Now, about this blog

Now that I'm settling in to the whole blogging thing, this seems a good moment to review what this blog is likely to be used for. As I wrote at the beginning, of course, there will be postings of newly-found resources that have not yet found their way on to Early Modern Resources, and news about the site itself. But there's much more that hadn't occurred to me at that point.

In particular, this is a good place for news-type items that are not suitable for a 'static' website like Early Modern Resources, which can only be updated periodically (due to inevitable constraints on time). So I hope to include regular posts about:

*Conferences, CFPs and other events of interest to early modernists
*Job opportunities, especially for new and recent PhDs
*New publications that have caught my eye
*News stories

And similar things, as and when. Some of these will be - certainly for the time being - very much orientated to early modernists in the UK. What with sites like H-Net and HNN, I think those of you in North America are already much better served in this respect anyway, so if I expand on geographical coverage at all, it will likely be first towards Europe and elsewhere. But it certainly won't only be for Brits.

This is also a handy place to do short pieces of essay-writing, without the need for extensive research, referencing and so on that's usually needed even when I write for Early Modern Resources, let alone 'traditional' publishing. (With the proviso that all such writing should be treated as highly provisional, speculative and correctable, of course.)

Similarly, I may let off steam from time to time. I have no wish for this blog to be highly politicised, and I will not talk at length about Iraq, Bush and Blair any more than I'll be sharing lots of personal detail. But there are plenty of current issues that exercise me, not least when it comes to higher education and the use and abuse of history.

Finally, I like varied blogs and although this is primarily for early modern related topics, you will also see other subjects cropping up, reflecting my particular, um, obsessions. As readers may have noticed, I'm deeply interested in Wales and the Welsh language. I make no apologies for my fascination with this tiny corner of the planet. I'm an English migrant to Wales, with many friends from the so-called Celtic 'periphery', and this all feeds into my wider interest in British identities. Also there are my bad reading habits to consider: crime fiction, historical novels, even some occasional 'literature' (but I am a bit of a philistine. No Joyce here, sorry. Mind you, no JK Rowlings either. Give me Philip Pullman any day). And after that, we'll see.