Tomorrow in Oxford, there’s an academic conference in honour of my undergraduate tutor and good friend – the esteemed Tudor historian – Dr Susan Brigden. She won the Wolfson Prize for her most recent book, a glorious biography of poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, called Thomas Wyatt: The Heart’s Forest.

Here’s the programme for tomorrow. I’m giving a paper, and there are some serious scholars of high repute participating and attending. This is intimidating. I like, however, the serious dedication that the programme demonstrates towards food and drink.

Literature and Faith in Early Modern England

A Symposium in Honour of Susan Brigden

Tuesday 12 July

10.00-10.15 – Welcome and Introduction

10.15-11.15: Session I: Tudor Testaments

Chair: Christopher Haigh

Henry Woudhuysen, ‘A Tudor New Testament: Two Dudleys and a Pickering’

Suzannah Lipscomb, ‘The Deathbed Faith of Henry VIII’

11.15-11.45: Tea and Coffee

11.45-12.45: Session II: Friendship, Commerce and Charity

Chair: Felicity Heal

Lucy Wooding, ‘Charity and Friendship in Early Modern England’

Ioanna Tsakiropoulou, ‘Anne Blount’s Book: Charity in a City Merchant’s Household, 1594-5’

12.45-2.00 – Lunch

2.00-3.30: Session III: Poetry and History

Chair: Jon Parkin

Claire Preston, ‘The Punctual Relations of Sir Thomas Browne’

Blair Worden, ‘Andrew Marvell, Tom May and Ben Jonson’

Scott Mandelbrote, ‘Poetry and Perversion in mid-seventeenth-century Cambridge’

3.30-4.00: Tea and Coffee

4.00-5.00: Session IV: Faith, Literature and Learning

Chair: George Southcombe

Alexandra Gajda, ‘William Camden’s 1590s’

Peter Marshall, ‘Writing the English Reformation’

5.00: Round-up and Closing Remarks

5.20 Drinks Reception