Our novel course in 1974-5 took us from the early seventeenth century to the early nineteenth. Six substantial texts were prescribed, and a good many others recommended. Here’s our reading list from that year. I think I read most of the novels listed here. All of the key texts, of course, and quite a few… Continue reading Novel Discoveries
Blimey, it’s the end of June, so that means that 50 years ago, I was already well into my stint as a general dogsbody at a furniture trade exhibition in a building which would later become the Air and Space Gallery of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, and which has just now become… Continue reading Scheming through the second year
It’s the end of March already, which means that fifty years ago, I was approaching the end of the second term of my second year. I haven’t said much about that yet, but I will shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to say a little about Ken Severs, about whom I wrote previously here. Since… Continue reading Ken Severs
To Pordenone, a lovely town in the north-east region of Friuli Venezia Giulia for the 43rd edition of the Giornate del Cinema Muto, the annual festival of silent film. We had dipped a toe in the event two years ago, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to register for the whole week this… Continue reading Cinema Muto at Pordenone
I am currently in Italy, which is one reason why the reminiscences of undergraduate life in the seventies have been on hold. I’ll get back to that topic when I’m back in the UK, starting with a post on Ken Severs, about whom I wrote last year. I had a fascinating conversation with his son,… Continue reading Home thoughts from abroad
I became a lecturer in higher education quite late in life – I was 38, and had a career as a secondary school teacher behind me. At that point, in the early nineties, many universities were moving into what was called modularisation. The elements of degrees, often called courses hitherto, were being replaced by a… Continue reading Assessment, 1973 style
First, dear reader, apologies for the prolonged silence, which has happened because of Reasons. I will be getting back to reminiscences of early seventies university life before too long, but in the meantime, a brief update, and a rant. I’ve posted a few more reviews on Shiny New Books, the most recent being of Charles… Continue reading Communal Karaoke
It’s March already, and I haven’t posted since the end of last year. In the meantime, I’ve published a couple of reviews on Shiny New Books which I’ll link to here. The first was Cynthia Zarin’s little book of, well, essays I suppose one might call them, on aspects of Italy and Italian life. These… Continue reading Marching on
It’s almost 2024, so soon the neat symmetry of my 1973 reminiscences with the current year will be no more. Just time, then, to fit in some memories of the final strand of the first year English programme at Leeds fifty years ago. The A level result that landed me a place at Leeds was… Continue reading Pidgins and Phonetics
I was very engaged by this novel, which uses well-known real historical figures, but then applies a “what if?” scenario to a crucial moment in their lives. James Joyce, when arriving in Trieste in 1904 in search of a job at the Berlitz language school, left Nora Barnacle, with whom he’d left Ireland, to wait… Continue reading Penelope Unbound