Category: Historical research
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Home from my holiday
I think it’s fair to say that we had the best of the weather. On several days last week I got messages from friends in Manchester saying that it was raining, while I was sitting on the beach watching the children playing. Where was I? The Med? The States? No. Ireland. Donegal to be specific… …
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Quick update
A short post, because I probably won’t have time to write one later. This week I have worked mainly on one particular ballad, writing a short article about it that I hope to submit for publication fairly soon. It turned out to be something of a double-edged sword, as there is more to it than…
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Moralising ballads
This week seems to have seen me concentrating on moralising ballads. On Wednesday I had a long meeting with my supervisor, discussing them and the reformation of manners. He suggested I read an article by Peter Lake on Puritanism, Arminianism and a Shropshire Axe-Murder! I read it this morning. Fascinating, it was. So many layers…
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Spring has sprung at last
Weather-wise, it’s been a much better week. Yesterday the weather was beautiful, but unfortunately I wasn’t in a fit state to enjoy it. My eldest kindly brought a bug home from school earlier in the week and having had a sleepless night on Tuesday, I wasn’t in a fit state to kick it out of…
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Happy days
Well, the planning paid off. At least in as much as I got through my big supervision meeting on Wednesday without making a complete fool of myself. Actually, they seemed to be quite impressed with the content, if not entirely by the structure, of the work I submitted. My music specialist gave me lots of…
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The forgotten art of planning
On Friday afternoon I sent off first draft of my first chapter to my supervisors. It’s been a tough week, as on Monday evening I was really struggling to make the chapter work because it had just evolved out of my notes. I couldn’t get the separate bits of the chapter to hang together –…
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PhD and parenting…
I think it might be a fortnight since I last posted an update on my work, but as it’s been the children’s Easter holidays, I’ve not had all that much time either to work, or to write about it on my blog. There have been several family trips out, for example to Brockholes and Sizergh…
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The research paradox
As I posted on twitter, I have hit upon a paradox in my work. The more I read, the more I want to write. The more I write, the more I need to read. This one’s a difficult one. Here’s where I am. Yesterday I read through my musicological ballad analysis chapter and started to…
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Sound a fanfare
Back to work tomorrow. I did excavate my desk this afternoon, as it had disappeared underneath several stacks of papers. I’m going to ease myself in gently with some reading. For one thing, I need to remind myself what I was actually working on before I was taken ill, which I can’t really remember! I…
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