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Edge Hill Prize
To the Royal Exchange on Friday, for the award of the first Edge Hill Short Story prize organised by my friend and colleague Ailsa Cox, and presented by AL Kennedy. It was a very pleasant evening – wine was consumed, canapés eaten, shoulders rubbed with the famous. The prize was awarded to Mothers and Sons…
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The Bookshop
I wrote a book chapter about Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore, and have been working my way through her oeuvre ever since. On a recent trip to Aldeburgh, what could be more appropriate than to pick up in the delightful bookshop there, Fitzgerald’s novel of one woman’s attempt to run a bookshop in a fictional coastal east…
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Alan Johnston
This is great news. I’m very pleased to be in a position to remove the blog button from the sidebar. Amidst the rejoicing though, let’s not forget that many civilians and journalists have been brutally executed by groups similar to the one that took Johnston, and that five Britons remain hostage in Iraq.
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On Chesil Beach
Just got round to reading this novel. You may recall that, over at Patternings, Ann Darnton’s experience of the novel was considerably spoiled by a reference to Beatles and Rolling Stones covers of Chuck Berry, at a time when they hadn’t released them. Now here’s a funny thing- I was bracing myself for that bit,…
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Couldn’t have said it better…
Here’s Shalom Lappin’s explanation of why he resigned from the UCU.Via Normblog
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Academic Boycott
One of the most fiercely held beliefs of academics world wide is in academic freedom. So it seems utterly perverse for a union whose function is to represent academics to choose to boycott all academic links with an entire country. That’s what the UCU have done. I wrote briefly about this before, and the position…
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Amazon links
I knew this blogging lark would make me rich. By putting a link to Amazon here, I’ve already amassed, in just over a year, £1.60 in referral fees. That’s right – over ten pence a month! The thing is, once you are used to riches of this magnitude, you just want more, so I’ve signed…
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Tagged
Harriet has tagged me, and since Harriet is She Who Must Be Obeyed, I obey. I have to write eight random things about me. That’s easy enough, but I’m not one for being personal in public, so to speak. I was involved in a departmental team-building exercise recently, and one of the tasks was to…
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Ken Robinson on creativity
This is a really funny, but also profound piece of thinking that makes some crucial points about the nature of education and creativity.
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Dan Gilbert on Happiness
This is fascinating. Dan Gilbert is a Harvard psychiatrist who has researched into how we synthesize happiness. This talk, about 20 minutes long, gives details of his work. He’s an excellent, lively speaker. Thanks to Bibliobibuli for the tip.