The Plashing Vole

Last year's end-of-term report seems so sweetly naive now. There I was in a deserted office (just like today, only it's a different...

This week I have mostly been going to cultural stuff. And watching my friends and colleagues marking essays. As I'm on a sabbatical (cou...

I just got an email from the Birmingham branch of the Glee Club, a chain of comedy venues. Something didn't look quite right. Can you ...

This week has mostly been dominated – at the risk of sounding like the egregious Martin Amis – by my teeth. I'm part way through a dent...

Who am I? According to my spam folder for Nov 10th-15th I am: a heterosexual woman unsatisfied by her boyfriend's small penis a lon...

This is my last comment on the US election for now. Though I'm sure I'll get sucked back in before long: I liked the Joe Biden p...

What can I say? Everyone else has weighed in on this week's landslide of misery: Kate prescribes kindness and listening. Others counsel...

Sometimes only cut-up poetry can capture the tenor of our times. Core access. Crooked Donald. The Hillary. Older than they look. Back ...

This has been a whirlwind week of literal and intellectual travel, hence my relative absence. A week ago almost to the hour – a treat partly...

I've read a couple of detective novels recently, part of my effort to familiarise myself with popular 1930s-40s culture as well as the L...

And how many sources confirmed your story? Last week I read this piece in the New Statesman , by professional journalist Andrew Gimso...

The end of the academic year is always bittersweet. There's always the violence-inducing and inaccurate comments from friends and family...

I'm drowning in work this week: mostly induction talks and trying to find out where the students who missed induction talks might be and...

The week has had two or three main themes: toothache, work and culture. The toothache is self-explanatory. My wonderful dentist, who had an ...

It's been a strange couple of weeks. New office (still being built). Job interview (failed again, but at least they met me before decidi...