Victoriana

It was with a feeling of trepidation that I set off to Gordon Square this evening. After getting utterly lost in the rabbit warren of corridors and stairwells I finally found the lecture room, which was clearly once a drawing room. It has a superb view over the leafy square. This is 46 Gordon Square, once home to Maynard Keynes et al. There were nine of us in total, plus our course director. She has written a shelf-full of formidably titled books and looked incredibly clever - and so did everybody else for that matter. As my fellow-students introduced themselves and described the various degrees and research projects they were and are involved in, I slid down in my chair. "Hello, I'm Geoff and I did a degree in Hotel and Catering Management at Portsmouth Poly in 1991." Silence. Any confidence I did have quickly put on its coat on and left the room. The course director outlined the schedule and gave us handout after handout of reading lists, allocated us to seminars and essays and scared the living hell out of me. I sat there behind I growing mound of papers, fear and panic rising inside me. I've got to present a 20 minute seminar on the role of film in creating popular and iconic images of the Victorian period, focusing on versions of Oliver Twist from Lean to Polanski via Reed. Oh brother!

I've also got to attend a study day at The Women's Library on sexuality and feminism in Victorian London including talks on 'Contaminated/contaminating Male Bodies'. If anybody fancies a day out they're more than welcome to join me for that.

I sat on the Central Line in a daze. Back home I opened a bottle of Bordeaux, put on some music, curled up next to Jude and began reading...