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It’s Think Human week at Oxford Brookes! Bold and thought-provoking events on art, politics, wellbeing, literature and life. Completely free. And everyone is invited. Sign up below - many nearly full, so be quick! 👇
An instructive & a moving book: delighted to see it out in the world, & honoured to feature on the back of it.
This is over now, but it was a great & illuminating pleasure to work with @kcraik1.bsky.social as always. We were joined by impressive and sympathetic scholars from the US, UK & Ireland in just the sort of exchange which builds up your faith in Humanities scholarship. Grateful ❤️.
The great Dame and a great Dane (no, another one...).
What a privilege to play a part in it - & be more or less alone with Dame Judi on set at Hampton Court.
Check it out a week today at 9pm on Channel 4.
With Dami Judi Dench at Hampton Court Palace
Was it a dream to be in Hampton Court Palace filming for *Judi Dench: Shakespeare, My Family, and Me*, now scheduled for transmission on Channel 4 on Dec 27 at 9pm?
(If not, I hope my shirt was tucked in while the cameras were rolling.)
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, A Scots Quair
I've put off reading this, in part for the silly reason that there two other Ewans in it. In fact, it's the story of Christine & Scotland; an awesome achievement, through which history moves like the sea; full of erotic, political & spiritual hunger &, at last, a resigned peace.
The Royal Shakespeare Company, in the winter sun
The historic face of the RSC, looking instinct with life in the winter sun.
In such moments, you sense the worlds within worlds that have been realised, are being realised, & shall be realised inside of it.
And that art of making the possible actual restores & renews hope.
A miniature bookcase consisting of two shelves, both full of books. Three volumes stand upright in front of the bookcase.
The smallest books in the #ShakespeareCollection are a set of miniature complete works in a dedicated case made in honour of actress Helen Terry in 1904. Books measure 38 x 55 mm and bookcase 100 x 100 x 150 mm. Ref: S 190.4 (182986) #LibraryofBham @shakespearebtrust.bsky.social @efernie.bsky.social
A rainbow on the Northumberland coast.
Amid the sacred landscape of the Northumberland coast (Holy Island etc), Jacob's Ladder - a vision in Judaism, Christianity & Islam of angelic commerce between heaven and earth - appeared on the horizon in delicate technicolour.
A sign, it seemed, that we can raise our game.
Mohammed Ali, Ewan Fernie & Abd El-Ouahed: Moorish Ambassador to Elizabeth 1
A privilege & a pleasure to bring international Birmingham-based Muslim artist @aliaerosol.bsky.social to Stratford,
the RSC & the Shakespeare Institute - & particularly thrilling to show him the Institute's 1600 portrait of Abd El-Ouahed: ambassador for the Moroccan Emperor to Queen Elizabeth 1.
If you'd like an uplifting end to the week, listen in to the inspiring 'Everything to Everyone' team telling us about their project, reviving the first great Shakespeare library for all the people of Birmingham. Hooray for @efernie.bsky.social and friends! englishassociation.ac.uk/thinking-for...
Michelangelo, Study for a Risen Christ, circa 1532, Royal Collection
'Redeeming time when men least think I will.'
Easter shapes Shakespeare's Henry IV, where Falstaff is 'resurrected' before Hal can be reborn as Henry V.
Recalling this at Easter plugs back into a deep & neglected energy in WS & culture more broadly.
Happy Easter.
Thomas Traherne window, Hereford Cathedral
'Few', says Thomas Traherne, 'believe the soul to be infinite' yet infinity 'is the first thing naturally known'. If 'a man' is 'born deaf & blind', he 'apprehends infinite space, infinite darkness' & 'thinks not of wall & limits till he feels them & is stopped by them.'
Swan & Holy Trinity, Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Sweet swan of Avon looking onto Shakespeare's burying place. It reminded me that he lived & died, that his achievement was a personal one.
Did Larkin's description of a perfectly neutral medium at the end of High Windows prefigure what's leading people to this platform?
'The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.'
Well, I'm here. I think fragmentation is a major problem in our society & hope for a civil conversation genuinely inclusive of different opinions & outlooks, out of which a better future might grow.