Joe
@lifeisnotanovel.bsky.social
writer and critic for the TLS, Spectator, Tribune, etc / PhD from UEA on the university and literary culture / reviews editor at Critical Quarterly
Pinned
Joe
@lifeisnotanovel.bsky.social
· Mar 21
When McEwan met Bradbury
Joseph Williams on the birth of the creative writing course
www.boundlessmagazine.com
My piece for @boundlessmagazine.bsky.social on Malcolm Bradbury and the real idea behind the UK's first MA in Creative Writing, with reference to Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie, the Goldsmiths Prize etc www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/when-mcewa...
@gabrielflynn.bsky.social hi mate, regrettably Bluesky won’t let me reply to your messages! They allege it’s to ‘build a safer internet’ . But good to hear from you — I’ll reply by email now
November 18, 2025 at 7:22 PM
@gabrielflynn.bsky.social hi mate, regrettably Bluesky won’t let me reply to your messages! They allege it’s to ‘build a safer internet’ . But good to hear from you — I’ll reply by email now
Here’s my short critique for of the speech columnist/thinker/Olympian Matthew Syed gave at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this week. My thanks to George Monaghan for commissioning the piece and choosing the pensive cover image.
The folly of Matthew Syed, by Joseph Williams
The Conservatives’ favourite public intellectual has nothing new to say
The Conservatives’ favourite public intellectual has nothing new to say
The folly of Matthew Syed
The Conservatives’ favourite public intellectual has nothing new to say
www.newstatesman.com
October 10, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Here’s my short critique for of the speech columnist/thinker/Olympian Matthew Syed gave at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this week. My thanks to George Monaghan for commissioning the piece and choosing the pensive cover image.
Reposted by Joe
My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...
Lessons from The History Man
unherd.com
May 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...
Reposted by Joe
‘Half a century on, Howard Kirk still has plenty to teach us about class, intellectuals, and the real importance of a university education’ | Joe Williams
Lessons from The History Man
Michael Hordern and Anthony Sher in the TV adaptation of Malcom Bradbury's 1975 novel. (Credit: BBC)
unherd.com
May 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
‘Half a century on, Howard Kirk still has plenty to teach us about class, intellectuals, and the real importance of a university education’ | Joe Williams
My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...
Lessons from The History Man
unherd.com
May 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...
My short review of ‘The Reapers’, Ivan Morison’s imposing yet wacky set of four-metre-high piles of ‘agricultural material’, is now on my substack: lifeisnotanovel.substack.com/p/big-farmer-the-reapers-by-ivan-morison
Big Farmer: The Reapers by Ivan Morison
I tend not to make a habit of standing in a field in the rain. Most days I’d rather do anything else, like wait for a bus or lick a thousand postage stamps.
lifeisnotanovel.substack.com
April 9, 2025 at 1:59 PM
My short review of ‘The Reapers’, Ivan Morison’s imposing yet wacky set of four-metre-high piles of ‘agricultural material’, is now on my substack: lifeisnotanovel.substack.com/p/big-farmer-the-reapers-by-ivan-morison
Reposted by Joe
One underreported facet of the Great University Crisis is the contribution of a small number of consultancy firms who recommend:
*Centralise functions
*Cut small courses
*Reduce student options
*Abolish loads of joint awards
*Chop staff headcount
This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)
*Centralise functions
*Cut small courses
*Reduce student options
*Abolish loads of joint awards
*Chop staff headcount
This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)
February 13, 2025 at 10:26 AM
One underreported facet of the Great University Crisis is the contribution of a small number of consultancy firms who recommend:
*Centralise functions
*Cut small courses
*Reduce student options
*Abolish loads of joint awards
*Chop staff headcount
This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)
*Centralise functions
*Cut small courses
*Reduce student options
*Abolish loads of joint awards
*Chop staff headcount
This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)
Characteristically witty yet perceptive letter from your humble servant in this week’s TLS
March 27, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Characteristically witty yet perceptive letter from your humble servant in this week’s TLS
My piece for @boundlessmagazine.bsky.social on Malcolm Bradbury and the real idea behind the UK's first MA in Creative Writing, with reference to Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie, the Goldsmiths Prize etc www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/when-mcewa...
When McEwan met Bradbury
Joseph Williams on the birth of the creative writing course
www.boundlessmagazine.com
March 21, 2025 at 6:18 PM
My piece for @boundlessmagazine.bsky.social on Malcolm Bradbury and the real idea behind the UK's first MA in Creative Writing, with reference to Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie, the Goldsmiths Prize etc www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/when-mcewa...
A pleasure to join Jesus and Robert Lucas Scott for the launch of his world-historical monograph Reading Hegel with its bombastic green livery
March 19, 2025 at 10:45 PM
A pleasure to join Jesus and Robert Lucas Scott for the launch of his world-historical monograph Reading Hegel with its bombastic green livery
Long one from me in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social letters, about the fact that Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man was never really about sociology
March 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Long one from me in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social letters, about the fact that Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man was never really about sociology
I’ve got an idea for an article on the gothic, epistolary fiction, provenance, affect and immediacy… with reference to the obvious combo of Frankenstein, Dracula, M. R. James and (of course) the Castle of Otranto… but no idea where to place it once written. Any recommendations?
March 5, 2025 at 5:07 PM
I’ve got an idea for an article on the gothic, epistolary fiction, provenance, affect and immediacy… with reference to the obvious combo of Frankenstein, Dracula, M. R. James and (of course) the Castle of Otranto… but no idea where to place it once written. Any recommendations?
Reading Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ I’m struck by the faint sequence of ‘fire or lime’ then ‘thick green light’ then ‘such high zest’. Is this a deliberate citral pun?
March 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reading Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ I’m struck by the faint sequence of ‘fire or lime’ then ‘thick green light’ then ‘such high zest’. Is this a deliberate citral pun?
This year I’ll be writing the ‘Fiction 1945-2000’ section for the 2024 edition of The Year’s Work in English Studies. If you published a monograph / chapter / article on (or mostly on) British fiction from 1945 to 2000 between 1st January and 31st December 2024, please let me know! Thanks
February 21, 2025 at 11:57 AM
This year I’ll be writing the ‘Fiction 1945-2000’ section for the 2024 edition of The Year’s Work in English Studies. If you published a monograph / chapter / article on (or mostly on) British fiction from 1945 to 2000 between 1st January and 31st December 2024, please let me know! Thanks
I’ve just been made aware that if you are just one month late paying a tuition fee payment, @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social will slap on a £50 ‘late fee’ before emailing or ringing to check on you (and your ‘welfare’) and ask why you aren’t able to pay the fee. Even HMRC offer payment plans! Outrageous
February 7, 2025 at 7:19 AM
I’ve just been made aware that if you are just one month late paying a tuition fee payment, @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social will slap on a £50 ‘late fee’ before emailing or ringing to check on you (and your ‘welfare’) and ask why you aren’t able to pay the fee. Even HMRC offer payment plans! Outrageous
Reposted by Joe
Congratulations Dr Williams! It has been a pleasure working with you. It’s an excellent thesis- and will make a brilliant book. Cheers 🥂
Very pleased to have passed my viva this afternoon. Big up!
January 29, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Congratulations Dr Williams! It has been a pleasure working with you. It’s an excellent thesis- and will make a brilliant book. Cheers 🥂
Very pleased to have passed my viva this afternoon. Big up!
January 28, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Very pleased to have passed my viva this afternoon. Big up!
Reposted by Joe
“Hello, I was wondering if you had anything in stock by James Patterson? You do? Oh.”
January 16, 2025 at 6:26 PM
“Hello, I was wondering if you had anything in stock by James Patterson? You do? Oh.”
Reposted by Joe
STAR: War of the psycho scumbag chatbots #TomorrowsPapersToday
January 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM
STAR: War of the psycho scumbag chatbots #TomorrowsPapersToday
Reposted by Joe
Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.
December 26, 2024 at 4:52 PM
Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.
How timely
SHOAH (1985) - Claude Lanzmann's remarkable 9.5 hour documentary about the Holocaust - is now on the BBC iPlayer. It's the first time it's been on the BBC for a decade.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Shoah
Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 21, 2025 at 1:45 PM
How timely
Worth noting how much more positive this assessment is compared to Terry Eagleton’s uncharacteristically humourless review, ‘The Silences of David Lodge’ in the New Left Review of November/December 1988. Eagleton and Burgess were always going to have divergent tastes, but it’s clearest here
On this week’s newsletter we remember David Lodge, who died this month. Read a review of his novel Nice Work, written by Anthony Burgess, and find out more about the relationship between these two writers.
Subscribe for FREE for weekly posts like this: anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com
Subscribe for FREE for weekly posts like this: anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com
January 17, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Worth noting how much more positive this assessment is compared to Terry Eagleton’s uncharacteristically humourless review, ‘The Silences of David Lodge’ in the New Left Review of November/December 1988. Eagleton and Burgess were always going to have divergent tastes, but it’s clearest here
Reposted by Joe
Unboxing my copies of The British Novel of Ideas, hot off the press from @cambridgeup.bsky.social. A beautifully produced book! My own chapter looks at comedy, sincerity, and hypocrisy in novels of ideas by Rose Macaulay, Doris Lessing, Jonathan Coe, and Jeanette Winterson.
January 14, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Unboxing my copies of The British Novel of Ideas, hot off the press from @cambridgeup.bsky.social. A beautifully produced book! My own chapter looks at comedy, sincerity, and hypocrisy in novels of ideas by Rose Macaulay, Doris Lessing, Jonathan Coe, and Jeanette Winterson.
Reposted by Joe
On 25th Jan I'll be running a day school on women modernist poets and there are still spaces! Come join and read some poetry with me! We'll be reading some of the greats and looking closely at some real gems 💅
norwichlifelonglearning.co.uk/courses/wome...
norwichlifelonglearning.co.uk/courses/wome...
January 14, 2025 at 11:07 AM
On 25th Jan I'll be running a day school on women modernist poets and there are still spaces! Come join and read some poetry with me! We'll be reading some of the greats and looking closely at some real gems 💅
norwichlifelonglearning.co.uk/courses/wome...
norwichlifelonglearning.co.uk/courses/wome...