Screwball: It’s Love I’m After

Yesterday I listened to the Cinema Junkie episode on screwball comedies with CineBeth and the Nitrate Diva. I was delighted to learn about films I didn’t even know in addition to some old favourites. Screwball comedy is just the thing for these stressful and worrying times: after all they were born in a time of…

#RIP Jonathan Miller

I first knew him from Beyond the Fringe which I knew as an LP in my desperate searches for more of that comedy I had been alerted to by Monty Python, The Goodies and I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again which were playing on my local public radio and television. Yes, of course, my adoration of Peter…

Bantz with the Foxes 2 & Hire Idiots on Tour!

More bantz with our Foxy overlords who contemplate whether there really is a difference between a small press and a cult. JOIN THE SKULK! Also the latest Fox Spirit release HIRE IDIOTS is on tour. It’s an hilarious cozy mystery set on a college campus.

Bantz with the Foxes

New from Fox Spirit Books: the comedy stylings of Adele and Tom AKA Aunty Fox and Mr Fox offering a glimpse behind the scenes of an award-winning small press. Or something like that 😉 scripted by me but of course based on real conversations (perhaps exaggerated slightly).

Conquered: First Draft

‘I have Conquer’d, and shall still Go on Conquering. Nothing can withstand the fury of my Course among the Stars of God & in the Abysses of the Accuser. My Enthusiasm is still what it was, only Enlarged and conform’d.’ Which is to say I think I’ve finished the first draft of the comic academic roman…

#NaNoWriMo2016

I may be less visible this month as I dive into NaNoWriMo again. I always joke that every month is novel writing month for me, but I like the extra push to get a project done and it’s nice to not be alone in trying to write furiously. I’m doing what I have sworn never…

Leeds: #IMC2016

I am off to Leeds today for the International Medieval Congress (not to be confused with its American cousin, the International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo). I’ll be giving a paper ‘Chaucer & the Art of the Grift’ as well as taking part in a roundtable on using Twitter as an academic. Doubtless much to share…

Review: Upstart Crow

The final episode of the first series of Upstart Crow has aired and David Mitchell, who stars as the bard himself, confirmed on Twitter that there will be a second series. It follows the adventures of the up-and-coming playwright who still finds himself  struggling to make his mark in the hurlyburly of Elizabethan England. Action…

Happy Birthday to a Legend (or two)

I should be on my way across the Atlantic at present, but I have to be sure to say a happy birthday to a couple of legends today: Tony Hancock and Paul D. Brazill. They both make me laugh like a crazy person, so if you don’t know them already, you shouldn’t waste any time…

SpeakEasy Radio: Ham and Humour

Today’s brief episode on SpeakEasy Radio deals with Ham on Heels, S. L. Johnson‘s illustration that inspired it, Henri Bergson, Totie Fields and more. In my abundant free time, I have a book to write on comedy. Maybe someday I’ll get to it…