‘  …“second place” pretty much summed up how I felt about myself and my life – that it had been a near miss requiring just as much effort as victory but with that victory always and forever somehow denied me, by a force that I could only describe as the force of pre-eminence’. [1]  A … More ‘  …“second place” pretty much summed up how I felt about myself and my life – that it had been a near miss requiring just as much effort as victory but with that victory always and forever somehow denied me, by a force that I could only describe as the force of pre-eminence’. [1]  A reflection on Rachel Cusk (2021) ‘Second Place’.

‘Because Peadar loved to dance’.[1] ‘As if, having done the worst thing to each other, we could do no further harm, or any, really. And there was safety in that. Like the old world of my childhood. And, in this strange atmosphere, the shades of Peadar and my mother were somehow given a sort of … More ‘Because Peadar loved to dance’. A reflection on the production of Blueberry Hill released online by Traverse Theatre Edinburgh for the festival, a wonderful realisation of Sebastian Barry (2017) ‘On Blueberry Hill'(Directed by Jim Culleton starring Niall Buggy as ‘Christy’ & David Ganly as ‘PJ’).

A blog reflecting on a Futurelearn Course led by Sarah Stewart:Zoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief,  SOAS University of London, & Sarah Stewart (ed.) [2013] The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination, SOAS, University of London with The British Library & I.B. Tauris, London, New York, the catalogue of a SOAS exhibitionIn Brunei and London … More A blog reflecting on a Futurelearn Course led by Sarah Stewart: ‘Zoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief’,  SOAS University of London, & Sarah Stewart (ed.) [2013] ‘The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’.

‘A.       He doesn’t read me, and I doesn’t read myself. I doesn’t read or write’. What does it mean to re-create the unread in the fragments of really lived lives? A ‘reading’ of Nadifa Mohamed (2021) The Fortune Men Penguin Viking, Random House, London The quotation in my title comes from the trial in court … More BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘A.  He doesn’t read me, and I doesn’t read myself. I doesn’t read or write’. What does it mean to re-create the unread in the fragments of really lived lives? A ‘reading’ of Nadifa Mohamed (2021) ‘The Fortune Men’.

Futurelearn Assignment 3: Playing with Poetry: Creative Writing and Poetics:  The University of Newcastle Australia TASK: Go to press Go to a local news page like mine, or something bigger like The Sydney Morning Herald or The New York Times (no need to subscribe to any of them) and pick out phrases or words that catch your eye and paste … More Futurelearn Assignment 3: Playing with Poetry: Creative Writing and Poetics:  The University of Newcastle Australia – TASK: Go to press.

CONTAINS SPOILERS. Be aware if you like to read your novels unaware. This great book is on the SHORTLIST ‘She herself has been taken by surprise at how much it matters to her, this buried question from long ago. … that particular stone never seems to find a resting place, no matter how often it’s … More BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘She herself has been taken by surprise at how much it matters to her, this buried question from long ago. … that particular stone never seems to find a resting place, no matter how often it’s turned’. A novelist examines the constantly returning inadequately repressed content in the body of individuals, families and nations. A reflection on Damon Galgut (2021) ‘The Promise’

An exercise in Part 4 of the FutureLearn course ‘ In Part 4 you are introduced to Avestan, the script in which the Zoroastrian sacred texts are writtenZoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief SOAS University of London It is read from right to left.

A reprint of Virginia Woolf’s essay in the book accompanying the exhibition Challenging Convention: Gwen John, Laura Knight, Vanessa Bell & Dod Proctor says, of the paintings by the writer’s sister, with regard to what these pictures tell you about their artist: ‘Their reticence is inviolable’. Even about the subjects she chooses to paint Woolf … More ‘Their reticence is inviolable’. ‘(W)hat has [she] got to say about it? Nothing’. [1] Does the stress on the silence of paintings matter when the painters are women rather than men? And, if so, why? Reflecting on the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Laing Gallery’s 2021 exhibition, dedicated to Amy Barker.

The University of Glasgow Task for MOOC: Write a ca. 500-word text to explore the strategies of those fighting for women’s suffrage in the US between the 1870s-1910s, reflecting specifically on the following questions: Was the case for women’s suffrage argued in terms of women’s status as a specific type of citizen (e.g., motherhood), or … More A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World Assignment

A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World The University of Glasgow Recovering Queer Lives – one not finished yet. My husband with his permission Who is your individual, where are they from and when were they alive? How did they understand their sexuality? What was their experience of … More FutureLearn course: Geoff Martin Born 24th April 1941