thinking back to 1997 when i got my lectureship at UEA and was completely immersed in the world of academic creative writing. Telling some of the tales - and the tribulations - of those times.
Thanks for your reflections. It’s very touching hearing your memories about Lorna Sage. I loved studying with her during the term before she died. She inspired me so much and was so saddened by her passing.
A lovely chat! I faced similar north/south, public v state educated issues in my career (operations management). It’s the subtle condescension that really gets to you.
Very interesting this - it's prompted three observations/memories of my own. 1) Those labels on suit sleeves. I always thought they where part of the design. I must have had two or three suits in the late 90's/early 00's where I kept them on without thinking😂. 2) I was at Staffordshire University doing a Film Studies/Cultural Studies degree from 1995-1998, what you said about University campus attitudes changing at that time was spot on. Me and my fellow students from the 95 intake where the penultimate bunch of students to still have a grant. Like you I'm from a working class background (the town of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire - a small mining town), the difference in the type of people entering uni in my final year from my first year was very noticeable - the students who started in 95 where from all kinds of backgrounds but the students who started in my final year there where a lot more noticeably middle class and definitely seemed to look down on the more working class students. It was a shame. 3) That sense of optimism when New Labour kicked the Tories out was palpable on our campus. I can remember the day after the election victory was a glorious sunny day (a rarity in Stoke-on-Trent )and it seemed like the entire campus had bunked off lectures to sit outside in the sun and get pissed at the Student Union bar. This went on for about two or three days in the end, it was almost like a campus wide street party. Little did we know what was to come...
these are very much my memories of this time, too. It's as if something important was left behind or forgotten about in the second half of the 1990s...
Not got to the end but as soon as you said label hanging off the sleeve ; I remember ; I went for my first interview to study English Literature in I think an Oklahoma dress that I picked up from the theatrical costumiers sale in Ealing not long before . I didn't know if I wanted to stay in London yet. The awful people are the ones that made me decide to drop--out and come home . The ones that made jokes about class , " the poor will joyously gather round a Brussel sprout " , I am sure the guy spindly and Gormnghast like knew what he was doing . But I was a sensitive soul and walked out of the class after ripping up a stink in the early days of punk. The genie was out of the bottle. In view of punctuation ; the line I always carry with me , is the little hyphon between dates on a grave stone to represent the life we lived . Now that for me means everything about punctuation . Isn't there a whole thing about the Oxford and. It is called Kintzugi and is big in the mudlarking world believe it or not . Repairing things that came from bottle dumps. Sometimes just a shard /sherd can be just as satisfying. Thanks for that . I became an eternal student because I could in those days ; although being unemployed meant I had to pretend that I had done the course slower than everybody and wait an extra year for my certificates. On one course ; I won a lovely Parker pen ; i still treasure it . The first time I had , had recognition for my writing symbolically that is. Worthy at least enough to hold it . My husband was also given a pen in Italy for his song writing. We both treasured our pens and they sit side by side now that he is dead. He was a Lancashire lad .
Now this is going to sound a little weird ; I am page 264 of Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan and there it is Kintsugi. The book is based in Edinburgh ; just over the water from me. Many characters including W.B.
