A PhD is something like a good mystery story: the aim is to show the world you see something the rest of us don't. Let's look at the method common between mysteries and PhDs.
Poetry 101:2 – Emphasise
Welcome to Poetry 101! The revision podcast that teaches you how, why, and where you already know it from. Every episode we are take a poem your teacher might give you and a song you probably know and investigate a literary technique, so that next time you have an exam or an essay youโre prepared.... Continue Reading →
Poetry 101:1 – Summarise
transcript of a podcast I wrote on how to decode poetry at a basic level. episode 1 - summarise.
The Central London Library Review
Literally just a list of central London libraries marked on aspects that add up to ~vibe~
Robert Owen & The Prisoner: Harmony in America
You might think that the only connection between these two erstwhile passions of mine is Wales: one is a story of dogged individualism seeking freedom, set against the backdrop of Portmerion, a peculiar citadel on the Welsh coast that is woven into the narrative of the whole show, whilst the other is a collectively-minded Welshman whose work prefigured Marx and Jamie Oliver, but when they put themselves in the American landscape both The Prisoner and Owen chose harmony as the word that would best encapsulate their American sojourn.
Sally Rooney as Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler, whose books show the mundane and interior lives of radicals, sits alongside our foremost millennial novelist, reading her works is reading a version of the anxieties and experiences my compatriots and I have lived.
Giving Up The Ghosts of a Previous Year
A look back on 2022 and a look forward to how I want to do 2023
My Journey To Breakfast At Tiffanyโs
My first encounter with Breakfast At Tiffanyโs was Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy and rhinestones. Like a lot of little girls, I had the calendar and the costume jewellery and a battery-powered vintage-looking alarm clock that had the Robert McGinnis poster emblazoned on it in technicolour - one that I kept long after it stopped functioning... Continue Reading →
The Biographical Imperative: Reading Paul Simon like we’d read Taylor Swift
The way we read Swift is gendered and somewhat modern: her 'eras' align with the aesthetics she presents, and stan culture has dissected every relationship she's ever had until we're all sure who or what inspired every song. What if we read other Grammy royals this way?
Celebrities with single names: an academic analysis.
We as a society often hold up celebrities with a single name as the epitome of success as they are evoked as an individual by so little, showing how transcendent they are, but perhaps we are overlooking the inherent paternalistic and racist subtleties of denying a person their full name in the media?