University of Chichester, English and Creative Writing Department

04/10/2026

Pallant House Gallery is joining forces with the South Downs Poetry Festival to present an inspiring mix of music and poetry to accompany the gallery’s British Landscapes exhibition. The event takes place on Thursday, October 15 between 6pm and 8pm as part of Pallant’s Thursday Lates special presentations. The audience will be taken on a tour of the pictures, which depict landscape in all its moods, by South Downs poets including our Reader in Critical Imaginative Writing Dr Naomi Foyle

Chichester

02/10/2026

You can catch up with the Murdoch exhibition on BBC News! Click the link below, it's on from 20.55

The latest news, sport and weather for the South of England.

01/10/2026

Finding Iris Murdoch artwork in attic 'a thrill'

An expert on the author describes discovering 80 unknown works by the writer in Oxford.

07/09/2026

Russell Kane is set to champion the life and work of acclaimed novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch in the latest episode of BBC Radio 4’s Great Lives.

The programme will hear from her friend and biographer Peter Conradi, and Miles Leeson, Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre in Chichester.

Russell Kane’s Great Lives episode on Iris Murdoch airs on BBC Radio 4 TODAY Monday 7th September at 3:00 pm, and will be available to listen to afterwards on BBC Sounds.

Russell Kane is set to champion the life and work of acclaimed novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch in the latest episode of BBC Radio 4's Great Lives. Russell is the nominator for the programme, which explores why Murdoch remains such an important and influential figure in British literature and p...

22/08/2026

This week we welcomed Laura Freeman, Chief Art Critic for The Times, to campus. She's written a lovely piece in today's paper encouraging everyone to come and see the new exhibition!

16/08/2026

Listen again to Dr Miles Leeson, who made the discovery and is Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester, and Professor Anne Rowe on Women's Hour at 39 - 46 mins.

A chance discovery in an attic has revealed that the Booker Prize-winning novelist Iris Murdoch also had an artistic side. More than 80 of her artworks have been found in a secret room in the attic of her former home, where they had been lying for decades. They include the only self-portrait she is known to have painted, four surrealist landscapes and three sketches of female nudes. Miles and Anne discuss the importance of the art.

Five years after the Taliban took power, we look at the lives of girls in Afghanistan.

14/08/2026

Congratulations to Dr Miles Leeson on the launch of his new book, 'Visiting Mrs Bayley and Other Essays', at the Twelfth International Iris Murdoch Conference today.

The collection celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre and brings together Miles' essays from the past decade, including several pieces published for the very first time.

Alongside essays on Iris Murdoch, the volume explores the work and lives of Elizabeth Bowen, Brigid Brophy, Muriel Spark, Rumer Godden and John Bayley.

https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk/product/mrsbayley/

14/08/2026

Dr Miles Leeson, Reader in English Literature and Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre, is in the Guardian today for helping uncover a fascinating new chapter in Iris Murdoch's creative legacy.

More than 80 previously undiscovered artworks by the celebrated novelist were found at her former North Oxford home last year. Twenty-five of these works, including a striking self-portrait and surrealist landscapes, are on display for the first time in Iris Murdoch Amongst the Artists.

Visit the exhibition at the University of Chichester Library, open until 10 December.

Pictured: Dr Miles Leeson holding the Guardian article about the discovery alongside Professor Antonina Pereira, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/14/iris-murdoch-artworks-secret-room-self-portrait-novelist

11/08/2026

Later this week we're welcoming over a hundred guests to our biennial Iris Murdoch Conference! Jointly organised by the Iris Murdoch Research Center - which is soon to celebrate its 10th anniversary - and the Iris Murdoch Society, speakers are coming from across the world. Check out the programme below...👇

10/08/2026

We're thrilled to share that Amy Gibbons, who first studied BA (Hons) Creative Writing and English at the University of Chichester, has become the University's first law graduate to be called to the Bar. What an incredible achievement. Congratulations, Amy! 🎉

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