Finally finished marking. Over the past month or so it’s been a lot of essays; 10 dissertations on topics from Portuguese music to Terry Pratchett novels to the war on terror; and 180 exam papers. These have been interspersed with quite a bit of cycling, watching cricket, editing Society and Space, work meetings and other stuff. I’ve been reading when possible, including quite a few novels. But not much writing or genuine research.

Now the marking is done – although there are still exam boards and end-of-year reviews to come – I can finally turn back to the book, and make the very last revisions; refocus on some of the upcoming talks; and then head into a summer of hopefully productive writing on Shakespeare. I’m aware this blog has become something of a noticeboard recently, so hopefully I can rectify that too…