Peter Stockwell
@stockwell.bsky.social
Professor of Literary Linguistics
At: University of Nottingham
In: Sheffield
Of: the Boro
At: University of Nottingham
In: Sheffield
Of: the Boro
"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
Lancelot Andrewes, Christmas Day sermon, 1622, and adapted by TS Eliot in The Coming of the Magi, 1927
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
Lancelot Andrewes, Christmas Day sermon, 1622, and adapted by TS Eliot in The Coming of the Magi, 1927
January 6, 2026 at 11:20 AM
"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
Lancelot Andrewes, Christmas Day sermon, 1622, and adapted by TS Eliot in The Coming of the Magi, 1927
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
Lancelot Andrewes, Christmas Day sermon, 1622, and adapted by TS Eliot in The Coming of the Magi, 1927
My car is at 159,997 miles. I should head out into the countryside to watch it flick over to 160K. Then kiss the person next to me, sing a little song, have a drink, go outside and immediately come back in again, let a firework off, and stay up all night.
For everyone else: Happy New Year!
For everyone else: Happy New Year!
December 31, 2025 at 11:28 AM
My car is at 159,997 miles. I should head out into the countryside to watch it flick over to 160K. Then kiss the person next to me, sing a little song, have a drink, go outside and immediately come back in again, let a firework off, and stay up all night.
For everyone else: Happy New Year!
For everyone else: Happy New Year!
I see I have been overlooked yet again in the New Year’s Honours list: the usual establishment class-hierarchy mainly of people already paid for doing their jobs.
Just as well, really, as it avoids me having to tell the appointments panel they can stick it up their collective recta
Just as well, really, as it avoids me having to tell the appointments panel they can stick it up their collective recta
December 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I see I have been overlooked yet again in the New Year’s Honours list: the usual establishment class-hierarchy mainly of people already paid for doing their jobs.
Just as well, really, as it avoids me having to tell the appointments panel they can stick it up their collective recta
Just as well, really, as it avoids me having to tell the appointments panel they can stick it up their collective recta
Christmas Eve negroni - chilled, and none of your watering-down ice nonsense
Happy Christmas!
Happy Christmas!
December 24, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Christmas Eve negroni - chilled, and none of your watering-down ice nonsense
Happy Christmas!
Happy Christmas!
An antidote to Christmas tweeness:
December 24, 2025 at 11:21 AM
An antidote to Christmas tweeness:
‘When the snowman brings the snow’
That’s not right - something wrong there with cause and effect. It’s a nonsense really
That’s not right - something wrong there with cause and effect. It’s a nonsense really
December 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
‘When the snowman brings the snow’
That’s not right - something wrong there with cause and effect. It’s a nonsense really
That’s not right - something wrong there with cause and effect. It’s a nonsense really
RIP Chris. Back now on the other holy ground. So many of his songs were a nostalgia for the Boro - pretty much the soundtrack to my entire life.
Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74
Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74
Middlesbrough-born musician had hits with Driving Home for Christmas, On the Beach and The Road to Hell
Chris Rea, the British singer-songwriter whose hits included Driving Home For Christmas, has died at the age of 74, a spokesperson for his family said.
The statement said that he died “peacefully in hospital … following a short illness”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:36 PM
RIP Chris. Back now on the other holy ground. So many of his songs were a nostalgia for the Boro - pretty much the soundtrack to my entire life.
Today’s radio explanation: the origins of ‘a bit of a dark horse’ with John Darvall on BBC Radio Bristol.
Horse-racing in the 1800s, but via Benjamin Disraeli.
Thanks for having me on!
Horse-racing in the 1800s, but via Benjamin Disraeli.
Thanks for having me on!
December 22, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Today’s radio explanation: the origins of ‘a bit of a dark horse’ with John Darvall on BBC Radio Bristol.
Horse-racing in the 1800s, but via Benjamin Disraeli.
Thanks for having me on!
Horse-racing in the 1800s, but via Benjamin Disraeli.
Thanks for having me on!
Physicist Leo Szilard, in a short science fiction story from 1948, describing how to retard science by making the funding application longer and harder than the proposed research - now called the ‘Szilard point’
December 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Physicist Leo Szilard, in a short science fiction story from 1948, describing how to retard science by making the funding application longer and harder than the proposed research - now called the ‘Szilard point’
Reposted by Peter Stockwell
and Erasmus gave us dozens of outstanding visiting students from Europe who contributed hugely to UG courses, and many came back to us for postgraduate study
December 17, 2025 at 12:40 PM
and Erasmus gave us dozens of outstanding visiting students from Europe who contributed hugely to UG courses, and many came back to us for postgraduate study
I’ve been involved with Erasmus since it’s UK beginnings in the late 80s. 10,000 young British people a year had their lives and perspectives changed, until the little englanders of Johnson and his clownish cavalcade robbed it from 5 years of students. Now it’s back
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4...
Erasmus live updates: Scheme to return for UK students from 2027
British students will be able to spend a year studying at EU universities without paying extra fees, and vice versa for European students.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 12:07 PM
I’ve been involved with Erasmus since it’s UK beginnings in the late 80s. 10,000 young British people a year had their lives and perspectives changed, until the little englanders of Johnson and his clownish cavalcade robbed it from 5 years of students. Now it’s back
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4...
So the Stylistics Special has brought us to the @engmediacentre.bsky.social for a full day of Lang/Lit goodies. More of these coming in the New Year!
December 15, 2025 at 7:47 AM
So the Stylistics Special has brought us to the @engmediacentre.bsky.social for a full day of Lang/Lit goodies. More of these coming in the New Year!
The dark night wakes, the mouse is hanged, and Christmas comes once more
December 12, 2025 at 5:16 PM
The dark night wakes, the mouse is hanged, and Christmas comes once more
This, by the great Dan Clayton, is a brilliant cup-of-tea read - and an example of what language and literature teaching should be
I've done a blog on some work we've been doing with year 11s in the Black Country about the poem 'Homing' and the dialect of the area.
englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/teachin...
englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/teachin...
Teaching Liz Berry's 'Homing' in the Black Country
Reflections on the impact of letting students hear themselves in literature
englishandmedia.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 5:08 PM
This, by the great Dan Clayton, is a brilliant cup-of-tea read - and an example of what language and literature teaching should be
Reposted by Peter Stockwell
EMC CPD Face-to-Face: New Approaches to Teaching A Level Lang/Lit
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK!
Book by: 8am on 11th December
buff.ly/Onv5yJb
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK!
Book by: 8am on 11th December
buff.ly/Onv5yJb
December 9, 2025 at 7:30 AM
EMC CPD Face-to-Face: New Approaches to Teaching A Level Lang/Lit
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK!
Book by: 8am on 11th December
buff.ly/Onv5yJb
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK!
Book by: 8am on 11th December
buff.ly/Onv5yJb
Ok I’ll admit Christmas is coming. Still not putting a tree up yet though.
December 7, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Ok I’ll admit Christmas is coming. Still not putting a tree up yet though.
Reposted by Peter Stockwell
The December issue of @engmediacentre.bsky.social emagazine is out online this week so if you've got a subscription you can access the following ace articles for A level English Language...
December 5, 2025 at 12:15 PM
The December issue of @engmediacentre.bsky.social emagazine is out online this week so if you've got a subscription you can access the following ace articles for A level English Language...
Yes!
EMC CPD Face-to-Face: New Approaches to Teaching A Level Lang/Lit
Discover new approaches to teaching A Level English Language and Literature on this in-person course with guest presenters Peter Stockwell and Jessica Norledge.
Book by: 8am on 11th December
buff.ly/98SX5KB
Discover new approaches to teaching A Level English Language and Literature on this in-person course with guest presenters Peter Stockwell and Jessica Norledge.
Book by: 8am on 11th December
buff.ly/98SX5KB
December 2, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Yes!
Yeah there’s no way I’m clicking on that, Tony!
'Rage bait' is Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year. This article from 2024 describes an earlier incarnation...https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gp555xy5ro
December 1, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Yeah there’s no way I’m clicking on that, Tony!
Reposted by Peter Stockwell
Reading Fictional Languages
Reading Fictional Languages
edinburghuniversitypress.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Yes it is now December
No it is still not Christmas
Your tree will be dead by 15th and all your glitter will have lost its sparkle
No it is still not Christmas
Your tree will be dead by 15th and all your glitter will have lost its sparkle
December 1, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Yes it is now December
No it is still not Christmas
Your tree will be dead by 15th and all your glitter will have lost its sparkle
No it is still not Christmas
Your tree will be dead by 15th and all your glitter will have lost its sparkle
A Giamaica.
2 black spiced rum
1 martini rosso
Splash of angostura
2 black spiced rum
1 martini rosso
Splash of angostura
November 28, 2025 at 6:30 PM
A Giamaica.
2 black spiced rum
1 martini rosso
Splash of angostura
2 black spiced rum
1 martini rosso
Splash of angostura
Reposted by Peter Stockwell
My new article is out in Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 📘✨ I look at how a set of interview prompts helped teachers open up, reflect, and share experiences that often stay hidden in regular interviews. This approach shaped the study in a meaningful way 💛
Link: doi.org/10.1080/1750...
Link: doi.org/10.1080/1750...
November 28, 2025 at 3:28 PM
My new article is out in Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 📘✨ I look at how a set of interview prompts helped teachers open up, reflect, and share experiences that often stay hidden in regular interviews. This approach shaped the study in a meaningful way 💛
Link: doi.org/10.1080/1750...
Link: doi.org/10.1080/1750...
Oi Black Friday? No!
Much better: EUP are having a St Andrews Day sale over the weekend. You can pick up these beauties for coppers!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-texture...
Much better: EUP are having a St Andrews Day sale over the weekend. You can pick up these beauties for coppers!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-texture...
Reading Fictional Languages
Reading Fictional Languages
edinburghuniversitypress.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Oi Black Friday? No!
Much better: EUP are having a St Andrews Day sale over the weekend. You can pick up these beauties for coppers!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-texture...
Much better: EUP are having a St Andrews Day sale over the weekend. You can pick up these beauties for coppers!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-reading...
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-texture...