Bottom as Pyramus: die die die die die I am DEAD #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Bottom as Pyramus (Geoffrey Hutchings) preparing to stab himself @the-rsc.bsky.social 1981, dir. Ron Daniels des. Maria Björnson. Modern productions often favour a light sabre.

Would anyone like a copy of this book? I’ve ended up with two….

Theseus: the best actors are still only shadows... #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hippolyta thinks it's SILLY; Theseus says that theatre needs the audience to imagine too. Hedydd Dylan in the Headlong Dream in the Wanamaker last winter; Michael Marcus as Theseus, Tiwa Lade as Hermia.

I've had an uptick of these since my Live Literature Database entry went live. A recent one had even CC'd other writers on the same database - to which @erisyoung.bsky.social helpfully responded by sending a 'reply all' confirming its scam status. They went a bit quiet after that.

Brilliant account of the stuffed-shirt complacent ignorant elitism that is a Lords discussion of HE, by @mcraeandrew.bsky.social: www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hous...

Society for Renaissance Studies: Two scholarships of £4,000 each, to contribute to the costs of postgraduate study. rensoc.org.uk/apply/schola...

Wrote about the desperate Farage bid for the @lrb.co.uk: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Recommend this novel - one of my favourites this year for its oddness, sweetness and strange optimism.

So, there is a precedent for vetoing an MP's resignation Viscount Chelsea (Henry Cadogan) applied for the Chiltern Hundreds in 1842 The Chancellor (Goulburn) refused because, get this, Cadogan wanted to resign to obstruct an investigation for bribery h/t @fascinatorfun.bsky.social and @gazhay.com

I've no idea what to say except "Solidarity" with everyone engaged with UKHEI right now What a thoroughly anxiety-inducing time this is

From today’s Times letters page. #DefendExeterUni

The link for the University of Hertfordshire petition is here: www.change.org/p/save-the-h...

Have you signed the change.org petition to fight cuts in Humanities and Social Science departments at Exeter yet? If so, you might want to sign this, too: there's a wholesale attack on the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire. This goes way beyond a single institution: it's an ecosystem.

Really basic q for the book nerds on here: A while ago I saw an archive had been awarded funding from a scheme set up exclusively to support conservation work on rare books. Can anyone remember what the scheme was? I thought it might be through the Pilgrim Trust but that looks like a different one

Sadly not going to #IMC2026 next week, so I wonder if @imc-leeds.bsky.social could repost that we have a fixed term (10 months) #job here at @newcastleuni.bsky.social to teach #Medieval #English #Literature with me and other colleagues. Closing Date: 2026-07-09 See jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

Theseus: I'm used to nervous speeches, goes with the territory #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Slightly later, obviously, but here's an example of how to solve a perennial 'problem' both here & in Hamlet: where do you put the onstage audience? Harley Granville Barker at the Savoy 1914

Any liturgical scholars out there? I think this leaf straddles two consecutive Sundays: Homilia III in Dominica Tertia post Trinitatem on Luke 15:4 and Homilia IV in Dominica Quarta post Trinitatem on Luke 6:37. There's notation (v rubbed) on the lower half. Need some help identifying use. Thanks!

*Call for Papers* @srsrensoc.bsky.social has announced its next #conference at the Warburg. 'The Renaissance beyond Borders' frames the #Renaissance as a dynamic, interwoven process that transcends the geographical limitations of a fixed European moment. Learn more ➡️ rensoc.org.uk/announcement...

Today’s Midsummer Day so final #MidsummerNightsDream. Not in my OWC edition but maybe in my NEXT book (stay tuned ;-)) dir Atri Banerjee at Regent's Park.Loved Bottom & Puck A LOT. Also, l somehow manifested my cover art colours for a pic:)  Preorder here: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

It’s a huge one! Today we publish Paradise Lost in the Oxford Milton, ed by Thomas Corns & David Loewenstein. I can’t begin to describe the herculean effort & sheer commitment that the project has demanded of the editors - it’s awe-inspiring to witness this triumph global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Today’s featured production from my #Introduction for #OWC #MidsummerNightsDream is the adaptation & translation dir. Habib Tanvir, *Kamdev Ka Apna Basant Ritu Ka Sapna*. Tanvir's casting+use of dialects drew attention to class divisions & rural/urban divides in MND. Preorder: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

Lovers, lunatics, poets: all mad! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Sometimes the weddings are staged, as in the current Globe Dream, a rainbow floral delight: here Jason Battersby (whom I saw reading in as Oberon/Theseus, v impressively) unites Lysander (Mel Lowe) & Hermia (Sophie Cox)

if you take the train from Thorpe-le-Soken to London Road (Brighton), you will be travelling from station code TLS to station code LRB

The Globe Much Ado is a perfect summer night out, dir. Chelsea Walker, with a terrific ensemble led from the front by lovely Ken Nwosu (Benedick) & fantastic Pippa Nixon as Beatrice, mercurial, touching, funny (& a Dirty Dancing lift in the 'jig'❤️) Richard Katz a born Dogberry, in the best way! GO!

Today’s featured production from my #Introduction for #OWC #midsummernightsdream is close to my ❤️. It was an NYU London & RADA production dir. Vivian Munn. Enjoyed the queer love triangle of Snout/Wall, Bottom/ Pyramus, Flute/Thisbe Preorder here: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

Writing an essay for this fabulous collection & working with @aidannorrie.bsky.social and @matthewsteggle.bsky.social was so much fun. I recommend you ALL work with them* *within reason, that is—don’t suffocate them with a swathe of your scintillating scholarship 😬

A supposed 17th-c. model ship turns out to be later. So far, so ordinary. BUT, gloriously, its 20th-c. restoration was modelled on (drumroll please) Captain Haddock’s ancestor’s ship in Tintin. www.ledevoir.com/culture/9886...

Last and least, FWIW, my current AI policy for students. Subject to revision. Recommendations welcome.

Two-year early modern English job, at Oriel College and the Oxford English Faculty, starting October. Happy to field any questions! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Today’s featured production from my new #Introduction for #OWC #MidsummerNightsDream is the @the-rsc.bsky.social dir Erica Whyman. Billed 'A Play for the Nation', a professional cast toured around the UK & collaborated with different amateur theatre companies. Preorder here: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

Utilisez le pouvoir qui est le vôtre - mon appel aux dirigeants du G7 dans @lemonde.fr aujourd’hui: www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...

One thing I like to do in public talks: mention relevant work @ the host institution. Even just a quick shout out — I see you! — is not only rhetorically advantageous in building pathos; it also highlights projects that are often invisible internally + lets local leaders know abt external validation

In 1908 the Lancet called for an 18+ age limit on reading in bed for U.K. children.

I have not so far seen anyone advance the logical explanation that this is Tybalt's Ghost. www.stuff.co.nz/humour/36099...

Today’s featured production from my #Introduction 4 #OWC #MidsummerNightsDream is *Midsummer Mechanicals* (dir Kerry Frampton+Lucy Cuthbertson). So joyous - it created a sense of community in the theatre. My interview with Frampton: www.buzzsprout.com/891835/episo... Preorder: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

One of my favourites — Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy.

Today’s featured production from my #Introduction for #OWC #MidsummerNightsDream is dir. by Nicholas Hytner @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Hippolyta was a war captive in a glass cage & audience knew she was being coerced into marrying Theseus. Preorder MND: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

Today’s featured production from my Introduction for OWC #MidsummerNightsDream is *Flourish* by @1623theatre.bsky.social. It enlists imaginative help of children in restoring environmental damage caused by Titania &Oberon's quarrel Info: www.1623theatre.co.uk/flourish Preorder: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

Theseus: you don't hate each other then? Lysander: UM? #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Theseus might well ask what's been going on 😳 the lovers awake in Michael Hoffman's 1999 film: Helena (Calista Flockhart), Demetrius (Christian Bale), Lysander (Dominic West), Hermia (Anna Friel)

The puppet Venus & Adonis (first saw it 2004) is still the most heavenly thing 💕One more performance in Cambridge tonight, Oxford next week. GO! an hour of love, lust, horses, a terrifying boar, an adorable hare, & Shakespeare's great poem read by the inimitable Simon Russell Beale, dir. Greg Doran.

@jackewilson.bsky.social talks to Marjorie Garber about the long reach of authors like William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Kyd, and others, whose works exposed the lies and hypocrisies of one of America's darkest periods. #books #literature @yalepress.bsky.social

Hi all, the NT is advertising a Prop Maker Apprenticeship — jobs.nationaltheatre.org.uk/job/prop-mak... which would be a great & perhaps unexpected fit for anyone considering a career in carpentry, furniture making, or who just likes making stuff and being in a team! Lack of quals/exp no issue.

Very touched by Peter Marshall's review of This Little World in the latest @historytoday.com, his recognition of its 'bittersweet ironies' and what studying the past can tell us about belonging.

Day 4 of #MidsummerCountdown Today’s featured production 4rm my #Introduction 4 #OWC #MND is the @dasharts.bsky.social 1 dir. #TimSupple Indian & Sri Lankan actors performed in English &six SouthAsian languages with astute wordplay! Prod lmage: @the-rsc.bsky.social Preorder: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

📚📚📚 My book A Bright Cold Day: The Wonder of George Orwell is out in paperback today (4 June 2026)! It re-reads Orwell's concern with politics and justice by seeing it through the magic of the ordinary. 📚📚📚 #georgeorwell #orwell @oneworldbooks.bsky.social oneworld-publications.com/work/a-brigh...

Day 3 of my #MidsummerCountdown Today’s featured production from my #Introduction for #OWC #MND is a web series by TheCandleWasters from New Zealand. The 'Mechanicals' are reimagined as Gen Z & they are fiery! Webseries here: youtu.be/hacdY1hJdHk?... Preorder the MND edition: tinyurl.com/mre4rwtu

Oberon: time to remove the donkey ears #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... The gorgeous, stage-struck Bottom (disco version) played by Adrian Richards in the current Globe Dream. A reminder that there's still art & community & sweetness in the world. And bubbles, a LOT of bubbles. GO!

✨ Out today! ✨ Happy publication day to #AGoldenWorld @faberbooks.bsky.social 🎉🎉 uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-go...

Sad to hear Marjane Satrapi, author of this extraordinary memoir, has died