Last Wednesday I traveled to London for the Katharine Briggs Lecture 2017, and the announcement of the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award. My new monograph, Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy, had been shortlisted for this prestigious international award, previously won…
Philip Pullman in Cardiff: La Belle Sauvage, Lyra’s world, and the writer’s craft
This afternoon I was fortunate to attend a brilliant event organised by Waterstones and Literature Wales. Following the publication of La Belle Sauvage on Thursday, Philip Pullman visited Cardiff to talk about the new book and his creative process more…
CFP: The Celtic Obsession in Modern Fantasy
CFP: The Celtic Obsession in Modern Fantasy You are invited to submit a paper for an edited volume tentatively titled The Celtic Obsession in Modern Fantasy Literature to be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan. Scholarship on Celtic-inspired fantasy literature has…
The value of English literature at GCSE (really? do we even need to argue this?)
Last week, Owen Sheers rightly drew attention to the perilous consequences of removing English Literature as a core subject from GSCE requirements in Wales: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41043551 I was asked to share my two penneth in a BBC Radio interview for Good Evening…
A Medieval Greek Arthurian Poem: The Old Knight
I’m in Greece right now, enjoying the sea, and pistachios (my parents have pistachio trees in their orchard), and watermelon, and figs, and all the lovely summer things. And I thought this would be a good moment to share a…
The History of Middle-earth: Exploring Tolkien’s entire ‘legendarium’
Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are, of course, his best-known works, much loved and read (and often re-read regularly!) but countless people all over the world over the years. But these two works are only the…
Henry Neff’s invented world: myth, legend and the boundaries of fantasy
Last week I blogged about Lloyd Alexander, the American fantasist who creatively reshaped elements from Welsh tradition to create an exciting fantasy world and a very successful, award-winning series of books. Alexander’s The Book of Three (1964) is the earliest…
Paul McCartney’s “The Fool on the Hill”, Tolkien’s early drawings, and the Rider-Waite Tarot
We were having a lazy morning yesterday, in the sunny, warm conservatory, and Andrew was playing The Beatles 1967-70 on his turntable, when “The Fool on the Hill” started playing. I love this song. I do understand why people tend…
Tackling your first academic conference paper: a practical guide
I was recently asked by an early career colleague for some advice on presenting their first conference paper. Instead of just an informal chat over tea/coffee, which is what I’d usually do, I felt a sudden urge to take some time to…
Leeds 2016: Tolkien Society Seminar and IMC
Well, I am back from Leeds, where I attended two wonderful events: the Tolkien Society Seminar (Sunday 3rd July), this year commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme (which Tolkien survived), packed with talks on the theme of…