Plashing Vole
@plashingvole.bsky.social
Mild-mannered lecturer by day…mild-mannered lecturer by night. Welsh lit, politicians’ fictions. Fencer, cyclist, UCU. Dysgwr Cymraeg; tá gaeilge agam. Barnau fy hun.
Read books; join unions; block cookies.
Read books; join unions; block cookies.
Two excellent National Trust bookshop purchases this weekend. I love forgotten novelist Beverley Nichols’ work and never see them with a dustjacket. £8. I’m co/editing a journal issue on Co-ops in literature and culture, so Upton Sinclair’s Coop is another great find - £6.
November 30, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Two excellent National Trust bookshop purchases this weekend. I love forgotten novelist Beverley Nichols’ work and never see them with a dustjacket. £8. I’m co/editing a journal issue on Co-ops in literature and culture, so Upton Sinclair’s Coop is another great find - £6.
Yesterday I visited a mansion built in Dutch style and filled with Dutch art, designed by William of Orange’s architect. It’s like that because a rich slaver and civil servant wanted the new regime to like and reward him. So no surprise that the Establishment grovels to the new masters even now.
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Yesterday I visited a mansion built in Dutch style and filled with Dutch art, designed by William of Orange’s architect. It’s like that because a rich slaver and civil servant wanted the new regime to like and reward him. So no surprise that the Establishment grovels to the new masters even now.
It’s OK. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are waiting for him.
November 29, 2025 at 5:22 PM
It’s OK. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are waiting for him.
Reposted by Plashing Vole
“Is that in Southern Ireland?”
February 28, 2025 at 9:10 AM
“Is that in Southern Ireland?”
Rather a lovely day out at Dyrham Park. More proof that the worst people built the finest houses.
November 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Rather a lovely day out at Dyrham Park. More proof that the worst people built the finest houses.
Days like this rather challenge my commitment to public transport in this benighted backwater. Train 90 minutes late. Bus an hour late and counting…they’re meant to be every 20 minutes. 4 and a half hours to travel almost 100km and I’m still not there. Sigh.
November 28, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Days like this rather challenge my commitment to public transport in this benighted backwater. Train 90 minutes late. Bus an hour late and counting…they’re meant to be every 20 minutes. 4 and a half hours to travel almost 100km and I’m still not there. Sigh.
They’ll fill up at a Shell station.
It will be easy to catch them because of the snail trail.
Their getaway vehicle?
Escargo
Escargo
November 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM
They’ll fill up at a Shell station.
In positive news, I've just paid the deposit to get solar panels and a battery. With redundancy a distinct possibility in the next couple of years I decided to do my bit for the environment while I have the cash. Projected electricity bills are c.£7 per month as I use so little power.
November 28, 2025 at 11:51 AM
In positive news, I've just paid the deposit to get solar panels and a battery. With redundancy a distinct possibility in the next couple of years I decided to do my bit for the environment while I have the cash. Projected electricity bills are c.£7 per month as I use so little power.
My decision to leave the Labour Party is vindicated on a daily basis.
“We are going to ban unfairly dismissing people from work”
“But we want to be able to dismiss people unfairly”
“I guess you’re right, let’s compromise on that”
WHAT??
“But we want to be able to dismiss people unfairly”
“I guess you’re right, let’s compromise on that”
WHAT??
November 28, 2025 at 7:59 AM
My decision to leave the Labour Party is vindicated on a daily basis.
The Serpents (Welsh supergroup) where I was the only paying customer so they bought me a pint and still played the gig
Kate Bush
@lowtheband.bsky.social in a pub’s upstairs room
Philip Glass in a cathedral
Premiere of Festen the opera
Broadcast surrounded by freshers with their hands over their ears
Kate Bush
@lowtheband.bsky.social in a pub’s upstairs room
Philip Glass in a cathedral
Premiere of Festen the opera
Broadcast surrounded by freshers with their hands over their ears
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
The Magnetic Fields
The Earlies
The Soft Boys
Transglobal Underground
The Triffids
The Magnetic Fields
The Earlies
The Soft Boys
Transglobal Underground
The Triffids
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
Kraftwerk
Lenny Kravitz
The Wonderstuff
The Prodigy
Inspiral Carpets
Kraftwerk
Lenny Kravitz
The Wonderstuff
The Prodigy
Inspiral Carpets
November 27, 2025 at 11:33 PM
The Serpents (Welsh supergroup) where I was the only paying customer so they bought me a pint and still played the gig
Kate Bush
@lowtheband.bsky.social in a pub’s upstairs room
Philip Glass in a cathedral
Premiere of Festen the opera
Broadcast surrounded by freshers with their hands over their ears
Kate Bush
@lowtheband.bsky.social in a pub’s upstairs room
Philip Glass in a cathedral
Premiere of Festen the opera
Broadcast surrounded by freshers with their hands over their ears
Reposted by Plashing Vole
I heard a story about a female academic giving a paper at the IHR who, after receiving a long and aggressive question from a senior male professor, simply leaned back with her hands behind her head and replied “Oh, do fuck off.”
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
This path leads to chaos.
November 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
I heard a story about a female academic giving a paper at the IHR who, after receiving a long and aggressive question from a senior male professor, simply leaned back with her hands behind her head and replied “Oh, do fuck off.”
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
November 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
Monday morning used to be about a few moments' fantasy, receiving the Jobs.ac.uk round-up and dreaming of other roles in other places.
The dream died.
The dream died.
November 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Monday morning used to be about a few moments' fantasy, receiving the Jobs.ac.uk round-up and dreaming of other roles in other places.
The dream died.
The dream died.
Reposted by Plashing Vole
I'm super pleased to announce that my book, Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel is out in paperback with Edinburgh University Press next month!
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel
Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel
edinburghuniversitypress.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I'm super pleased to announce that my book, Psychic Connection and the Twentieth-Century British Novel is out in paperback with Edinburgh University Press next month!
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
The paperback is already very reasonably priced (if I do say so myself), but the code PAPER30 will get you 30% off.
Reposted by Plashing Vole
Representing @quaker.org.uk at the National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis in a packed Methodist Central Hall. Impressive list of speakers but suspect we're in for quite a challenging morning. I'll keep you posted.
November 27, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Representing @quaker.org.uk at the National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis in a packed Methodist Central Hall. Impressive list of speakers but suspect we're in for quite a challenging morning. I'll keep you posted.
The 1930s house in question:
November 27, 2025 at 9:14 AM
The 1930s house in question:
Great #budget news for Cymru/Wales: it’s going to be a playground for plagiarising hallucination machines powered by nuclear waste that will poison the earth for thousands of years!
November 26, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Great #budget news for Cymru/Wales: it’s going to be a playground for plagiarising hallucination machines powered by nuclear waste that will poison the earth for thousands of years!
I know I’m harping on, but making it ever cheaper to fuel a massive SUV (and encouraging more North Sea oil and gas) is not my idea of tackling a climate *emergency*.
Another Budget, another attempt to pretend that endlessly frozen fuel duties will be raised at some point in the future
November 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I know I’m harping on, but making it ever cheaper to fuel a massive SUV (and encouraging more North Sea oil and gas) is not my idea of tackling a climate *emergency*.
Gotta put a ring on it, as the lady sang.
Happening this evening. I can promise some absolutely gratuitous shots of dendrochronologists in action. Bookings will remain open until 7pmGMT.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dating-anc...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dating-anc...
November 26, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Gotta put a ring on it, as the lady sang.
Curious that in a climate emergency, the BBC thinks it’s fine to have a helicopter hovering above central London for 2-3 hours solely to get shots of a car travelling 750 metres. Absolutely no news value, just burning carbon to full time. To whom do I complain?
November 26, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Curious that in a climate emergency, the BBC thinks it’s fine to have a helicopter hovering above central London for 2-3 hours solely to get shots of a car travelling 750 metres. Absolutely no news value, just burning carbon to full time. To whom do I complain?
Reposted by Plashing Vole
Which window in the HE advent calendar will have the going bust chocolate?
November 25, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Which window in the HE advent calendar will have the going bust chocolate?
Reposted by Plashing Vole
Juries are not perfect.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
November 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Juries are not perfect.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
Many of the worst miscarriages of justice have followed jury trials.
But the merit of juries is not so much the power they have, but the power they prevent others from having.
They mean a judge cannot just nod-along with prosecution evidence and give a guilty verdict.
After teaching it was Print Club. I have the acetates for the yellow and magenta layers of the CYMK process and learned to align and print them. Fiddly and fascinating. Here’s the silk screen, the yellow stage and one with yellow and magenta layers completed.
November 25, 2025 at 10:16 PM
After teaching it was Print Club. I have the acetates for the yellow and magenta layers of the CYMK process and learned to align and print them. Fiddly and fascinating. Here’s the silk screen, the yellow stage and one with yellow and magenta layers completed.
I wish I could go to this. Lynette Roberts is a wonderful and underrated poet.
On Wednesday 26 November, join us at 6.30pm at Manchester Poetry Library, where @francescabrooks.bsky.social and Martin Kratz will be introducing the life and work of Lynette Roberts, after Carcanet's recent publication of her Collected Poems.
Find out more:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poets-who-...
Find out more:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poets-who-...
Poets Who Stopped: Lynnette Roberts
Join us as we explore the life and work of poet Lynnette Roberts, delving into why she stopped writing and the impact of her legacy.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 9:42 AM
I wish I could go to this. Lynette Roberts is a wonderful and underrated poet.