A paper delivered to the New Imago Forum (psychoanalysts and academics) in Oxford on 10 Sep 2016. There’s a joke about a man who’s shipwrecked on a remote desert island in the Pacific. Robert makes a home for himself, finds … Continue reading
Kate Bucknell, the novelist, was curious about the origin of Sedbergh School’s Latin motto Dura Virum Nutrix – ‘harsh nurse of men’ . She wrote to me: ‘I am working out a preoccupation of Auden’s, 1927ish, with the Latin motto, the harsh … Continue reading
In 1983 I received my Finals results at Oxford, along with a note from Simon Hornblower, who had tutored me in Ancient History for a year, saying ‘Congratulations. Try for All Souls?’ I duly sat the exams for the All … Continue reading