The last breakfast. I’ll miss this treat. But a treat ceases to be a one when it becomes a way of life. Suitcase packed, I headed for the Cathedral in order to find a space in which to order myself, delight in the artworks, and hear the peel of bells. The latter can move me close to the boundary of…

The second day. The focus of scholarship was upon the pre-raphaelites, gothic, and nineteenth century. The result was a coherent set of complementary papers. Someone sitting behind me said: ‘I think academics deliver far more confidently and interesting papers these days than they did twenty years ago’. I was inclined to agree. The younger generation of scholars are far more…

6.15 am: Woke, showered, and engaged my presentation’s text. The more I rehearse the reading, the less likely I am to muff my lines, and the more confident and comfortable I’ll be in its delivery. Breakfast with colleagues was insightful and tasty. It’s good to sit at feet of other scholars and artists, and to share in the riches of…

7.00 am: Off to Chichester and the ‘Visual Theology 1’ symposium, where I’d be presenting tomorrow. The taxi driver arrived before time and was, withal, cheery and polite (even at that time in the morning). Dawn broke half-an-hour later as the train pulled out and headed east under its new operator KoelisAmey (which has big plans for the line). ArrivaTrains,…

Yesterday. This was my last full day on the conference contribution. I’m an organised man, but I like to hold back on the conclusion to a project until the eleventh hour. This encourages a sense of energy (a productive and controllable anxiety), and bridges the gap between completion and delivery. The paper, the visual presentation, and the ‘performance’ material have…

As storm Callum moved into West Wales, bringing with it high winds, rain, and disruption, the Visual Theology Symposia  posted the following tweet (instigated by a PreRaphaelite scholar, no doubt). The quotation is a verse from the poem with which I ended the thousandth post of the Diary. Ophelia was the name given to the worst storm to affect Ireland…

  http://intersections.johnharvey.org.uk/diary/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/09-10-2018-08-54.mp3