Dear Blog,

I’m writing this today before I go off on holiday again for a final week in the North Yorkshire moors. I’ve not been up that way before but am looking forward to seeing Whitby with its Dracula connections. I’m sure it will rain but hopefully not all of the time.

It’s been a quiet time with lots of colleague on holiday though those who are here are gearing up for the new academic year. I’ve been updating modules on Blackboard, our virtual learning environment where we keep lecture notes and much more besides for the students. The university has upgraded to Blackboard 9.1 so I’ve been trying to learn how to use this new system.

Professor Simon Bainbridge and I have come up with our long shortlist of essays entered for the Keats-Shelley Prize (http://www.keats-shelley.co.uk/). We managed to whittle the essays down to six, which the judge for the essay and poetry prize will now select from. It’s always really interesting to read these essays. They give a kind of snapshot of the kind of work being done in universities both in terms of subject matter and approach. We also have a good number from people who don’t seem to be students; the subject of the essay is not limited and we get a wide range of responses. As ever, the essays that went through on our shortlist were of a very high quality.

I’ve peer reviewed a very good article for a journal that I will not name since the whole thing is supposed to be anonymous. I enjoyed reading this a great deal and had only a few suggestions for making the essay even better than it already was. I’ve also been asked to write something for The Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/), which is very exciting. This journal was published in the Romantic period in 1823 by Thomas Wakley as part of his effort to rid the profession of corruption.

Other than this, I’ve been marking resit essays and exams, and when I get back from holiday I really need to get down to some research. I’ll be officially on research leave when I get back!

Best,

Sharon

Dear blog,

So, I managed to get the book in by the deadline and the day after it went in I went on holiday. I’m back at my desk now and still tired, but glad that it’s done. It was incredibly hard work; twelve-hour days for the last few months and very difficult to fit in with everything else that’s going on. There were 400 items in the bibliography in the end, which shows how much work went into it; I’ve been working on and off on it for years. The last three weeks were a bit easier when I wasn’t going into work and was able to commit to the book (almost) full time. I wish I had more time like this when I can concentrate on only one thing, really focus on it and feel like I achieve something. It’s not over yet and I’m under no illusions; now it goes for a clearance read and I’m sure there will be more work to do when I get the reader’s report back, but for now I’m going to do my best not to think about that.

I’m doing a lunchtime lecture at the Royal Society on Friday 28th September, which is very exciting, on Mary Wollstonecraft and natural history: http://royalsociety.org/events/2012/rights-of-woman/. This is one of a number of ‘gigs’ lined up for the next couple of months, also including a research paper at the University of Oxford and a conference plenary in Valencia. I’m also examining two PhD theses this autumn/winter, as well as writing at least one essay. Tomorrow I have an initial meeting to consider a new research grant application. This semester though I’m on research leave and so will be living in London, working at the Royal Institution and other archives, on what will now become my main project again — the Humphry Davy Collected Letters (http://www.davy-letters.org.uk/). It’ll be lovely to get back to this work after an enforced absence due to the book. There’s so much work to do and the few months I have away from work will fly by. I really want to make the most of them and have achieved lots by the time I go back.

Before then, I’m having some more much needed holiday. More soon.

Best,

Sharon