@profjsanders.bsky.social
Vice-Chancellor & Principal Royal Holloway University of London. Proud Trustee at Shakespeare’s Globe, Advisory Board member HEPI. Hopeless optimist. Treading gently. Views my own.
A Christmas tree made of knitted squares with knitted and crocheted decorations
Behold! The famous Orkney Library & Archive knitted #Christmas tree begins another season of festive cheer in the library! 🎄🧶❤️
06.12.2025 10:05 — 👍 450 🔁 55 💬 7 📌 2"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
A story Stoppard told several times, in several places:
29.11.2025 18:10 — 👍 2312 🔁 777 💬 19 📌 31Sunrise can be seen through bare winter trees. There is an orange glow and a trace of frost on the grass and balustrades that frame the scene
One advantage of a very early UUK meeting this morning ahead of our Council strategy away day is catching the sunrise through the trees on campus @royalholloway.bsky.social
26.11.2025 07:49 — 👍 11 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Monet Houses of Parliament at sunset
"In London #November isn't a month, it's a state of mind."
Antal Szerb, Journey by Moonlight
founders building at Royal Holloway university in silhouette against a night sky. The lights of the chapel can be seen through the huge arched windows and the clock tower gleams out
A lilac tinged long view of the empty chapel just before guests arrive. The dramatic black and white floor stretches towards the decorated end of the chapel. Wooden row seating can be seen on either side
The choir sings in the chapel beneath an image of St Cecilia . a conductor is directing them dressed in black and on a raised step
It was quite something 🎶🕯️
23.11.2025 16:25 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0And looking forward very much to our St Cecilia concert @royalholloway.bsky.social this evening …🎶
22.11.2025 17:17 — 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Happy #MobileLibrariesDay! 📚
An annual celebration of all the intrepid Mobile Library drivers who head out across the urban, rural and island communities of Scotland every week, delivering books, knowledge and entertainment. 📚
#BookWeekScotland #LoveLibraries
Cover of Textile Shakespeare by Hester Lees Jeffries showing a sample of material in close up. The colours are cream and grey predominantly
When a book you have been longing to read arrives and when it is by one of the loveliest people you get the privilege to know @starcrossed2018.bsky.social ❤️📚🪡
13.11.2025 16:59 — 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0A large gothic church - image taken from high up looking down at an exhibition. There are temporary walls displayed throughout featuring text art and table covered in books
Woman stood in front of an exhibition area where Susie Campbell’s wound is positioned - framed images of torn fabrics are on the wall and a
Concertina books on a mirror table reflecting the ceiling of a church
Welcome to ‘The Living Library’: a pop-up exhibition of material ecopoetry curated by @royalholloway.bsky.social and the Landmark Arts Centre 🍃🍁🐝🦇
This event forms part of Being Human Festival - the national festival of the humanities 🧡
Image shows a knitted post box topper decorated with white and red poppies and the message “We Will Remember Them”
On my way back from the Englefield Green Remembrance Sunday events … #LestWeForget 🕊️
09.11.2025 12:10 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0An old monochrome picture postcard showing a photograph of a magnificently ornate biding, looking like a French chateau. Printed under the photo is "The Royal Holloway College, Egham". Handwritten in pencil is "Passed the College as we walked to Virginia Water. Is not it a fine building? Does it come up to the B F Library?"
Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of @royalholloway.bsky.social
Founded in 1879 by Thomas Holloway, who had made his fortune selling patent medicines, it was one of @londonu.bsky.social's colleges for women
If you like this image, please retweet it - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm
How fabulous …. Can’t wait to read, huge congratulations ❤️
31.10.2025 21:04 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0A drawing of a bat looking into a hood on a pole.
Happy Halloween from the Wren Library, our Halloween Bat is courageously looking into this spooky hood.
mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/B...
f182v
Have a complete love of gingerbread I must confess so definitely recommend ….
31.10.2025 19:50 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Happy Halloween 🎃
31.10.2025 18:50 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Cover image of Patrick Cheney Placing Elysiam in Renaissance Britain book published by Oxford university Press
The full Early Modern Literary Geographies series on display on a wooden bookshelf. The livery is white with different colours at the base identifying the different volumes …
Latest lovely volume by Patrick Cheney is now out in the Early Modern Literary Geographies series with Oxford University Press that I am very proud to co edit with Garrett A Sullivan Jr …
27.10.2025 13:27 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0View coming out of Bank station, early evening in autumn. Passers by have umbrellas up due to the rain and the evening lights are coming on providing a contrast with the waning daylight.
St Paul’s Cathedral at night, floodlit catching the white stone and the green of trees in front and with lights reflecting yellow and green onto the rain soaked pavements
THe City of London in and just after the rain is always a thing of loveliness
22.10.2025 20:43 — 👍 15 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0It was game changing theatre for me; huge thanks to channel 4 as ever for making it available to so many … that verse and so many moments (yes, god on his forklift), not least Judas handing over coins & the sudden sense of audience complicity.
28.09.2025 19:03 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0'Shakespeare's Globe Theatre' by Fiona Horan
fionahoran.com
This looks to be such an exciting exhibition - looking forward
20.09.2025 09:22 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0'October in Bedford Square' by George ER Salter (active c.1956–1959)
(Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre)
❤️📻An absolute (if occasionally nerve wracking) privilege to have been part of the programme over the years.
03.09.2025 10:51 — 👍 34 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Beautiful! Can’t wait to have this in my paws 🐾 xxxx
29.08.2025 16:58 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Sending love Richard 🐾❤️
29.08.2025 16:42 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Sending so many hugs xx
29.08.2025 13:41 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0☹️
29.08.2025 11:13 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0This was a beautiful programme, “deeply kind” in its own right. Thank you as always @horatioclare.bsky.social #Choughs
17.08.2025 18:47 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 1Meditations in an emergency Cameron Awkward-Rich I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart. There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.
“Hand on my stupid heart”
04.08.2025 11:25 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The pavilion is a series of arched panels letting the light in with sections open to the weather. A ginkgo tree is placed at the centre. people can be seen sitting at the edges and also standing and buying coffee at the far end of the structure. It is a cloudy day and the sky is visible in the open sections
Marina Tabassum’s summer pavilion at the Serpentine with its references to Bangladeshi wedding pavilions and a welcome pause to drink coffee and chat about space and congregation with my partner. #Saturday
02.08.2025 20:23 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0