Literary Connections

That’s how Philip Larkin described a portrait of himself; another looked, he said, like ‘CS Lewis on a drugs charge’. These self-deprecating remarks have emerged from letters in the photographer Fay Godwin’s archive, recently acquired by the British Library. You can see a selection of her impressive portraits, including the Hermit of Hull, Ted Hughes and Doris Lessing here.

A story in last week’s Guardian alerted me to the availability of Yale University’s course on modern poetry online. There are twenty-five lectures to watch, handouts, book lists and even a final exam you can take (though I don’t know if anyone will mark it for you). This is all very commendable, though so far I’ve only had time to watch part of the opening lecture by Professor Langdon Hammer. It has the feel of a genuine lecture, complete with pauses, hesitations and more. No doubt this is deliberate (and anyway much easier than creating broadcast quality material) – but I’m not sure how far this would sustain my interest over a long period. Still, lets not complain – there’s even a session on ‘World War I Poetry in England’ that it might have been good to have seen before I finished my own study guide on this topic! continue reading…

Apologies to visitors to Literary Connections who use Internet Explorer 6. I’ve just discovered that the left-hand menus appear at the very bottom of the page and not at the top, as they should. But I’ve also discovered how to cure the problem. continue reading…