April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 11/10/2026My first time seeing a production at the RSC and I loved it! The whole cast were amazing but Jonathan Groff was incredible (and as a musicals/Hamilton fan I am overjoyed to have finally seen him on stage). 010
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Ahh, thank you!! I think the sessions are typically online now (which is a bit of a shame) but if not I will definitely keep an eye out. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026No worries!! I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you. But it is a really interesting point and I will definitely have to look into it. Hope the start of the semester is going well! 111
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026That could be v useful to consider in relation to Paradise Lost too where the wilderness acts only as an implied space. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I am sure it will come to me as I write the paper. My sense is to say no but I don't really know how to explain how or why that is yet. That's a really interesting way of thinking about it though and definitely something to consider! 200
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026To be honest I'm not 100% sure yet. PR will probably be the next chapter I write and is one of the texts that I haven't quite gotten my head around yet in terms of how it will work as a heterotopia beyond the broad category of crisis heterotopia. (hence choosing it as a focus for the abstract). 110
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Thinking about how that idea of transition/crossroads can be seen to reflect Milton's own new realities like his move away from active politics and the growing severity of his blindness (and how/if his politics changed between the two texts and how he uses space to represent that). 110
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Thank you!! I'm going to be talking about the wilderness as a crisis heterotopia in Paradise Regained. Broadly thinking about the heterotopia as a site of transition and considering the shift in Milton's construction of space from Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained. 120
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Delighted to say that I have had an abstract accepted by the British Milton Seminar with the opportunity to present at a session next spring. Presenting at the BMS has been a goal of mine since I first attended in 2021 so I couldn't be more thrilled. 241
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 11/07/2026Even if you couldn't, they end up failing anyway because the essays are utter crap. Limited marking experience so far but I have encountered several papers that are clearly AI that provide no close reading of the text whatsoever. I don't know how they expect to pass a literature essay without that. 011
Reposted by April GirlingB.S.W. Barootes @barootes.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Ancient Middle-earth inferno or latter-day university? 022
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 14/05/2026I do, I can't quite believe that was 7 years ago though!! 100
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Returning to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight after my latest Tolkien read. 210
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 06/05/2026This is messed up on so many levels, but does no one else find the phrase ‘You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are’ so deeply unsettling. Like, yes, we are talking about AI but you've also decided it is female... Also, you're feeding your unpublished work into AI?? 020
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 01/05/2026Despite recent news, the last thing I expected was to be evacuated out of an arena in Birmingham tonight. Though, obviously, I massively appreciate how quickly it was handled. 010
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 29/04/2026In Birmingham for the day so managed to pick this up, as recommended. I look forward to reading it! 110
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 29/04/2026That would be fun!! I'll check those out too (teaching finishes Friday and my next chapter draft is due the same day so reading some more Tolkien might be a good way to reward myself haha). I read the Silmarillion a few years ago so might have to revisit that as well! 010
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 28/04/2026Next up in my attempt to read some more Tolkien. Is there an order you're supposed to follow after LoTR? 230
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 18/03/2026"Being a woman means living in a state of emergency [...] There is no room of one's own when men think our bodies belong to them." The most heart-wrenching end to a book. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 09/02/2026I loved studying Milton straight away, I was just convinced (until 3rd year) that I wanted to teach secondary. Unfortunately for my current students that means they have to listen to me talk about Milton whenever possible (we move onto Austen in a couple of weeks so they'll be free of it soon). 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 09/02/2026Found what I think was my first uni assignment (definitely the first time I wrote anything on Milton-- a CV for one the characters from Paradise Lost, I obviously picked Satan). Very funny to look back on and little did I know that nearly 9 years on I would be writing about Milton for my PhD. 210
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 30/01/2026A post-lecture trip to the cathedral. I love Worcester cathedral and I feel like this is the first time I've been in ages apart from graduation. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 09/01/2026It's been a great few days at BSECS. I presented a paper on Eden and Restoration politics in Lucy Hutchinson's Order and Disorder and attended some excellent panels (I especially enjoyed the panel on mock epics and grand epics this morning). #BSECS2026 091
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 15/12/2025Despite only 3 students showing up (lots of cold/flu and assignment deadlines) that's my final class of the semester finished! Now just to draft my conference paper before Christmas🎄. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Still utterly obsessed with Oscar Wilde so there was no way I was missing this. I also met Stephen Fry (who better to play Lady Bracknell) and got to show him my tattoo of Wilde. 020
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 07/12/2025Oh no! My brother will be right too, no doubt, though a little more tact would be nice. 110
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 07/12/2025Sometimes your siblings really humble you. My brother gets married in 2 years time, it's already been agreed that I won't be getting/needing a plus one on my invitation. 110
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 31/10/2025I have literally never felt older, this is all I keep seeing online and I have absolutely no idea what it means. 010
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 21/10/2025After dark tour of The Commandery (despite having lived in Worcestershire my whole life I've never visited The Commandery in the day). 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 15/10/2025Pleased to say that my paper has been accepted for #BSECS2026! I'll be discussing Eden as a micro- and macrocosm in Lucy Hutchinson's Order and Disorder. #EarlyModern 030
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 13/10/2025Very grateful for the student who stayed behind to tell me that their classmates are always quiet during seminars and it's nothing to do with me specifically! Obviously looked a little frazzled today. 010
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 12/10/2025"His chamber was a room where it is said the two young princes, King Edward the Fifth and his brother, were murdered in former days." (Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs). 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 10/10/2025Not one of my students (who was in year 8 during the first year of covid) joking that their friend was old because they were in year 11 at the time. I didn't dare mention that I was in my third year of uni... 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 29/09/2025Class consensus from today's session on The Duchess of Malfi: Antonio is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. 020
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Prep for session 2 is taking me back to my A-levels. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 22/09/2025That definitely could have gone better but at least that's the stress of the first class out of the way. 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 19/09/2025Contract has been signed and the introductory session is ready to go. All set to teach my first class on Monday (as module leader!). 000
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 23/07/2025I completely get verifying your age but these all seem like fairly terrible options, no? 010
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 19/07/2025I've just been offered my first set of teaching hours! 020
April Girling @girlinga.bsky.social · 16/07/2025When I have to work on an article draft instead of having a cuddle on the sofa. 000