Joe

Lessons from The History Man

My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...

Thanks mate! Appreciate it

Lessons from The History Man Michael Hordern and Anthony Sher in the TV adaptation of Malcom Bradbury's 1975 novel. (Credit: BBC)

‘Half a century on, Howard Kirk still has plenty to teach us about class, intellectuals, and the real importance of a university education’ | Joe Williams

Lessons from The History Man

My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...

Thanks Michael! I look forward to reading this

Big Farmer: The Reapers by Ivan Morison I tend not to make a habit of standing in a field in the rain. Most days I’d rather do anything else, like wait for a bus or lick a thousand postage stamps.

My short review of ‘The Reapers’, Ivan Morison’s imposing yet wacky set of four-metre-high piles of ‘agricultural material’, is now on my substack: lifeisnotanovel.substack.com/p/big-farmer-the-reapers-by-ivan-morison

One underreported facet of the Great University Crisis is the contribution of a small number of consultancy firms who recommend:
*Centralise functions
*Cut small courses
*Reduce student options
*Abolish loads of joint awards
*Chop staff headcount
This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)

Characteristically witty yet perceptive letter from your humble servant in this week’s TLS

When McEwan met Bradbury Joseph Williams on the birth of the creative writing course

My piece for @boundlessmagazine.bsky.social on Malcolm Bradbury and the real idea behind the UK's first MA in Creative Writing, with reference to Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie, the Goldsmiths Prize etc www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/when-mcewa...

A pleasure to join Jesus and Robert Lucas Scott for the launch of his world-historical monograph Reading Hegel with its bombastic green livery

Yes please do! I’d be very interested to read it

Long one from me in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social letters, about the fact that Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man was never really about sociology

I’ve got an idea for an article on the gothic, epistolary fiction, provenance, affect and immediacy… with reference to the obvious combo of Frankenstein, Dracula, M. R. James and (of course) the Castle of Otranto… but no idea where to place it once written. Any recommendations?

Reading Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ I’m struck by the faint sequence of ‘fire or lime’ then ‘thick green light’ then ‘such high zest’. Is this a deliberate citral pun?

Thanks Gabriel!

This year I’ll be writing the ‘Fiction 1945-2000’ section for the 2024 edition of The Year’s Work in English Studies. If you published a monograph / chapter / article on (or mostly on) British fiction from 1945 to 2000 between 1st January and 31st December 2024, please let me know! Thanks

Thanks Becky!

Thanks Dominic!

Thanks mate!

I’ve just been made aware that if you are just one month late paying a tuition fee payment, @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social will slap on a £50 ‘late fee’ before emailing or ringing to check on you (and your ‘welfare’) and ask why you aren’t able to pay the fee. Even HMRC offer payment plans! Outrageous

Thank you, Vivster!

Thank you!

Congratulations Dr Williams! It has been a pleasure working with you. It’s an excellent thesis- and will make a brilliant book. Cheers 🥂

Thanks, Jenny!

Thanks!

Very pleased to have passed my viva this afternoon. Big up!

Novels by James Patterson in the window of an Oxfam Shop.

Dozens more novels by James Patterson inside the same Oxfam shop.

“Hello, I was wondering if you had anything in stock by James Patterson? You do? Oh.”

STAR: War of the psycho scumbag chatbots #TomorrowsPapersToday

Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.

How timely