People ask why I am fascinated by writing of the English Civil War. I think it’s because of the striking relevance it strikes with the modern age as we know it. … More Solitariness: A Sweet Side-Note
On 21st February, I led a class on Shakespeare for Leicester University’s International Office to a number of international visitors. The class was built around a potent combination that I have discussed before – Shakespeare in Love and the 2009 Hamlet – which gave me an opportunity to reignite my flame for film, play and performance. … More Teaching Shakespeare at Leicester, and Private Observations
It is a great shame that it is so difficult to make personal experience count in professional or academic writing. The first time I attempted genuine research was looking at Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray through the lens of dysmorphophobia, or body dysmorphic disorder. Of course, it wasn’t random reading of somatoform disorder textbooks that brought this match to my attention, but personal experience. … More A Green Thought: Private Minds
Andrew Marvell’s ‘Horatian Ode’ provides a fascinating story in the aftermath of one of the most ‘climacteric’ episodes in English history. What if it was a private poem, and not written for circulation? … More Measuring Privacy: An Horatian Ode
Both professionally and personally, privacy has been a daunting and fascinating topic over the past two weeks. A paper entitled ‘Denying Authorship: Marvell, Maniban and the Quest for Privacy’ was given in Geneva, followed by ‘Marvell in Manuscript and Print: Public and Private Experiences, 1649-1660’ at the University of Hull. … More Presenting Privacy: Marvell and London
Generally positive thoughts on the 2009 film adaption of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. … More “A Mirror Up To Nature”: Hamlet (2009)
Marking the ten-year anniversary of a nasty incident that shaped much of the subsequent decade. … More Circles
There are times when taking nothing seriously is a perfect remedy, and there are many kinds of humour to be found in English Civil War literature. … More Body Schema
J.W. Saunders’ study ‘The Stigma of Print’ (1951) touched an important nerve on the subject of publication. Despite claims that this stance had became ‘unfashionable’ by the mid-seventeenth century, few demonstrate such a ‘stigma’ more than Andrew Marvell. … More Marvell’s Stigma of Print
A book I recently reviewed on royalism states the argument that ‘Defeat, like familiarity, obviously breeds contempt’. I can’t help wondering how much this applies to me now I’ve left my academic post. … More Farewell Frost, (or Waking the Dead)
Writing Privacy 