The chances of me being invited to choose eight records to pack away for the life of a castaway on an otherwise uninhabited island remain, well, negligible is to put it too positively. So I thought, okay, I’ll interview myself, if only for my own amusement. Like most ‘real’ invitees to ‘Desert Island Discs’, I… Read More »
Given time to dwell on the pros and cons of an academic career several themes occur as of significance, hence the obscure quasi-mathematical title of this autobiographical blog. Serendipity suggests events that crop up fortuitously and incur advantage; reflexivity denotes active agency; happenstance brings contingency to mind; career and cv are more straightforward. I will… Read More »
It may or may not be related to the fact that I’ve just turned 73 that I’ve found myself more often reflecting – or introspecting – on what it is I do when I write. I think fatigue has something to do with it. I tend to write in bursts, most notably in cafes on… Read More »
I have reflected before on my personal background. Briefly, I was born to parents whose middle-class lives had been disrupted by the WW2. My father had been in line for promotion to the board of a company specialising in German shipping. After a brief period in Hamburg helping wrap up what little was left of… Read More »
As someone who retired eight years ago I have been managing the transition to the complete lack of relevance of my CV. Ok, I still publish stuff and I keep an updated note on my website of my publications (www.grahamscambler.com), but I appreciate that these are no longer a matter of institutional significance or consequence.… Read More »
I’ve just had my first zoom meeting with Paul Higgs and Joanna Moncrieff from UCL. It was a poor substitute for our weekly coffees on Wednesdays in Tottenham Court Road but very welcome nonetheless. I even coped with the technology, having resolutely refused to engage in academic events via zoom for the past year or… Read More »
I have ruminated episodically on the trivial issue of whether or not I can claim to be a writer. My provisional conclusion has been that I am an (ex)university teacher primarily, which has of course involved quite a bit of writing, but that I cannot be said to have made my living as a writer.… Read More »
From 2006 my office settled in Mortimer Market on the ‘other side’ of Tottenham Court Road. I was now closer to UCL in Gower Street in more than a geographical sense. As well as constantly retracing the long familiar route to Dillons/Waterstones I found I was making more extended use of UCL’s classrooms and facilities.… Read More »
I spent many hours walking into Soho, or more likely through it, even before settling into my various offices in Fitzrovia. While based in Charing Cross HMS on Fulham Palace Road from 1975-1978 I often ventured eastwards via Soho, usually with visiting the – then many – secondhand bookshops along Charing Cross Road foremost in… Read More »