Normans on the edge and an edgy Normanist.

Earlier this year, I wrote about a new project at Lancaster called ‘The Norman Edge‘ and briefly commented on its first symposium. Unfortunately, I missed the second one in the summer due to a combination of circumstances, but did make it to the third one on ‘Colonial mentalities’ last week. Not only was this a very interesting collection of high quality papers, but it left me feeling reinvigorated after a long term. There are very few occasions as an historian when you feel part of something much bigger than your own research, but the Norman Edge is really fostering an idea of scholarly community, and what is more, inclusive of people at all stages of their careers from MA students right the way through to distinguished professorial types.

Writing book reviews

As promised in the comments to my last post, here are some thoughts on writing book reviews. It will probably be no surprise to regular readers of this blog to see that I agonise as much over writing a review as I do over the rest of my work and life. I am acutely conscious of how much effort goes into producing a book and dread discovering that the volume I have been sent is a real stinker. I want to write positive words about the work, acknowledge that the author has achieved something and highlight the potential interest to the readers of the journal for which I am writing. In other words, I review by looking for the good, rather than focusing on the bad. What follows are some thoughts from my own experiences.