magazine - Somerville College

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6 | Somerville MagazineAuthorProfile:Kate McLoughlinDr Kate McLoughlin is a Lecturer in Modern Literature atBirkbeck, University of London. She is the author of severalstudies of the representation of war in literature, and also workson Modernism, comparative literature, women’s writing andJewish writing. Kate is an Associate of the Royal College ofMusic in piano performance. Her first book of poems, Plums,was published last year.Kate McLoughlin(1988, English)For this piece, I was asked, ‘howdid your studies at Somervilleprepare you for life as a publishedpoet?’ If I answer that questionhonestly, I have to admit thatat first, an MA, MSt and DPhilin English Literature inhibitedrather than emboldened me as acreative writer. Early attempts atnovels, discarded with the wistfulrealisation that I wanted to writesomething but had no idea how orwhat, still lie in drawers. Luckily,though, those degrees did prepareme for life as a lecturer and Ihave found a creativeoutlet in academicEnglish. My books andarticles might seemdry and abstruse to thenon-specialist reader,but I have lingeredover every word ofthem, tried to makeeach better than thelast and, in so doing,honed my craft.And academic English was,unexpectedly, the spur to the firstnon-scholarly book that I havepublished: a book of poetry calledPlums, which appeared at the endof 2011.I had been marking exam essayson 20th-century literature byundergraduates at the Universityof Glasgow. You would notbelieve how many of these essaysdiscussed a 28-word poem by theAmerican writer William CarlosWilliams called ‘This Is Just ToSay’. This is a ‘found’ poem, anote left by someone apologisingfor having taken and eatenanother person’s plums. Readingthese innumerable essays, Ibegan to imagine myself in thesituation of the individual whoseplums had been stolen. I began toget angry on their behalf. I beganto wonder how that person mighthave written back to the thief.Poetic responses proliferated inmy mind. At that point, I wenton holiday to Barcelona andsaw Picasso’s 58 variations onVelásquez’s famous painting LasMeninas. Struck by how Picassopares Velásquez’s rich detailsdown to a few lines and patchesof colour, I asked myself whethera literary equivalent might bepossible in relation to Williams’spoem. The result was Plums: asuite of 58 poems, 58 variationson Williams’s original, theplundered fruit at their centre.The publication of Plums, by asmall press you won’t have heardof yet called flipped eye, was asurprise and a delight. I haveread from it at the Poetry Café inLondon and have further readingsscheduled at Somerville on 30April and at the Wirral Festival ofFirsts on 8 July. My major creativeoutlet is still my academicwriting, but I am also now working– slowly – on a second collectionof poems and a memoir ofgrandmothers.Plums is available from amazon.A Call for ContributionsJane Robinson (1978, English)I had such a rich response fromSomervillians after requesting help withmy previous book Bluestockings (whichwas the subject of a Literary Luncheon acouple of years ago) that I thought I’dtry again.My research for a new book commissionedby Viking Penguin, about the stigma ofillegitimacy from 1918 to the 1960s, isposing some intriguing questions. Whatwas it really like to bear, or to be, anillegitimate child then? All prejudice andshame, or are there stories of triumph andachievement, too?I’m looking for personal/family reminiscencesto help break the guilty silence surroundingthe subject, and would love to hear fromanyone with relevant experience.Contact me via my websitewww.jane-robinson.comor c/o Veronique Baxter,David Higham Associates,5-8 Lower John St,London W1F 9HA.Any wish for anonymity will befully respected.
Somerville Magazine | 7CommemoratingSomervillians who have died (since1 June 2011)This year Somerville’sCommemoration Servicewill be held in the CollegeChapel on Saturday 9thJune at 2.30pm. This isan important event in theCollege calendar, whichunderlines the enduringrelationship betweenSomerville and itsformer members.The service opens withthe traditional wordsof the College BiddingPrayer, in which wecommemorate theCollege’s founders,governors and majorbenefactors; it ends withthe solemn reading of thenames of members of theCollege and its staff whohave died in the last year.Close family andSomervillian friends ofthose who have diedare especially invitedto the Service, butall Somervillians arewelcome to attend.If you know of anySomervillians who havedied recently but whoare not listed here,please contact Liz Cookeat Somerville College,Woodstock Road, OxfordOX2 6HDEmail elizabeth.cooke@some.ox.ac.uk ortelephone 01865 270632.Claire Angela Beauvais née Burrows (1976) on 20 March 2011 Aged 53Lorna Margaret Bottomley (1941) on 28 December 2011 Aged 90Sylvia Bradford née Crammer (1943) 0n 9 November 2011 Aged 86Elizabeth (Liz) Clare Brice (1975) on 23 August 2011 Aged 54Christine Frances Brooke-Rose (1946; Hon Fellow, 1997) on 21 March 2012 Aged 86Margaret Anne Brown née Smith (1944) on 26 August 2011 Aged about 85Jennifer Constance Croft née Jackson (1968) on 8 October 2011 Aged 62Hilary Anne Crook formerly Gilbert, née Miller (1949)on 7 August 2011 Aged 80Madeleine Devlin née Oppenheimer (1928) on 22 March 2012 Aged 102Ursula Miriam Dronke née Brown (1939), on 8 March 2012 Aged 91Agnes Margaret Ann Dummett née Chesney (1948) on 7 February 2012 Aged 81Rosemary Margaret Garvey née Pritchard (1937) on 17 August 2011 Aged 92Beryl Ruby Alice Hobson née Machan (1947) on 16 December 2010 Aged 86Elizabeth Clarissa Wiclif Hummerstone née Barker (1962) on 27 October 2011 Aged 68Ruth Elizabeth Jameson née Jarrett (1934) on 4 January 2011 Aged 94Betty Rose Judge née Jones (1948) on 5 December 2011 Aged 81Claudia Mary Lennon née Furneaux (1938) on 26 June 2011 Aged 91Elizabeth Jean Longmate née Taylor (1947) on 29 June 2011 Aged 82Elizabeth Margaret Monkhouse (1930) on 27 December 2011 Aged 99Janet Katharine Nash née de Gruchy (1965) on 26 August 2011 Aged 65Valerie Edith Nix née Brown (1948) on 14 November 2011 Aged 82Virginia Pasley née Wait (1956) on 2 September 2011 Aged 74Rhoda Susanna Reid née Allison (1959) on 29 February 2012 Aged 72Jonathan Roberts (2010) on 25 June 2011 Aged 20Nancy Rowlinson née Gaskell (1948) on 3 January 2012 Aged 81Mary Russell Vick née de Putron (1940) on 1 March 2012 Aged 89Barbara Joyce Shuttleworth née Nathan (1940) on 15 June 2011 Aged 89Hester Margaret Gatty Smallbone née Parrington on 15 March 2012 Aged 87Katherine Walsh (1969) on 21 March 2011 Aged 65Cynthia (‘Cyndy’) June Whiffin née Mingham (1965) on 24 January 2012 Aged 66
Page 1 and 2: JCR andMothersSomervillianBurns Nig
Page 3 and 4: Somerville Magazine | 3Principal’
Page 5: Somerville Magazine | 5Harry Escott
Page 9 and 10: Somerville Magazine | 9MCR NewsA Da
Page 11 and 12: Somerville Magazine | 11and Somervi
Page 13 and 14: Somerville Magazine | 13Our first d
Page 15: Somerville Magazine | 15“Iwas luc
Page 19 and 20: Somerville Magazine | 19side of the
Page 21 and 22: Somerville Magazine | 21Kate McClou
Page 23 and 24: Somerville Magazine | 23The time at
Page 25 and 26: Somerville Magazine | 259/11 change
Page 27 and 28: Somerville Magazine | 27‘A Shadow
Page 29 and 30: Somerville Magazine | 29Victoria Yo
Page 31 and 32: Somerville Magazine | 31Securing ac
Page 33 and 34: Somerville Magazine | 331961 Golden
Page 36: Alumni Events 2012All events are in

magazine - Somerville College

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?