I have also recently begun a new job as Director of Studies in English at Trinity College, Cambridge. I have very much enjoyed running various outreach activities over the summer, and I am greatly looking forward to the start of term.

A few bits of personal news. I recently passed my PhD 'The Ends of a Line and the Passion of History'. It makes the case that the end of the poetic line is philosophically and ethically useful, and has been for centuries.

Some pictures from my visit to the Freud Museum freudmuseumlondon.bsky.social

The couch, and Anna Freud’s brooch

Very pleased to be leading the "Literature" course in Trinity's Humanities Residential next week. I'll be lecturing on Chaucer's rhymes, Plato's hatreds, Tennyson's genius, and Barrett Browning's polyglossia. Excited to meet some very bright young students, and to attempt wit:

I hadn't looked at Housman's letters for a while and I had forgotten what catty joy they are

Astonished and deeply moved by the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Wallace Collection. Rarely, if ever, have I felt in the presence of genius at a contemporary art exhibition - Grayson Perry is a total wizard, genius, and a serious force for good in our fragile world

Writing about Felicia Hemans today, in relation to the somewhat ignored feminist theory of Catherine Clément. Gripping stuff