The Plashing Vole

Afternoon all. I'm back after a very debilitating bout of chapter-writing, followed by an equally unpleasant but less depressing bout of...

I'm still deep in writing gloom, as I'm sure my co-writer will be overjoyed to learn. In the meantime, I suspect Weird Al Yankovic h...

At some point I'll return to using Plashing Vole as a dart board for my arrows of opinion (perhaps having grown a beard for a few weeks...

Friends, if you've written anything in either of Wales's languages that might fall into these categories, please  submit something....

Good morning readers. It feels like a very long time since I put digits to keyboard, and so much has happened both in the world and personal...

To: all staff. From: university security and ceremony directorate Subject: Graduation Ceremony protocol. Colleagues, like every universi...

I guess we shouldn't look to celebrities for a reasoned examination of the facts, but this caught my eye: Madonna has described the l...

No depressing or negative post today. Though if you want to follow the ramifications of Stefan Grimm's demise, I'll point you toward...

A while back, I sat in the audience while a friend gave his professorial inaugural address (the closest I'll ever get to one). A busines...

Cover of Niall's latest novel projected onto a stage curtain Talking for a moment about happier academic events, last night Niall G...

I should be marking. I should be reading a colleague's book. I should be writing next week's lectures. I should be replying to stude...

OK, I've been pretty slack on the blogging front for some time now, though in my defence I have moved house while doing extra teaching a...

What a week. I am quite literally bruised, but also exhilarated. Some great things have happened. I did my usual load of teaching, and the c...

Teaching. Tutorials. Review a play and a PhD proposal and a journal article. Write a piece for the THES Write a piece for the university...

Last Saturday, I went to Stoke-on-Trent's Potteries Museum and Art Gallery for the annual Stephen Hagger Lecture (very sadly I was t...