This is an extract from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions by the poet, John Donne, and contains the well-known caution, “therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” The text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Prose, Sir Arthur Quiller Couch (ed.), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1958.

Image of John Donne c/o Wikipedia.

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The importance of mothers, memory and family in Peter Pan. A 3-minute lecture by Michael Blackburn.

Image c/o Wikipedia.

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A 3-minute lecture on Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome (but nothing about the dog).

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A 3-minute lecture by Michael Blackburn on poem 40 of Housman's A Shropshire Lad.

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A microlecture on Ernest Dowson's poem, "Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae".

Image c/o Wikipedia.

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A 3-minute lecture on the theme of absent mothers and bad fathers in George Eliot's novel, Silas Marner.

Please note that "patriarch" is used in a traditional sense here, as in a father, founder or head of a family or clan; a venerable old man, ideally symbolising or embodying the positive virtues of the male (its complement being the matriarch). It does not refer to the fashionable use of "patriarchy".

Image: "Silas finds Eppie" courtesy of The Jenson Society, NY (Wikipedia).

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Of Studies, from the collected Essays of Francis Bacon.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English philosopher, scientist and statesman. He wrote a number of influential works, including The Advancement of Learning, New Atlantis and, more notably, a series of pieces simply collected under the title, Essays.

Abeunt studia in mores = studies become habits.

Cymini sectores = "splitters of cumin seeds," ie, hair splitters, pedants.

Apologies for the occasional background noise in this recording.

The portrait of Bacon is by Frans Pourbus, courtesy of Wikipedia.

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A microlecture/podcast on the idea that the figure of Bram Stoker's Dracula is based on antisemitic stereotypes of the Jew.

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A short descriptive sketch by Edmund Blunden from his book, The Face of England, published in 1949.

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A microlecture by Michael Blackburn on Ezra Pound's Imagist poem, "In a Station of the Metro".

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