I owe much of my interest in the seventeenth century to the late historian, Christopher Hill (1912-2003). I went to see Justin Champion deliver an impassioned defence of Hill and his work at a memorial lecture in Newark. … More Christopher Hill, Andrew Marvell, and the Dissenting Tradition
There is no hard evidence that Andrew Marvell’s ‘Horatian Ode’ ever left his hands. Yet, it may have come to John Dryden’s attention. How is Dryden the privileged one? A brief study of hard and soft evidence. … More Marvell, Dryden, and the Horatian Ode
The 53rd British Milton Seminar took place at the Birmingham and Midland Institute on Saturday 12th March 2016, featuring papers on laughing, smiling, ‘erring’ and commercialising in Paradise Lost. … More British Milton Seminar (March 2016)
Published several decades after the first edition of Johnson’s dictionary, Francis Grose’s ‘A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue’ (1785) contained expressions that were already centuries old. Here’s a short history of a very familiar example, ‘arsy-varsey’. … More Falling Arse Over Tit Through History – A Lexical Journey
A summary of the 51st British Milton Seminar held in Birmingham in March 2015, and the fourth annual Milton lecture, ‘Milton and America’, delivered by Thomas Corns at the Mercers’ Hall in London. … More British Milton Seminar / Milton and America (2015)
New material on Marvell’s ‘Horatian Ode’ excites me more than any other subject, I would wager. It is one of the iconic poems upon which every Marvellian faces his or her own judgement day. … More Reading the Small Print: Marvell’s Horatian Ode
The Fairfax 400 Conference took place at the Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester, on June 30th and July 1st, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the birth of Thomas, Lord Fairfax (1612-1671). … More The Fairfax 400 Anniversary Conference
Andrew Marvell’s ‘The Character of Holland’ was composed, though not published, in early 1653. So who was it written for, and why? A brief exploration. … More Resourcefulness: Marvell’s ‘The Character of Holland’
This recent period has been plagued with privacy issues, the biggest of which, no doubt, has been the issue of super-injunctions and the exercising of parliamentary privilege. So, what is parliamentary privilege? … More Privacy and Parliamentary Privilege
How Doctor Who brings to light one of Andrew Marvell’s most touching moments – his lines on the passing of Oliver Cromwell’s daughter. … More The Broken Image
Writing Privacy 