By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The word ‘hobbit’ was supposedly invented by J. R. R. Tolkien. This fact both is and is not true. To explain why this is the case (or isn’t the case) we must do a bit of delving into the world of witchcraft …
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Sometimes authors don’t shuffle off this mortal coil quietly or – for want of a better word – normally. Sometimes they meet a sticky and untimely end, and sometimes myths build up around an author’s demise and we come to accept legend as fact. So what follows is part blog post, part quiz: we present you with nine of the most unusual author deaths, and then underneath we tell you whether the nature of that death is factually correct or not.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Since Twelfth Night is just round the corner (and remember, while we’re at it, that Twelfth Night is arguably the night before Epiphany, not the same day – i.e., Twelfth Night is January 5th), we thought we’d bring you some of the lesser-known facts about some of William Shakespeare‘s most popular plays. As we go, we’ll address and challenge some misconceptions, too.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Although not strictly confined to the literary sphere, the following ten ‘facts’ about the Victorians certainly touch upon literature many times, not least because our ideas about the Victorians are often misconceptions or misrepresentations which we’ve picked up from their literature. I am indebted to Matthew Sweet’s superb book Inventing the Victorians
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Since the festive season is almost upon us, we’ve gathered together the twelve most interesting literature-related facts about Christmas that we could find. So here they are, ‘The Twelve Facts of Christmas’ … with a literary link. We hope you like them.