Several years ago, a phrase came into my head on a dark day: “life is a jigsaw” – an analogy that had plenty more to offer. … More “Life is a Jigsaw”: Literary Shapes and Private Thoughts
This post embraces loneliness by celebrating togetherness. The conduit is that indefinable, elusive, and enigmatic craft of poetry. … More Poetry and Appearing on KUSP, Santa Cruz
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
An end-of-year epilogue for 2010, a sad year deserving of some reflection amid music and colour. … More Skimming Stones: An Epilogue, 2010
Hypocrisy often challenges us because it is flagrantly public. So what of Andrew Marvell’s satire on Tom May, who switched his allegiances to Parliament? … More Public Hypocrites and Private Anger: Tom May’s Death
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
Today I am presenting ‘Marvell in Manuscript and Print, 1649-1665’ at the English Postgraduate Forum in Leicester. Thoughts here on storytelling and expanding frontiers. … More Marvell in Manuscript and Print
Marking the ten-year anniversary of a nasty incident that shaped much of the subsequent decade. … More Circles
Writing Privacy 