A recent personality test for work has made me think hard about what I’ve become and how much I’ve changed in the past decade. (Spoiler – quite a lot!) … More From Green to Blue: how my personality changed
It was easy to think of stress as something that affected other people, not me – until a life-threatening incident came along. … More The day I nearly died
Why do we always seem to be drawn to what we don’t have? The stumbling block of how to pursue academic publications without fear of rejection. … More The Politics of Envy
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’?
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
There’s no escape from growing old, but can we escape the sense of inadequacy it can bring? Watching this unfold is perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect of the BBC’s new drama, Apple Tree Yard. … More Dealing with inadequacy: Apple Tree Yard
October 28th still registers as one of the most important days in my calendar after a horrible incident 17 years ago. It’s a day that changed me forever. … More The day that changed me forever
The seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell received a mention in a recent Cosmopolitan article about Tinder. Would he really have approved of it, as its author claims? … More Would Marvell approve of Tinder? A response to Cosmopolitan
Green is the colour of innocence and experience, of sickness and of health. A glimpse at what it means to be ‘green’ in Andrew Marvell and William Shakespeare. … More Marvell, Shakespeare, and Green Sicknesses
What would change if you knew you had the chance to live your life repeatedly until you got it right? A story of a poem, a novel, and a show; fantasy, philosophy, and a game of numerous lifes. … More A Matter of Life and Death
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