Enter, the Blogging Apprentice!

For many months I have been urging my students on the Publishing course to create and maintain an online presence, and the results have been inspiring and impressive. Yet, despite several false starts, and plenty of ideas, the art of blogging has somehow proved to be personally challenging! Until now. My research interests are coming together under the pursuit of a better understanding of the various ways ‘bibliotherapy’ has been and could be used. As a medievalist, I have long been aware of the conviction of medieval writers that texts had the power to heal and to improve all sorts of situations: as a reader and lover of books, I know that this enjoyment is based on that capacity to get lost in new imaginative or descriptive spaces. So, how can I find out more? The flotsam of thoughts to explore include, at this point, looking at the Poems on the Underground initiative, reading up about the scientific uses of bibliotherapy, and looking particularly at how poetry has been used to help soldiers (the First World War has left a remarkable body of evidence to show anthologies of verse were among the most treasured possessions a soldier at the Front had).
This blog will hopefully enable me to share findings (and more flotsam and jetsom!) and to receive feedback, brickbats and all, as I proceed!