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| Thomas Wyatt, by Hans Holbein the Younger Wikipedia Commons |
One of the most interesting events I attended last term was
a slightly belated book launch (viewable here) for the Wolfson Prize-winning Thomas Wyatt: The Heart’s Forest, by my
former undergraduate tutor Susan Brigden. It was organised by a new institution
which has rather burst upon the scene here – TORCH, or The Oxford Research
Centre for the Humanities, an interdisciplinary enterprise based in the
refurbished 18C Radcliffe Infirmary.
Events relating to new books normally take one of two forms
in Oxford – seminar or party. At a seminar, the author presents a précis of the
work in a formal academic setting in the form of a paper, and is then politely grilled
by an audience of peers and students. At a party, plenty of wine and nibbles are
served in some smart college room, discounted copies of the book made
available, and brief speeches made by a bashful author and an
eager publisher.
TORCH has however been pioneering a new kind of book
event, which steers a middle way between these two models.
At the Heart’s Forest evening, in a
rare assembly of historical talent, a panel consisting of Diarmaid MacCulloch,
Chris Stamatakis, David Starkey and Susan Brigden
herself sat on the stage in St. Anne’s auditorium. The panellists each gave a
speech – something in between an encomium and a personal reflection on the
nature of 16C England. Susan, in her response, talked frankly about the
intimacy with which a biographer lives with their subject (his loves, spiritual
crises and felonies), and reflected on what she might change in the book,
having finally achieved ‘closure’ on Wyatt. The panel – three of them once
fellow doctoral students under the legendary G.R. Elton – then launched into an
informal but eye-opening discussion about why Tudor England mattered, and how
strong our grasp of that period is. Starkey saw in Henry’s court the heroic
origins of a modern English identity; McCullough insisted that Tudor England
was still entirely on the margins of Europe; they argued about the role of
Reformation theology and of loyalty to the Tudor dynasty. And then we all had a
glass of wine.
It is hard to entice academics into a space where they can
address the big questions in their field, speak about the personalities who have moulded their own careers, articulate something of the
emotional rollercoaster of writing a big book, and reflect on cutting-edge
interdisciplinary methodology – let alone all at once. Perhaps by innovating
with the form and shape of academic meetings, organisations like TORCH can also
encourage new patterns of thought, and provide new templates for scholarly
conversations… without losing the celebratory conviviality of the traditional launch party.
