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Dr Inigo Purcell

@inigopurcell.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1K following 17K posts

Novelist, non-fiction writer and academic. Writing a book about Arthur in the British Imagination from 1138-present. Often not thinking about the 21st century by default (he/him) inigopurcell.wordpress.com

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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 7h
(and yes, agree. Feel like it something where someone untroubled by crudeness/discussion of genitalia is likely to be puzzled by why the racial element is necessary)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 7h
The document does sort of accidentally given the impression that basically all racial and religious slurs become basically acceptable after the watershed.
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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 10h
A reminder that I am now freelance
Joe Lycett disappearing behind a door while saying recruit me
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 8h
So much of this stuff does tend to ignore that people in hospital tend to be really poorly and quite frail because of that.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 9h
Oh that is lovely, thank you
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11h
Congrats!
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14h
How are clocks solely a reminder of mortality? Don't they also have quite a useful functional purpose?
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14h
Right it's like it's a first pass draft for something that is supposed to be 500 words or so (and, preferably, which might have a point) but where she hasn't cut it down at all.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 15h
Sorry to hear. Think there might be something in the ether today.
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Nick Walker @nickwalker.bsky.social · 19h
A definite sign of ageing is that you cannot impress me with "over 20 years" anymore. Am I expected to think this sauce is ancient, because it's as old as Nelly Furtado's Maneater?
Marks & Spencer in-store signage for a tomato sauce that says "The same Calabrian recipe for over 20 years"
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Can I pick academic colleagues’ brains? I just met a hugely impressive ex-student who had a really good PhD proposal on maternal ambivalence in contemporary fiction. She’s looking for that magical sweet spot of a) supervisory expertise and b) funding. Any UK-based suggestions/volunteers?
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Nathan @nwylabour.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
If anyone has any advice on strategies to use when trying to find a room in London *and* you don't live in London already, I'd appreciate it
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I think he believes I naturally produce them as some kind of freak of nature
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
(I did also wonder if I should read the entire Chicago Manual of Style today. Just in case there was an important bit I would miss otherwise)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Told a friend he overthought less than me so was probably fine. Apparently "Yes but that's taking silver to an East German in the shotput c. 1976"
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
(Also re. little C.S. Lewis always feels very sorry for him having his dog run over when a kid when that would have been a relatively rare and unlikely event)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Yes, didn't realise how solid his Irish identity was until a few years ago because of this.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
And agree re. overblown and also I do think a lot more of the Last Battle is that Lewis needs, on some level, to not have Lucy be tested or fail Narnia the way everyone else is/does at some point and people don't realise that's going on. (It's okay that he needs this, its just at the root of a lot)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
So it's very linked for me with the "Dad and I decided not to read The Last Battle to my little sister because we thought she might find older brunette sibling not going to heaven upsetting" but that is a specific Reading To An Individual Child problem of the kind that comes up loads with books.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Yes. It seems to have really embraced the sense of wonder at which the books are so good.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The Magicians Nephew is released on my birthday and looks like it might merit a birthday cinema trip
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Congrats!
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Watched my Dinner With Andre at the weekend and it was one of those things where I kept noticing how nicely lit it was and how this helped the film work. (And, you know, that is not a flashy film or one with any action. Just two people talking for a few hours)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Also, can't stop thinking that someone's headteacher/boss donating to their crowdfunder is, in fact, a nice and supportive thing and there's an extra layer of horrible in decrying that.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
(Particularly because I have had a lot of wondering how long I will remain one of late. So it was nice to be reminded of the stuff I like about researching and writing, and what's good about it.)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Lovely morning talking to primary school children about being a historian/medievalist.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Also stuff coinciding with a lot of people from the smaller trans focus orgs (with a lot of specific experience re. trans campaigning) starting to retire at roughly the time that Stonewall officially embraced trans stuff. Meant some specific institutional knowledge and approaches were lost.
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Felicity Hayes-McCoy @fhayesmccoy.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Leaving aside the pre-order aspect (please do NOT leave aside the pre-order aspect), this is a lovely, interesting, interested, accommodating thread in which people are civil to, and supportive of, each other. #booksky #books #bookcommunity
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
There's a late Ripley where he's opining about Mitterand early on in it and it was striking when I was rereading- I felt like Tom Ripley co-existing with figures I remembered in the news was surreal.
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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Remembering how Maigret, in one of the last books of the series, eats a *pizza* during an investigative trip to a seaside town.
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Hands up who just sent @awwe.bsky.social the. minutes of the West Midlands Fencing committee. It was me. Too many committees. Still, at least this time I didn't call West Mids Fencing out on strike when I meant to email UCU members.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I am very sorry to hear. I hope tomorrow is better and am here if you need to talk.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Happy anniversary! Both lovely pictures
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Terri Windling @terriwindling.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Friends in or near Glastonbury: I'm giving a talk on 'The Power of Story' with Wendy Froud (artist, author, film puppet designer for The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, etc.) on Saturday, 17 Oct, 2:30 pm at the Glastonbury Town Hall. In-person, not online. Tickets & info here: allevents.in/glastonbury/...
allevents.in
Terri Windling and Wendy Froud - The Power of Story TALK + Q&A
Book Tickets for Terri Windling and Wendy Froud - The Power of Story TALK + Q&A . Event starts on Sat, 17 Oct, 2026 at 02:30 pm BST and happening at Glastonbury Town Hall, Glastonbury, EN. Register or...
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Richard Morris @ahistoryinart.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Dazzle camouflage was created during WW1 to protect British ships from German artillery - it works by making it difficult to estimate range of speed and heading. Edward Wadsworth supervised the design of of the camouflage patterns. This is his 'Dazzle Ships in Drydock,' from 1919
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Daniel Kennedy @fliglman.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
some scholars claim that infinite monkeys lack the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court to produce Shakespeare's plays
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
(Would also like a DWJ anthology series although this is probably just me daydreaming a bit)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Right I really like kidlit and I didn't suggest anything because I feel like a lot of it would get somewhat tortured or diminished. (I think you could do something fun riffing on DWJ but it would probably have to be riffing rather than adapting a single novel)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Yes, one of the reasons it comes off so weirdly is that by this point Harry has had five years of being around adults he trusts and who treat him well and like... that will have gone in a bit.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Right. He might be strategic about whom he told but he would tell *someone*.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
(Partially because I think one of the things that is striking about it and also Red Shift is that the teenage boys in them are allowed a full range of interiority and emotion)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Thinking a bit now about how I read The Owl Service at 11 and really liked it but found the characters older and a bit alien and everything a bit baffling and then re-read it at 16 or 17 and it landed incredibly well, in terms of kids books which are actually good on teenage emotions.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I think that so much of the marketing was "they're not just for kids, they are also for teens and adults too" did not help with them feeling immensely jarring if you were reading them as a teen. Because it did obscure that said nine year old is the intended audience.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
(Also, there are so many things where I feel like a teenager would get angry once or feel angry and snap and then feel awful and have a cry about being angry that are made into sustained stroppiness in them)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The degree to which those books get teenage anger/stroppiness incredibly *weirdly* wrong is extremely striking. (And yeah, makes sense as they are aimed at ten year olds but also felt strange as "people who were ten but are now fourteen" was a core part of their initial audience)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Hope the feeling passes and yeah, it's a particular type of doldrums where you know it is survivable and will pass but it is nevertheless acutely unpleasant.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Much sympathy to the Limpet from a dyspraxic who struggles with the same
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
(I sort of feel in these kind of things if you are asked directly you do not lie because that makes it all more complicated but there is a lot more leeway if you are not)
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I'm not sure but probably, unless there are particular circs where it comes up unavoidably.
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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
(I don't also have those, fortunately, but they are massively comorbid and the form in question did act as though people could just go away and knock them on the head as something completely unrelated to their trauma or overall mental health)
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