Next week, I’ll be giving my first conference presentation in five years, and this time under the mantle of my new profession. … More Hands off – it’s ours! Taking back the reins.
The difficulties of dealing with involuntary celibacy, from desolation to misogyny, seem to haunt some of Andrew Marvell’s most famous lyric poems. … More Was Marvell a seventeenth-century ‘incel’?
Review of Kate Loveman, Samuel Pepys & His Books: Reading, Newsgathering & Sociability, 1660-1703 (Oxford University Press, 2015). … More Samuel Pepys and His Books
Hanya Yanagihara’s enrapturing novel A Little Life (2015) finds astonishing depths in suffering and the efforts to make it tolerable. … More A Little Life
I was reminded this week how nerve-wracking it can be getting to grips with a master’s, and why I have my supervisor to thank for it. … More Learning a new language
My job deserves my attention right now rather than my pension, and it’s hard not to feel bad for that. I hope the strikers will forgive my stance too. … More Why I’m not striking for USS
2017 had a bit of everything – old, new, borrowed and blue. In the end, it left me in a much better place. … More Arrows of Peace: An Epilogue, 2017
Keane frontman Tom Chaplin provides a warm and thought-provoking approach to Christmas. … More Tom Chaplin, Royal Festival Hall, 12 December
“A committed attempt to add something different to the pop landscape.” A review of Alphaville’s latest album, Strange Attractor (Universal, 2017). … More Review of Alphaville, Strange Attractor (2017)
Driving common sense into smart but obstinate people is enough to drive anyone mad. Jonathan Pie is the angry, frustrated journalist trying to make some inroads. … More Jonathan Pie, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 3 March 2017
