The British Society for Literature and Science conference takes place 10th-12th April 2014 at the University of Surrey. I'm giving a paper on the second day on a panel titled:
Light Pollution and Green
Technologies. My paper is, unsurprisingly, on Stephen Poliakoff:
Dead
Batteries: Scientific and Technological Failure in the Work of Stephen
Poliakoff
My friend Angharad Eyre has written an excellent post on the History of the Emotions blog about letters and friendship at Westfield College in late Victorian Britain.
AL Kennedy has a new collection of short stories out: All the Rage (Jonathan Cape)
Showing posts with label AL Kennedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AL Kennedy. Show all posts
Monday, April 07, 2014
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Links to Stuff IX
My friend Kirsty Rolfe has an excellent blog called Avoiding the Bears.
AL Kennedy has a new non-fiction book out called On Writing. And a repeat broadcast of her radio play Confessions of a Medium was aired on Friday night on BBC Radio 4 and is still available to listen again.
Stephen Poliakoff will be speaking at an event at the ICA in London on Friday 8th March. I can't go because it clashes with my teaching so I am hoping it might get recorded.
AL Kennedy has a new non-fiction book out called On Writing. And a repeat broadcast of her radio play Confessions of a Medium was aired on Friday night on BBC Radio 4 and is still available to listen again.
Stephen Poliakoff will be speaking at an event at the ICA in London on Friday 8th March. I can't go because it clashes with my teaching so I am hoping it might get recorded.
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Links to Stuff VIII
The good news is I finished the draft of the chapter by the deadline I set. The bad news is I'm not happy with the chapter as a whole, but I'll see how things turn out. I'm also physically and mentally wrecked at the moment - I have an article to write so will have to pull myself together by Thursday.
The writing 'retreat' helped quite a bit, but I still wish it was called something other than a 'retreat'...
While I was shut away in the British Library last week reading about 1980s British television drama and the second Cold War, AL Kennedy's latest radio play was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it is available on iPlayer (just, it expires in 4 hours) but you can also download it from the Play/Drama of the Week podcast via BBC Podcasts, and on iTunes. I shall be listening to it shortly before settling down to an afternoon of watching Wimbledon (if the rain ever stops).
Long term readers of this blog will know about my obsession with AL Kennedy's work, and I'm delighted that she has written quite a number of radio plays in recent years, and hope there are more to come.
The writing 'retreat' helped quite a bit, but I still wish it was called something other than a 'retreat'...
While I was shut away in the British Library last week reading about 1980s British television drama and the second Cold War, AL Kennedy's latest radio play was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it is available on iPlayer (just, it expires in 4 hours) but you can also download it from the Play/Drama of the Week podcast via BBC Podcasts, and on iTunes. I shall be listening to it shortly before settling down to an afternoon of watching Wimbledon (if the rain ever stops).
Long term readers of this blog will know about my obsession with AL Kennedy's work, and I'm delighted that she has written quite a number of radio plays in recent years, and hope there are more to come.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Links to Stuff VII
A quick AL Kennedy related link today - and get in quick, because I've been slow and forgot ALK is on the wireless for fifteen minutes every Friday for a few weeks (starting last week) which means the first episode will expire in a few hours on iPlayer...
Here is the link to the first part on the Radio 4 website. The second episode is broadcast on 15th June 2012 at 3.45pm and the third on 22nd June 2012 at 3.45pm.
Now I've listened to it (and laughed) I must get back to meeting my own typing deadline.
Here is the link to the first part on the Radio 4 website. The second episode is broadcast on 15th June 2012 at 3.45pm and the third on 22nd June 2012 at 3.45pm.
Now I've listened to it (and laughed) I must get back to meeting my own typing deadline.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Links to Stuff V
I was away for half of April in Canada for the History, Memory, Performance conference at the University of Ottawa, and before that I was teaching and marking, so I've not had much time. This is a quick 'Links to Stuff' post before I get back to posting (hopefully) more often.
While I was away AL Kennedy's Sunday Feature on Art and Madness was broadcast on Radio 3 on Sunday 22nd April. I've yet to listen to it yet, but it is available on iplayer.
On Tuesday night Peter Falconer and I went to see Einstein on the Beach at the Barbican. We managed not to get lost in the Barbican (which is like a modernist Alice in Wonderland) and sat through the entire 5 hours (it has no interval). One of the most amazing things I have ever seen on stage. The various videos of it on the web do not do it justice - it is definitely one of those productions where you had to be there. It runs at the Barbican until 13th May.
While I was away AL Kennedy's Sunday Feature on Art and Madness was broadcast on Radio 3 on Sunday 22nd April. I've yet to listen to it yet, but it is available on iplayer.
On Tuesday night Peter Falconer and I went to see Einstein on the Beach at the Barbican. We managed not to get lost in the Barbican (which is like a modernist Alice in Wonderland) and sat through the entire 5 hours (it has no interval). One of the most amazing things I have ever seen on stage. The various videos of it on the web do not do it justice - it is definitely one of those productions where you had to be there. It runs at the Barbican until 13th May.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Links to Stuff IV
Regular readers will know how much I like AL Kennedy's work, and her new radio play That I Should Rise was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Saturday night drama slot The Wire on Saturday night. It is available until the weekend on BBC iplayer.
The November/December 2011 edition of Intelligent Life magazine published this article about handwriting.
There are currently two exhibitions running in London about Antarctica The Heart of the Great Alone at the Queen's Galleries at Buckingham Palace and Scott's Last Expedition at the Natural History Museum.
The November/December 2011 edition of Intelligent Life magazine published this article about handwriting.
There are currently two exhibitions running in London about Antarctica The Heart of the Great Alone at the Queen's Galleries at Buckingham Palace and Scott's Last Expedition at the Natural History Museum.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Reading Lists, libraries and beautiful books
Somebody asked me recently what books I'd read recently - I had to think about this, which is unusual as I can usually reel off quite a few without thinking at all. I read everyday, but rarely these are books anyone else would want to read - New Perspectives in Historical Writing, Probing the Limits of Representation, Practicing New Historicism, anyone? Thought not.
To add to this I've been stuck in interminable chapter writing hell since sometime in March, which finally came to an end about ten days ago, but which has meant I've not been able to read anything non-chapter related, mostly because I've just been too tired to read anything else at the end of the day.
This term though I've been teaching a course on contemporary writing, so I've been reading a book a week, and this is the reading list:
Marilynne Robinson - Home
Ali Smith - The First Person and Other Stories
Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger
Michelle Paver - Dark Matter
Jackie Kay - The Red Dust Road
Jackie Kay -Fiere
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Jose Saramargo - The Elephant's Journey
Alex Wheatle - Brenton Brown
Bel Mooney - A Small Dog Saved My Life
In the last week of term the students get to choose the book they want to read. A few of my students raised their hands 'What do we do in week 12?' questions abound. Choose a book you like and suggest it to the rest of the class. 'What?' - none of them could think of a book they had read. What did you read in the summer? Silence. You must have read something. One finally mumbled that he spent the rest of the year reading and so didn't read anything over the summer. What is he doing an English degree for if he doesn't like reading? When I finished my undergraduate degree I was so tired I couldn't read any of the books I loved or wanted to read, but I needed to read something so I trundled my way through all my Dad's crime novels. How can these students spend a whole summer not reading?
I would go crazy if I didn't or wasn't able to read - books have been there at the most difficult and terrible times and I've always used books as a way of escaping the terribleness. When I worked as a bank clerk I used to use my lunch hour to go to the library in the town (whatever town, as I was moved about a lot) where I was based and sit in there and read; it was an hour of grace day on day, week on week while I was doing a job which made me very unhappy; it got me out of the bank and effectively made the job bearable until a job I wanted to do came along. In the last month I have learned four out of the seven public libraries I used have been shut down, two have had their hours cut, and one risks closure.
The Kindle advert may be claiming the thing replaces the book (it doesn't because you can't drop in the the bath for a start, not to mention all the other things, which I won't mention otherwise I will be ranting) but I cannot replace the library: the experience of going into a place filled with books, pulling something off the shelf at random and starting the reading journey. Or going into a library with the reading list for your course and looking at the shelves and pulling books off to find which ones you need, which are interesting or helpful, and which are no good and can go back on the shelf. The rejection process in the academic library is as important as the act of discovery.
I haven't managed to finish AL Kennedy's The Blue Book - I was just too tired and couldn't actually hold the book upright in bed, and decided the book and I would be much happier if we left each other alone for a while. I'll be reading it at Christmas though and I still love looking at it in all its blueness on my shelf. Slight aside - there seems to be a small trend at Vintage/Jonathan Cape at the moment to publish books which have the ends of the pages the same colour as the cover - Julian Barnes' Booker winner has a black hardcover with the ends of the pages also black, and the edges of the dust jacket also black so it sort of melds, the new Vintage edition of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is very orange in the same way that The Blue Book is blue. I wonder if the rise of the Kindle (how much do I hate that TV advert? More than the actual Kindle I think) and the iPad and other assorted e-reader things, has meant that publishers are trying to make (some) effort to produce hardback editions which look beautiful.
After I escaped chapter hell, I started reading Sara Wheeler's wonderful book Terra Incognita, which is about her travels in Antarctica. This is the first non-work book I've read since sometime in the spring. I've never read much travel writing before - there is so much fiction I haven't read, not to mention the poetry, that non-fiction - unless it is really vital and essential - tends to slightly fall off my radar. But this year I started to give in to my desire to read books about the Arctic and Antarctica, starting safely with a travel book about Norway, where I turned immediately to the bit about the Arctic Circle, and then picked up a copy of a novel called The Still Point whilst traveling to a conference in Exeter which I read in huge gulps on the train there and back, along with an article about the Northern Lights in the Saturday Guardian Magazine someone had left on the seat of the train from Exeter. Chapter hell began, along with some other awful things and my snow and ice filled reading dreams had to wait; I'm back there now and loving it.
I'm off to jump down another chapter black hole - I may be some time.
To add to this I've been stuck in interminable chapter writing hell since sometime in March, which finally came to an end about ten days ago, but which has meant I've not been able to read anything non-chapter related, mostly because I've just been too tired to read anything else at the end of the day.
This term though I've been teaching a course on contemporary writing, so I've been reading a book a week, and this is the reading list:
Marilynne Robinson - Home
Ali Smith - The First Person and Other Stories
Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger
Michelle Paver - Dark Matter
Jackie Kay - The Red Dust Road
Jackie Kay -Fiere
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Jose Saramargo - The Elephant's Journey
Alex Wheatle - Brenton Brown
Bel Mooney - A Small Dog Saved My Life
In the last week of term the students get to choose the book they want to read. A few of my students raised their hands 'What do we do in week 12?' questions abound. Choose a book you like and suggest it to the rest of the class. 'What?' - none of them could think of a book they had read. What did you read in the summer? Silence. You must have read something. One finally mumbled that he spent the rest of the year reading and so didn't read anything over the summer. What is he doing an English degree for if he doesn't like reading? When I finished my undergraduate degree I was so tired I couldn't read any of the books I loved or wanted to read, but I needed to read something so I trundled my way through all my Dad's crime novels. How can these students spend a whole summer not reading?
I would go crazy if I didn't or wasn't able to read - books have been there at the most difficult and terrible times and I've always used books as a way of escaping the terribleness. When I worked as a bank clerk I used to use my lunch hour to go to the library in the town (whatever town, as I was moved about a lot) where I was based and sit in there and read; it was an hour of grace day on day, week on week while I was doing a job which made me very unhappy; it got me out of the bank and effectively made the job bearable until a job I wanted to do came along. In the last month I have learned four out of the seven public libraries I used have been shut down, two have had their hours cut, and one risks closure.
The Kindle advert may be claiming the thing replaces the book (it doesn't because you can't drop in the the bath for a start, not to mention all the other things, which I won't mention otherwise I will be ranting) but I cannot replace the library: the experience of going into a place filled with books, pulling something off the shelf at random and starting the reading journey. Or going into a library with the reading list for your course and looking at the shelves and pulling books off to find which ones you need, which are interesting or helpful, and which are no good and can go back on the shelf. The rejection process in the academic library is as important as the act of discovery.
I haven't managed to finish AL Kennedy's The Blue Book - I was just too tired and couldn't actually hold the book upright in bed, and decided the book and I would be much happier if we left each other alone for a while. I'll be reading it at Christmas though and I still love looking at it in all its blueness on my shelf. Slight aside - there seems to be a small trend at Vintage/Jonathan Cape at the moment to publish books which have the ends of the pages the same colour as the cover - Julian Barnes' Booker winner has a black hardcover with the ends of the pages also black, and the edges of the dust jacket also black so it sort of melds, the new Vintage edition of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is very orange in the same way that The Blue Book is blue. I wonder if the rise of the Kindle (how much do I hate that TV advert? More than the actual Kindle I think) and the iPad and other assorted e-reader things, has meant that publishers are trying to make (some) effort to produce hardback editions which look beautiful.
After I escaped chapter hell, I started reading Sara Wheeler's wonderful book Terra Incognita, which is about her travels in Antarctica. This is the first non-work book I've read since sometime in the spring. I've never read much travel writing before - there is so much fiction I haven't read, not to mention the poetry, that non-fiction - unless it is really vital and essential - tends to slightly fall off my radar. But this year I started to give in to my desire to read books about the Arctic and Antarctica, starting safely with a travel book about Norway, where I turned immediately to the bit about the Arctic Circle, and then picked up a copy of a novel called The Still Point whilst traveling to a conference in Exeter which I read in huge gulps on the train there and back, along with an article about the Northern Lights in the Saturday Guardian Magazine someone had left on the seat of the train from Exeter. Chapter hell began, along with some other awful things and my snow and ice filled reading dreams had to wait; I'm back there now and loving it.
I'm off to jump down another chapter black hole - I may be some time.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
New blue pen for making notes on The Blue Book!
This is my most recent pen purchase. It is a 1940s Waterman 513 with a W-3 (mediumish) nib.
Contrary to the heading of this post I didn't buy it to make notes on AL Kennedy's new novel The Blue Book (published this week, go and buy it, it looks beautiful and is an awesome book). And it is very, very, blue!
I won't say anything more about it yet since it is a couple of days before it is in the shops - although I notice it hasn't prevented some newspapers from printing reviews of it, which I'm not reading because I don't want to know what happens before I get to the end.
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