Nothing like compiling your index to find out what your book is actually about. So far, it seems 'ambivalence', 'chance', 'control', 'death' and 'hands'.

'These days, I stress that close reading is not magic. Its power lies in argument: always vulnerable, nothing simpler and yet nothing harder.'

Loved this both tender and sobering defence of close reading:

www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

Fun times to be in Modern Languages.

We're launching a really exciting new MSt in Creative Translation - details here. Oxford has a wealth of brilliant translator energy and I am excited to see what will come out of this. Please forward to likely sorts! www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/news/2025/11...

I wrote a book on Montaigne! Here's some proof(s).

Early Modern caption competition - literally (c.1680)

absorbing #ValentinesDay BBCFreeThinking BBCRadio4 lineup on the many meanings of romantic love. Suffice it to say Ann & I were dining out—in Perth 🥰. Rana Mitter with Susie Orbach @armanddangour.bsky.social
@rhymeswithditto.bsky.social
Catherine Wheatley, Mary Harrod
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Going to be putting forward my best defenses for the anti-love camp this Valentine's Day, on BBC Radio 4:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Giving this another go. Any other accidental #earlymodernists / #seiziemistes / people who don't quite fit in period or disciplinary boundaries out there?🫡

I reviewed Daisy Lafarge's Lovebug--a chance to think about interdisciplinarity, genre, irritation & what they might have to do with love.
review31.co.uk/article/view...

Book edits procrastination has reached a whole new level and I am now reading Montaigne's astrological birth chart.

It's nice and quiet here.