The Plashing Vole

This week has been way to busy to consider blogging. I've met all the new students several times, so they've seen all my decent clot...

I wrote to the London Review of Books  with a correction but it wasn't printed, so you can have the doubtful benefit. I'm still unsu...

I have had an eventful week, to put it mildly. A week ago I was decorating a village hall, carrying chairs and checking camera angles for my...

Last night I texted someone to say 'even Portishead have licensed a track for advertising now'. My friends are used to such retro na...

Well, I'm back. I was in Co. Kerry, Ireland for the famous Killorglin  Mid-Kerry  Puck Fair .• It rained a lot and I read some books ( T...

Right, it's time to put my feet up. I'm off on my holidays, by which I mean going somewhere else to prepare next semester'...

I don't spend all my time agonising over the state of academia. I also punch printers. University of Darkplace Network Printer Inst...

The BBC salaries report has prompted me to do something I've had in mind for quite some time. I read a while ago that (now ex-)Google em...

Every year, teachers and university lecturers are chaffed by friends and loved ones about their 'three month holiday'. Extrapolating...

Twenty years since we first heard the words 'butterbeer', 'Slytherin', 'Quidditch' and 'Sorting Hat'. How ti...

I've (almost) nothing to say this week. Personally, it's been one of banal but necessary administrative labour the details of which ...

What an odd 18 hours or so. My emotions – so far as I have any – are mixed. The joy is easy: my arch-nemesis Paul Uppal lost resoundingly. H...