The Plashing Vole

I am trying to write my conference paper on Carol Ann Duffy and the Four Nations, honestly, but this Cambridge University summer course cau...

You find me much refreshed by my sojourn on the west coast of Ireland - goats were crowned on towers, the Black Atlantic was swum, sun burne...

I am going on holiday. To Ireland of course, packing Factor 50 and a thick pair of gloves for use on the same day, if experience teaches ...

A friend asked me to take some pictures of the rebuilt Birmingham New Street station for a book project. I have Views about the place: as fa...

Well, last week's post insisted that nothing happened. This week everything has happened, though not necessarily to me. The Tour de Fran...

Pretty much nothing to say this week. I've just marked re-submitted essays and attempted to wrestle with the fresh new tortures added to...

This is the end of a week at Gladstone's Library in Penarlâg/Hawarden - one of the few (only?) prime ministerial equivalents of a Presi...

Thanks to the gods of the research budget (they play with us for their sport), I'm away all next week – sitting in the Gladstone Library...

Normally at this point of the year it feels ass if things are slowing down a little. Not this time - between the second Faculty re-structure...

For a few years, I was one of my sport's child protection officers – advising on good practice and helping to investigate complaints. It...

It's been a hectic week or so since my last substantial post. Two unexpected days in Ireland for a wake/funeral, and all the admin assoc...

I’d be the first prime minister who has been an entrepreneur – creating hundreds of jobs in a way that goes to the heart of what we as a pa...

What to write about this week? So much has happened, but most of it I either don't understand or haven't had the time to process, as...