Welcome
Rob Spence
Welcome to my website. As well as hosting my blog, it’s a home on the Internet for my writing, reading, and research.
I am a retired university lecturer from Manchester, and my main focus is 20th-century and contemporary literature.
My Scholarship
In 2015, I retired from my academic post at Edge Hill University where I had worked for 22 years, as Programme Leader for English Literature, Acting Head of English, and latterly Associate Head of the Department of English and History. I also taught for the OU on its Arts Foundation course and its third level Shakespeare course.
I have published on Anthony Burgess, Robert Nye, Jane Rogers, Penelope Fitzgerald and George Mackay Brown. You can download and read some of my publications here.
I have supervised PhD research on Katherine Mansfield, John Galsworthy and twentieth century working-class fiction. I was an external examiner for BA English Literature at two universities, and for PGCE English at another. I have acted as a reader for Manchester University Press, Palgrave Macmillan and Cambridge Scholars, as well as for various journals.
Publications
This is a selection of material published in journals, edited collections and online. There are also a couple of unpublished conference papers, and audio of an interview. The main subject is Anthony Burgess, but other topics are covered as well.
Reading
This section collects together my book reviews from various sources. The books reflect both my academic interests and my leisure reading. I wrote quite a number of reviews for my own precursor blog, and now write reviews for the Shiny New Books website.
Research
I will post work-in-progress here.
My Blog
This is my blog, which has been running for over fifteen years.
Contact
Email: spencroATgmailDOTcom
Bluesky: @spencro.bsky.social