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)
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)
A review of the British Academy sponsored Early Modern Career event at the University of Birmingham on 2nd May 2014. … More The Early Modern Career
These end-of-year epilogues have become invariably sad affairs. Of course, I would prefer that it was different, but I still believe that they help me channel energies in a better way. Last year – in what I still believe to be my best ever contribution here – I said that structural positives had been offset by surface negatives. Now, the poles have changed. … More An Eye to Every Storm: An Epilogue, 2012
A few concerned observations on what media revolutions in the 1640s and 2000s mean for ‘friendship’. … More Media Revolutions and “Friends”
A summary of research activity from January-March 2011. This features a lecture by Nigel Smith at the Andrew Marvell Centre in Hull; a teaching event at the University of York; and the biannual British Milton Seminar at Birmingham Central Library.
November has seen a venture down to London to register with the British Library and a Saturday trip up to Scotland to attend a seminar for EMSIS, the Early Modern Studies in Scotland. … More The EMSIS Seminar, Edinburgh, 2006
