David Francis Taylor
@davidftaylor.bsky.social
Professor of English, Oxford
Anyone else really struggling with hay fever? I always seem to struggle around this time. Whatever pollen is in the air doesn't agree with me.
March 4, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Anyone else really struggling with hay fever? I always seem to struggle around this time. Whatever pollen is in the air doesn't agree with me.
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
Excited to deliver my paper--based on fresh work for next book Writing’s Maker—"Hester Thrale Piozzi's Minced Meat for Pyes: Scrapbook Composition as Life Writing"--to
@oxford18thc.bsky.social next Tuesday. Many thanks to @ballasterros.bsky.social and @davidftaylor.bsky.social for the invitation
@oxford18thc.bsky.social next Tuesday. Many thanks to @ballasterros.bsky.social and @davidftaylor.bsky.social for the invitation
March 2, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Excited to deliver my paper--based on fresh work for next book Writing’s Maker—"Hester Thrale Piozzi's Minced Meat for Pyes: Scrapbook Composition as Life Writing"--to
@oxford18thc.bsky.social next Tuesday. Many thanks to @ballasterros.bsky.social and @davidftaylor.bsky.social for the invitation
@oxford18thc.bsky.social next Tuesday. Many thanks to @ballasterros.bsky.social and @davidftaylor.bsky.social for the invitation
Can't wait. All welcome!
We're delighted to welcome Barney Ronay @barneyronay.bsky.social, Chief Sports Writer for The Guardian, to the English Faculty on 3 March. He'll be in conversation w/ Prof David Taylor discussing everything from the politics of sport to the changing nature of Britain’s media landscape. All welcome!
February 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Can't wait. All welcome!
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
We're delighted to welcome Barney Ronay @barneyronay.bsky.social, Chief Sports Writer for The Guardian, to the English Faculty on 3 March. He'll be in conversation w/ Prof David Taylor discussing everything from the politics of sport to the changing nature of Britain’s media landscape. All welcome!
February 17, 2025 at 2:16 PM
We're delighted to welcome Barney Ronay @barneyronay.bsky.social, Chief Sports Writer for The Guardian, to the English Faculty on 3 March. He'll be in conversation w/ Prof David Taylor discussing everything from the politics of sport to the changing nature of Britain’s media landscape. All welcome!
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
This Tuesday we'll be hearing @gabriellabird.bsky.social & @davidftaylor.bsky.social talk about reviving Centlivre's The Busy Body in a collab between @orangetreetheatre.bsky.social @creationtheatre.bsky.social & Oxford's Cultural Programme.
5.30 @ Seminar Room East, Mansfield College. All welcome!
5.30 @ Seminar Room East, Mansfield College. All welcome!
February 9, 2025 at 3:31 PM
This Tuesday we'll be hearing @gabriellabird.bsky.social & @davidftaylor.bsky.social talk about reviving Centlivre's The Busy Body in a collab between @orangetreetheatre.bsky.social @creationtheatre.bsky.social & Oxford's Cultural Programme.
5.30 @ Seminar Room East, Mansfield College. All welcome!
5.30 @ Seminar Room East, Mansfield College. All welcome!
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
I (and, I think, the whole audience) had such fun at last night’s performance of ‘The Busy Body’ by Susanna Centlivre, put together by @davidftaylor.bsky.social, @creationtheatre.bsky.social, @orangetreetheatre.bsky.social!! It was kinda like a 1709 version of The Importance of Being Earnest :D
January 25, 2025 at 3:42 PM
I (and, I think, the whole audience) had such fun at last night’s performance of ‘The Busy Body’ by Susanna Centlivre, put together by @davidftaylor.bsky.social, @creationtheatre.bsky.social, @orangetreetheatre.bsky.social!! It was kinda like a 1709 version of The Importance of Being Earnest :D
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
We're excited to reveal our programme for the term, featuring @davidftaylor.bsky.social, Gabriella Bird Katharine Boehm,
@juliepark.bsky.social, and Peter Sabor.
As always, all welcome!
@juliepark.bsky.social, and Peter Sabor.
As always, all welcome!
January 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
We're excited to reveal our programme for the term, featuring @davidftaylor.bsky.social, Gabriella Bird Katharine Boehm,
@juliepark.bsky.social, and Peter Sabor.
As always, all welcome!
@juliepark.bsky.social, and Peter Sabor.
As always, all welcome!
The ruins of Godstow Abbey amid the frost and freezing fog.
January 12, 2025 at 9:21 AM
The ruins of Godstow Abbey amid the frost and freezing fog.
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
Inscription issue 6 (out spring 2026) is all about cuts / tears. Here is our call for papers. Talk to us if you have an idea for an article!
January 8, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Inscription issue 6 (out spring 2026) is all about cuts / tears. Here is our call for papers. Talk to us if you have an idea for an article!
Does anyone else have trouble renewing their BSECS (@bsecs.bsky.social) membership with Wiley?
This is the 3rd year in a row that my card has been declined and the process to rectify this is time consuming and infuriating.
This is the 3rd year in a row that my card has been declined and the process to rectify this is time consuming and infuriating.
January 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Does anyone else have trouble renewing their BSECS (@bsecs.bsky.social) membership with Wiley?
This is the 3rd year in a row that my card has been declined and the process to rectify this is time consuming and infuriating.
This is the 3rd year in a row that my card has been declined and the process to rectify this is time consuming and infuriating.
Just read Ciaran Carson's Fishing for Amber.
It's an astonishing book. A masterpiece. I can't believe it's not better known.
It's an astonishing book. A masterpiece. I can't believe it's not better known.
December 30, 2024 at 2:54 PM
Just read Ciaran Carson's Fishing for Amber.
It's an astonishing book. A masterpiece. I can't believe it's not better known.
It's an astonishing book. A masterpiece. I can't believe it's not better known.
This sonnet by Gillian Clarke. Beautiful.
December 19, 2024 at 11:00 PM
This sonnet by Gillian Clarke. Beautiful.
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
Good to see Michael John Goodman's The Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery getting some festive attention. Completely open-access & reusable & remixable & with a range of Dickens's illustrators beyond the familiar original ones including Fred Barnard, Charles Green & Harry Furniss 👇.
Explore an Online Archive of 2,100+ Rare Illustrations from Charles Dickens’ Novels
As Christmastime approaches, few novelists come to mind as readily as Charles Dickens. This owes mainly, of course, to A Christmas Carol, and even more so to its many adaptations, most of which draw i...
www.openculture.com
December 14, 2024 at 3:12 PM
Good to see Michael John Goodman's The Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery getting some festive attention. Completely open-access & reusable & remixable & with a range of Dickens's illustrators beyond the familiar original ones including Fred Barnard, Charles Green & Harry Furniss 👇.
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
Brush up your Shakespeare! Read along with our monthly webinar or just drop in to hear the conversation: english.web.ox.ac.uk/english-facu...
Please repost!
Please repost!
English Faculty / Oxford World's Classics Shakespeare Webinar Series with Professor Emma Smith
english.web.ox.ac.uk
December 13, 2024 at 5:54 PM
Brush up your Shakespeare! Read along with our monthly webinar or just drop in to hear the conversation: english.web.ox.ac.uk/english-facu...
Please repost!
Please repost!
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
This poem by Mary Robinson, published in The Morning Post in 1800, addressed to that newspaper's "Type," really must be the only poem about a typeface (as well as in a typeface) written in the #19thc.
(But, gosh, I would be happy to hear of others.)
Here are the first 2 stanzas.
#BookHistory
(But, gosh, I would be happy to hear of others.)
Here are the first 2 stanzas.
#BookHistory
December 7, 2024 at 1:29 AM
This poem by Mary Robinson, published in The Morning Post in 1800, addressed to that newspaper's "Type," really must be the only poem about a typeface (as well as in a typeface) written in the #19thc.
(But, gosh, I would be happy to hear of others.)
Here are the first 2 stanzas.
#BookHistory
(But, gosh, I would be happy to hear of others.)
Here are the first 2 stanzas.
#BookHistory
Oxford folk - get yourselves to the North Wall to see Creation Theatre's Christmas show, Hansel & Grettel.
It's fabulous. Took our 8yo this evening and we booked to go again as soon as we got home. The final medley is worth the ticket price alone.
Tickets:
creationtheatre.co.uk/show/hansel-...
It's fabulous. Took our 8yo this evening and we booked to go again as soon as we got home. The final medley is worth the ticket price alone.
Tickets:
creationtheatre.co.uk/show/hansel-...
Hansel & Grettel - Creation Theatre
Family Christmas show at The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford from Creation Theatre, specialists in site specific and digital theatre.
creationtheatre.co.uk
December 6, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Oxford folk - get yourselves to the North Wall to see Creation Theatre's Christmas show, Hansel & Grettel.
It's fabulous. Took our 8yo this evening and we booked to go again as soon as we got home. The final medley is worth the ticket price alone.
Tickets:
creationtheatre.co.uk/show/hansel-...
It's fabulous. Took our 8yo this evening and we booked to go again as soon as we got home. The final medley is worth the ticket price alone.
Tickets:
creationtheatre.co.uk/show/hansel-...
Pringles are biscuits, not crisps (potato chips).
For the second time this week, a student has blown my mind.
For the second time this week, a student has blown my mind.
December 5, 2024 at 9:09 PM
Pringles are biscuits, not crisps (potato chips).
For the second time this week, a student has blown my mind.
For the second time this week, a student has blown my mind.
Did you know that Leigh Hunt kept a *Hair Book*? Yes, a *Hair Book*: an album of locks belonging to literary greats.
And the good folk @ransomcenter.bsky.social have digitized it.
Thanks to my student @sadpphicstanza.bsky.social for telling me about this.
And the good folk @ransomcenter.bsky.social have digitized it.
Thanks to my student @sadpphicstanza.bsky.social for telling me about this.
CONTENTdm
hrc.contentdm.oclc.org
December 3, 2024 at 9:37 PM
Did you know that Leigh Hunt kept a *Hair Book*? Yes, a *Hair Book*: an album of locks belonging to literary greats.
And the good folk @ransomcenter.bsky.social have digitized it.
Thanks to my student @sadpphicstanza.bsky.social for telling me about this.
And the good folk @ransomcenter.bsky.social have digitized it.
Thanks to my student @sadpphicstanza.bsky.social for telling me about this.
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
For those who missed the press around the William Blake discoveries (mentioned in our previous post), catch up here: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/media/...
Engravings discovered on reverse of copper plates thought to be the earliest produced by William Blake
www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
December 2, 2024 at 3:17 PM
For those who missed the press around the William Blake discoveries (mentioned in our previous post), catch up here: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/media/...
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
Luminous Port Meadow
December 2, 2024 at 7:18 AM
Luminous Port Meadow
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
Paul Sandby, c.1759 - Old Chairs to Mend. London Museum.
December 2, 2024 at 9:29 AM
Paul Sandby, c.1759 - Old Chairs to Mend. London Museum.
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
(And on the subject of near-perfect sonnets, this — from @ravoon.bsky.social’s Last of the Coalmine Choirboys — is magnificent.
“…the sun has gone / to pieces in the song-forsaken sky”)
“…the sun has gone / to pieces in the song-forsaken sky”)
November 30, 2024 at 10:31 AM
(And on the subject of near-perfect sonnets, this — from @ravoon.bsky.social’s Last of the Coalmine Choirboys — is magnificent.
“…the sun has gone / to pieces in the song-forsaken sky”)
“…the sun has gone / to pieces in the song-forsaken sky”)
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
It’s always life-affirming when you enjoy a reading so much you buy the book the next day, then you re-read properly and it’s even better than you remember. I’m loving @niaandthepoems.bsky.social’s Backalong, and the title sonnet is so close to ideal form you could almost mistake it for perfect.
November 30, 2024 at 10:16 AM
It’s always life-affirming when you enjoy a reading so much you buy the book the next day, then you re-read properly and it’s even better than you remember. I’m loving @niaandthepoems.bsky.social’s Backalong, and the title sonnet is so close to ideal form you could almost mistake it for perfect.
This essay by Fara Dabhoiwala is stupendously good. Both scholarly detective work and storytelling of the highest order.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due
The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 30, 2024 at 9:18 AM
This essay by Fara Dabhoiwala is stupendously good. Both scholarly detective work and storytelling of the highest order.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by David Francis Taylor
you could ask your library to order if you want
The Cambridge Companion to Romanticism and Race
Cambridge Core - English Literature 1700-1830 - The Cambridge Companion to Romanticism and Race
www.cambridge.org
November 13, 2024 at 1:24 AM
you could ask your library to order if you want