From the Archives
Old posts. Still thinking them through. From the Archives revisits earlier writing, not as finished verdicts but as conversations worth continuing. Some ideas age surprisingly well. Others reveal how our thinking changes over time.
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From the Archives: 07.09.2019
‘Most students away from these UK shores adore Shakespeare. In his homeland, unless you catch them young, a dislike gets deep under the skin and stays engrained, enduring wind and weather.’ Ben Crystal
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From the Archives: 03.09.2018
Reading is an ongoing conversation between the writer and the reader.
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From the Archives: 23.08.18
Never mind Romeo’s chat-up lines – can you be a great writer if you’re not at least a good reader?
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From the Archives: 10.08.2018
Capulet’s party? A ‘meat-market’?! That’s what I called it eight years ago this week …
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From The Archives: 08.08.2019
Watching Shakespeare from the yard is much closer to standing on the football terraces than sitting in hospitality.
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From the Archives: 27.07.18
‘you ought to be able to do this – and enjoy the process – for any text’. Challenge accepted!
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From the Archives: 22.07.19
Two extraordinary figures whose stories seemed destined to collide … pre-photography, how did they picture each other?
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From The Archives: 08.07.19
1 Henry IV has almost everything you could ask from a play – including warcrimes. Back in 2019, I put the dreadful news under the analytic news under the microscope.
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From The Archives: 24.06.19
Seven years ago, my eldest was married. I asked Gayle Rubin, Germaine Greer, and Brinda Charry to help me articulate some ideas on marriage in Shakespeare. I’m pleased to say the marriage, and their views, have aged better than I have.
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From the Archives: 17.06.19
Filial disobedience arrives as suddenly as a dandelion on your lawn – but by the time you see the flower, the roots are long established.