Dreamy spires and crossed-wires
In an earlier post, I revealed that I share a name with an ace reporter in a graphic novel. Captain Hazzard's sidekick is a journalist called William Crawley. At the time, one commenter, Leo, suggested that I set up a blog to see how many other namesakes I have.
Which brings me to the dreamy spires of Oxford -- in this case, St Anne's College, Oxford. Having just returned from the at Queens' College, Cambridge, I was surprised to discover, quite accidentally, that I am to join the faculy of the Summer Institute at St Anne's later this month. If you scroll down the list of teaching , you will find my name and a slightly out of date bio. Yet I've never been invited to speak at the Annenberg/Oxford Summer School.
The summer school programme has confused me -- I'm guessing -- with the who is currently director of the Media South Asia project at Sussex University, and who was previously an editor in the 91Èȱ¬ World Service and a former head of the 91Èȱ¬ Eastern Service.
I know this because I've been in e-mail contact with my namesake following a previous confusion. A couple of month's ago, I received a request from a publisher for a blurb comment to adorn the back cover of a new book by the Indian High Commissioner to Kenya. I had a fair idea that they'd the wrong man on that occasion, though I confess I was sorely tempted to pen a few words just to see if they would make it to publication.
Comments
Great article.
Professor Crawley -
I checked out the list of those Oxford faculty members and laughed out loud. You could still have the last laugh, though - why don't you turn up at the conference with speech in hand and demand a podium. If you do, get someone to use their video phone to capture the moment when you get booted off the platform. I'd pay to watch that!
oh go on ..... turn up and demand to speak!
I attended the Annenberg/Oxford Summer Institute. I was just googling for William Crawley (our William Crawley) and came across your blog, which is rather interesting, I must say. :-) Hope you enjoyed your time at Oxford anyway. It really is a lovely city.