, I found out the person sitting next to me was an organiser of the event I'd had to turn down.

I tell him how I studied archaeology and anthropology at undergrad. "Ah, but were you any good at it? did you get a first?" "I got a 2:1" He laughs. I'm embarrassed. I think I was good at it, actually.

The conference charged a larger fee for speakers than attendees, and I realised the fee + a lost day of work + transport to Oxford on a weekday was just not possible for me. I sadly declined the opportunity.

@toonholechris.bsky.social

Skip forward a few years and I'd had some successes in the world of indie comics. I had an agent, I'd had some work exhibited at the British Library, I'd given talks at some comics events. I work at a university.

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

toonholechris

For my next trick…

Seeing subtle but classic signs that the house buying/moving is starting to stress me out (Strong desire to reread the Lord of the Rings and play Civilization VI.)

store.steampowered.comThe Museum of Everything on SteamThe Mona Lisa is missing! Sleuth through a sprawling space museum, read the past through psychic abilities and unravel an interstellar art caper in this cosy, gas‑lamp mystery.

Six months ago I rushed through making a placeholder Steam page for The Museum of Everything, wanting to avoid a situation that happened with Beekeeper's Picnic where a post went viral on social media before I had anywhere to direct people who wanted to wishlist.

At the time the game was in the same retro pixel art style as the Beekeeper's Picnic, but after I did the Steam cover art... I realised I wanted the whole game to look like that. And now it does, so I've finally updated the placeholder page! store.steampowered.com/app/4577990/...

Interior design reddit is teaching me that those who want a chimney breast do not have one, and those with a chimney breast are trying to get rid of it. It's all very poetic.

Absolute horror, I uploaded a game trailer to Instagram and noticed it had "auto-translated". I thought that meant subtitles. Nope. It had automatically dubbed over the voice actors performances with AI. It was still (vaguely) their voices, just speaking other languages. So ghoulish.

I scrambled to figure out how to turn it off (you can, phew), and looked to see if there's a way to disable that feature on an account level - there isn't, you have to remember to manually disable it for each individual post.

Something for anyone posting clips of voice actors performances to be aware of, I guess - your innocent attempt to promote your work can result in stupid Meta generating AI simulacrums of people's voices without their permission. 🤷

store.steampowered.comSave 40% on The Beekeeper's Picnic - A Sherlockian Adventure on SteamBeekeeper (and former world’s greatest detective) Sherlock Holmes is arranging a surprise picnic for his friend Watson. Unfortunately pesky mysteries keep getting in the way! Explore, find clues and i...

The Beekeeper's Picnic is 40% off for the Steam sale! Gayming Award nominated cosiness! store.steampowered.com/app/2248890/...

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

Rickard Sisters

@rickardsisters.com

On this day 130 years ago, died the poet, artist, publisher and activist William Morris. You likely have something in your home with a Morris & Co design on it. I bet your bedroom looks like this.

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

Casey S. Pumpkins 🎃

@caseyexplosion.bsky.social

Replying to @caseyexplosion.bsky.social

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a magnificent folk horror point and click adventure that I highly recommend. I'm still working on my video essay about the game, which I hope will be ready in time for Halloween, but maybe don't wait for that and pick this up beforehand? It's really good!

store.steampowered.comSave 65% on The Excavation of Hob's Barrow on SteamThe Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a folk horror narrative-driven adventure. Explore the isolated moors of rural Victorian England as you uncover the mysteries of Hob's Barrow. The answers lie in the s...

Thank you so much!!! ❤️ It's such a cool anthology with so many amazing artists and writers, I was delighted to get to be part of it.

GBGames 🍊@gbgames.com

I am reading Failure to Launch (finally at the top of my To Read pile) and found Bagels in Space by @jabbage.bsky.social to be delightfully illustrated. My favorite part is the moviegoer shushing the narrator.

OHHHH how beautiful, wow!!! All the different colours in there!!! This is so lovely.

Mycena_Pelianthina@mycenapelianthina.bsky.social

A few months ago, I played and completed "The Beekepers Picnic" by @jabbage.bsky.social and fell in love with the animated pixel portraits. I decided I absolutely wanted to recreate all of them in cross stitch, starting with Watson. Thank you for the wonderful game!

Continuing to soothe myself from the stresses of trying to buy a house by designing the inside of potential future house.

And the other side...

thewonderroom.ukBig Life Stuff — The Wonder RoomIn my hemisphere of the world it's officially the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! You can decide for yourselves whether I'm quoting celebrating poet John Keats , or whether I'm quoting PG Wo...

My September newsletter is out! In which I reflect on stumbling around in the dark on a creative journey, and share some big life news. www.thewonderroom.uk/blog-2/big-l...

BBC television's Sherlock would make some pretty bad assumptions about me based on my front door lock.

Data centres make me want to apologise personally to William Blake for finding his 'dark satanic mills' line funny when I heard it as a kid. I'm sorry that 200 years later we're still finding ways to build things that destroy the environment, scar the landscape and exploit workers.

The creator crossover I didn't know I needed. Of course that's what Tove Jansson's Gollum looks like.

Oh hey, it's the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

I get a bit self conscious that I don't really watch TV. It sounds like I'm being a snob, but I just don't have a slot in my very screens-focussed life when I... do that?

21 Sept

The University of Birmingham Main Library Virtual Tour is now available! This is a huge project I've been involved with to create a resource to allow visitors to virtually 'walk' through the entire building, with photos, videos, and lots of useful info. www.thinglink.com/view/scene/2...

thinglink.comThingLink

21 Sept

I was primarily involved in the resources for our research reserve (aka. "The bit of the library which really smells properly like a library"), which gave me an exciting chance to become more familiar with various treasures which I didn't know were right under my feet every day!

indie-hive.comTop Picks 2025 - 10 Favourite Indie Games from 2025! - Indie HiveIndie Hive choose our ten top picks from the vast array of fantastic indie games we've had the opportunity to review throughout 2025.

18 Sept

I'm trying to work out if beginning my house-buying search and then immediately buying a house identical to the one I've rented for eight years is the coward's way out, or absolute genius.

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

Indie Hive

@indie-hive.com

18 Sept

It's #FollowFriday, so here are some devs who featured in our top indie game picks article 2025. Check them out! #IndieGames #IndieDev @jessemakkonen.com @hitheryongames.bsky.social @badvikinggames.bsky.social @indiesruption.bsky.social @jabbage.bsky.social indie-hive.com/top-picks-20...

17 Sept

Why make game take so long? 🫠

crescent-theatre.co.ukEvent Details - Crescent Theatre

17 Sept

Guess who is playing the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol at the Cresent Theatre this December? 🙋 If you're Birmingham adjacent, you can get tickets here! www.crescent-theatre.co.uk/event-detail...

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

Postmodern Adventures

@postmodernadv.bsky.social

17 Sept

This museum was integrated into The Dark Rites of Arkham for several reasons. One was narrative: you’ll have to solve a puzzle there. Another was to give those unfamiliar with H.P. Lovecraft a quick introduction to his themes and obsessions. 🧵

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

Hurst Publishers

@hurstpublishers.bsky.social

15 Sept

👀 📚 Just following the advice of the Cambridge experts: 'Reading for pleasure can improve health and wellbeing at any age and regardless of what you read.' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.ukReading for pleasure can improve wellbeing, Cambridge study findsUniversity of Cambridge academics say reading at any age improves brain and mental health.

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

David K. Barnes

@davidkbarnes.com

10 Sept

Now look here. If you missed Wooden Overcoats: Rudyard on the Moon, then you can still stream it until the 20th! I reckon it was the best live show we've ever done, so have a gander at the trailer below to see some snippets! Undertakers + Moon = sitcom (hopefully)

Wooden Overcoats@woodenovercoats.bsky.social

Rudyard on the Moon, recorded at the London Podcast Festival, is available to stream until 20 September. www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/pod... [ Music courtesy of classicals.de ]

13 Sept

Is the fandom name for fans of EW Hornung's Raffles stories "The Pre-Raffles-ites", because it should be.

12 Sept

I'm going to apologise right now for all Beekeeper's Picnic players. In the game if you try to submit an entire beehive frame to the competition (rather than processed honey in a jar), it's treated like a very silly idea, but this show genuinely does have a whole category for that.

9 Sept

I was speaking to a mortgage advisor and mentioned entirely neutrally that I don't have any financial dependants, and his response was to say "Oh, but I'm sure you will, one day!" 😣😣😣

9 Sept

Clearly I needed to be given hope that one day soon I could shed my unwanted independent spinsterhood and become the true final form of all women: a mother.

9 Sept

There are lots of ways someone might become financially responsible for another human and I don't think it's a good idea to wish any of them onto a total stranger in a professional setting.

4 Sept

This was a lovely interview, I really enjoyed myself. Thank you so much for all your thoughtful questions!

This post is unavailable.

3 Sept

Yorkie Raisin and Biscuit is the best chocolate bar and I had no idea until they dropped their stupid "It's not for girls" marketing and I no longer felt I had to boycott them.

I feel like I'm enough of a known Christmas Carol fan that I should give my two cents. Scrooge isn't an evil cackling villain who steals candy from babies. He's entirely above board. He's a businessman who pays his employee an average wage and doesn't keep him beyond his contracted hours.

He might not give charitable donations, but he pays his taxes which are used to support the welfare system. He's frugal to the point of miserliness with his own money, but it IS his money to do what he likes with, acquired legally. Dickens' point is that this isn't enough.

Lapworth Museum of Geology

He (and we) should be making kindness and the welfare of others our 'business', and wealth and power come with a responsibility to do so. It doesn't surprise me that people with the clout to make a tv show would go "I can see myself in this picture... what if Scrooge was right, actually?"

Helen Greetham 🐝 reposted

@lapworthmuseum.bsky.social