Dear Blog,

I had a lovely weekend last weekend in Kilve, Somerset at the Coleridge Study Weekend. The the theme for the weekend was ‘Coleridge, Science and Poetry’ and the speakers gathered together were a kin of fantasy football team for me – David Fairer from Leeds, Tim Fulford from NTU, Neil Vickers from King’s, and Richard Holmes, author of the hugely influential book Age of Wonder. 

Some of delegates of Kilve had been attending the study weekends since they began, over 20 years ago. It was lovely to meet people from different walks of life who had a real, passionate interest in the Romantic poets and who weren’t part of the academy. 

The ‘study’ part of the weekend was interspersed with walks in the quantock hills and we visited the Wordsworths’ Alfoxden House and Coleridge’s house in Nether Stowey. We saw a read-through of ‘A Box of Frogs’, a play that recreates the pneumatic institute in Bristol and features Davy, Beddoes, Coleridge and Roger. The latter is imagined to be a spy for the Home Office reporting on the radical politics and gases that are being discussed. 

I’m now off for one final week of holiday – and am turning my email off this time! – before the madness of the new academic year begins. 

Best,

Sharon