I really am called Miranda, although I tend to use my middle name instead. Shakespeare is an important influence on my life and I’ve just completed a part-time MA, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Shakespeare and Theatre. My dissertation blends this interest with my work as a children’s librarian – I chose to look at the way the great playwright is presented to children as a character in historical novels.
I think I might just about qualify as an “aca-fan” – that is a fan with academic leanings, the fandom in question being Doctor Who. Don’t know if you can see him, but my lovely headed (made for me by the_tenzo on LJ) features David Tennant‘s last moments as the Tenth Doctor on the right, and Anthony Sher on the left, playing Prospero in a quite remarkable RSC production of the Tempest, done in collaboration with the Baxter Theatre of South Africa. It played at the Courtyard, in Stratford, in February 2009, and changed me forever.
What else? Well, I love reading about history, particularly the early modern and Victorianperiods, I grow a lot of fruit and make it into jam and chutney, I love baking but am not so keen on cooking, and I’m gradually walking the 630 mile South West Peninsula Coast Path in England with my OH. I have a son reading Philosophy at Essex University and a younger daughter, still living at home. All being well, she will go to University later this year and read German and European Studies. She is passionate and political and we will miss her and her friends, but we’ve discovered from going through the same process with our son that it makes you appreciate them all the more when they do come home.
I have been married for 25 years. The next few years will probably bring the challenge of adjusting to retirement as my OH reaches the end of a long career in R&D in the pharmaceuticals industry. We plan to move to the South West of England, an area that has always been close to my heart. Meanwhile, however, we live in South Manchester with a somewhat neurotic cat.
I work part-time in a local school encouraging children to discover the delights of reading. I fill my days with gardening, the occasional craft project, preserving fruit in various ways, hiking and going out with my partner, watching good movies and TV and discussing them with my friends and family, and reading a lot of books. I also go to the gym occasionally but still overeat!
I blog about what I’ve read, where I’ve been, what I’ve been watching, you know, that sort of thing. Join me on the journey.
“If you from sins would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.”
(Epilogue to The Tempest)
