In defence of my subject

Today I write in defence of my subject. Not “English” or “English Literature” itself, but literature and art in all its forms. Only for a little while, of course, for we cannot spend forever apologising. But neither can we sit here mute against the tide of condemnation, of tweets telling us that our subject is…

‘What is that word “always”?

Last weekend, along with many other people, I sat down to watch the new BBC adaptation of Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’. It wasn’t perfect, but adaptations of books rarely are (Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’ and the most recent BBC ‘Howard’s End’ being two exceptions), and this book was realistically never going to turn into…