Nothing to write home about
I am privileged to work on some very international and interdisciplinary journals. This has brought me into correspondence with a wide range of authors from different academic and geographic backgrounds. Every academic discipline has its own language, even when it is all conducted in English (or any other language). There are specialised vocabularies such that a… Continue reading Academic writing, disciplines and difference
Moving into my first house last year brought lots of new lessons in home ownership but also in gardening. I had insisted that my next home had to be a house, with a garden, but probably underestimated both the care and reward involved, in that order. On moving in, the small front and back… Continue reading Gardening (and reading about gardening)
I finished reading Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall on the day the UK’s Public Lending Right revealed figures to show that its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, was the 8th most borrowed library book in the country in 2013. Apparently this is the first Man Booker Prize-winning book to feature in the top ten and… Continue reading Book review: Wolf Hall
I was lucky enough to go along to the book launch for Naomi Wood’s (@NaomiWoodBooks) second book, Mrs. Hemingway. The British Library venue was buzzing with happy authors, publishing folk, family and friends. In her speech, Wood’s editor, Francesca Main (@FrancescaMain, Picador), introduced the author as 'Hemingway's fifth wife'. Wood then read movingly not from… Continue reading Book review: Mrs. Hemingway
Towards the end of last year I went on a wonderful three-week holiday to Australia. It is one of my favourite places, if it is fair to think of it as one place – in three weeks I saw just a tiny fraction of it on this visit. My parents lived in Melbourne for a… Continue reading Mini-returns and unfamiliar ‘homes’
The worldwide release of The Rosie Project caught my eye a long time before I saw it advertised on posters at tube stations. The title on its own conjured an English-country garden image of spring flowers in muted purples and yellows, so the bright, abstract cover in red, white, black and green caught my eye… Continue reading Book review: The Rosie Project
I have been happily tapping away on Pages for a while now but only used the proofreading function recently. I already had the spell checker turned on so my pages are decorated by red dotted lines where I resist the opportunity to correct/'Americanize' my spelling (note to self: change dictionary language). Running the proofreader on… Continue reading Proofreading and gendered language
I have just finished re-reading Tolkien's The Hobbit, inspired to return to a childhood book by the forthcoming film. This reminded me that Bilbo's journey and subsequent memoir are a perfect depiction of what it means to return home after living abroad or, as in The Hobbit, after an extended trip away. Since this is… Continue reading There and back again: a hobbit returns home
Madeleine Hatfield 