Spent part of Bank Holiday Saturday mooching round Blackwells and Waterstones in Oxford, after discovering that the Bodleian was shut because of the holiday. (Memo to self: check the website next time). After a minor tantrum outside the Divinity School, I reconciled myself to following up some references the following weekend instead. In the bookshops […]
Writing and Researching
Writing is a dangerous sport
Yesterday I burnt down the Commons’ Library, and today I’m doing the same with the Lords. Actually, I’ve been on leave for the last five days (of nine), determined to get the first draft of the book ready for checking by the beginning of September. I’ve been working about ten hours a day, and now have […]
A McGonagall Ancestor?
Transcribed a hilarious verse broadsheet today on the fire, which includes the deathless couplet: Oh dear, oh dear, what a consternation / This affair will cause throughout the nation. Must work the pome into the book somehow…
My Life as an Ant
As most people at work are on holiday today, my email box is deliciously quiet. This enables me to head out at noon, rather than working through my lunch hour as usual, to go to the British Library to renew my reader’s ticket in anticipation of a research visit next week. It’s twenty years since […]
The Story So Far
I’ve been researching this book seriously for three or four years now, but it’s only in the last six months that I’ve really got down to doing some serious writing. That’s been aided by finding a range of new sources, and by setting up a permanent writing station in the cellar (otherwise our dining room). […]
