‘The  Early  Reception of  the  Sun machine’

A guest lecture by Prof Nicholas Royle (University of Sussex)

chaired by Prof Michael Syrotinski (University of Glasgow)

Tuesday 27 February 5.30pm

Yudowitz Seminar Room, Wolfson Medical Building

Followed by a drinks reception in the Atrium.

Nicholas Royle will be speaking on his new book David Bowie, Enid Blyton and the sun machine, a portrait of family life during the pandemic which weaves together musings on dreams, life writing, the golden age of children’s book illustration, the value of ‘queer’, the meaning of being ‘English’ and alternative ways of thinking about education. The book exposes previously unrecorded details about Blyton's personal life, notably her love affair with Nicholas Royle's grandmother and discusses and reproduces previously unpublished photos of David Bowie taken by the painter Stephen Finer. Through beautifully written prose, Royle invites readers to embark on a journey through the rebellious voices that have shaped and reshaped our cultural landscape.

Nicholas Royle’s visit to the University of Glasgow takes place in the context of recent developments in the School of Modern Languages’s teaching and research in Comparative Literature. Nicholas Royle and Andrew Bennett’s hugely popular An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory –  now in its 6th edition, and praised as 'the best introduction to literary studies on the market' (Jonathan Culler) – is now a core text for our Comparative Literature Level 2 course ‘Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory’ which launched last year.