The Books?
- As my signed, limited edition, hardcover is the only book I emigrated with to the United Kingdom, I have to name “The Vintners Luck” by Elizabeth Knox as an important novel to me. A magical-real story of a 19th Century French winemaker and his annual encounter with an angel. As a New Zealander I always regarded the notion of ‘the rest of the world’ with skepticism. It all seemed so imaginary. This book captures that limbic field between fantasy and reality perfectly. And Knox writes great male characters.
- William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition” is the kind of novel I would love to have the skill to write.
- Janet Frame’s poetry arrests me with its melancholy. New Zealand is a country with an unease. The land is too big and the people too few for anyone to truly feel safe. Frame puts this into words.
The Culture?
- While watching dance generates an excruciating internal conflict between my envy of the dancers’ facility and my joy in their work, I put this conflict aside as often as I can and indulge myself in watching modern, contemporary and experimental dance. I loved the film “Pina” by Wim Wenders – that’s what 3D was meant for!
- I adore anything David Lynch puts his hands on, and am still astounded at the resonance that his television series “Twin Peaks” still leaves behind it, more than 20 years later.
- Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg in the Danish series “Borgen”. Yep.
- One of my greatest guilty pleasures is re-watching the Merchant and Ivory film of E.M.Forster’s “A Room with a View”.
The Spare Time?
- After a 20 year career as an aerobics instructor, I still derive great joy from the sheer abandonment of a class at my local gym. I also run, swim and cycle – the latter being the fundamental key to my love of London. It is a wonderful city to cycle around.
- I tweet as @Edutronic_Net and am often tinkering with the websites under that name that accompany my department’s teaching work. It’s definitely a labour of love.
The Teaching?
- I always wanted to be a teacher, but in my early twenties the attitudes and laws appeared to preclude that eventuality for an openly gay man. So I took a round-about path into the profession and now that I find myself in a classroom teaching English and running a department alongside a wonderful passionate team of inspired colleagues, I can’t believe my luck. What I get to do is a privilege and a thrill and a source of unending joy. I take none of it for granted
- I regard my role as a teacher to be one where I act as a fearless defender of my students and a conduit for their growth – both intellectually and as people in the world. I take the influence we have on our students very seriously and take great care over what I say in those unguarded moments. We all know the transformative power of education and I am dedicated to amplifying this in every way possible.
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