Alexander Fairbairn-Dixon FRSA

Really pleased to announce that City Lit have provided me with an opportunity to re-run this course, fully enrolled last year, on a different day of the week this coming autumn.

We’ll be explored three of the great early Emglish pre-Shakespearean tragedies.

The Birth of English Tragedy | Culture, history & humanities course | London Come and explore three pioneering tragedies of the early English Renaissance commercial stage (1585-1592): The Spanish Tragedy (1586), Arden of Faver...

Enrolments are open for my summer term course on the wonderful Muriel Spark.

We’ll be looking at everything from metanarrative, her sparkling satire, and religious-existential dilemmas.

The Prime of Muriel Spark: Three Novellas 1961-1970 | Culture, history & humanities course | London Come and explore ethe rewards of reading Muriel Spark at her prime. We’ll read, analyse, and debate three of her greatest novellas, all written in th...

Calling all Romantics! The last spaces are left for my one-dayy course on Keats, held at Keats House, Hampstead.

Keats and eternity | Culture, history & humanities course | London In the house where many of them were written, we will explore why Keats’s poems are regarded as exceptionally beautiful. How did he achieve this? We ...

Thrilled to discover that the second of my two one-day intensive courses on Yeats is now full.

Both courses are scheduled to run again in 2027.

The Poetry of W.B. Yeats: later poems, 1919-1939 | Culture, history & humanities course | London This in-college day one-day course examines the final two decades of Yeats’ career. Tracking the development of the poet chronologically, selecting t...

Calling all rogues, down-and-outs, and literary ramblers! Enrolments are open for my course on the contemporary American picaresque this summer term.

Contemporary American Picaresque: John Kennedy Toole, Erica Jong, Percival Everett | Culture, history & humanities course | London Come and explore the rewards of reading three modern American picaresque novels. We’ll read, analyse, and debate three novels which all reinvent the ...

One final push recruiting for my WB Yeats intensive course running this Saturday!

The Poetry of W. B. Yeats: early to middle poems, 1899-1914 | Culture, history & humanities course | London This one-day course examines how Yeats’ career spans three decades of experimentation. Tracking the development of the poet chronologically, selectin...

The Poetry of W. B. Yeats: early to middle poems, 1899-1914 | Culture, history & humanities course | London This one-day course examines how Yeats’ career spans three decades of experimentation. Tracking the development of the poet chronologically, selectin...

After a full enrolment of no less than 18 scholars for my Renaissance course on ‘The Birth of English Tragedy’, I’m thrilled to announce that my course on ‘Renaissance City Comedy’ has been approved and is now open for enrolment.

Renaissance City Comedy: Middleton, Marston, Jonson Come and explore four pioneering comedies of the Jacobean period: The Ductch Courtesan (1605), Eastward Ho! (1606), The Roaring Girl (1611), and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613). With London at its centre, city comedy places gallant gentlemen and courtiers alongside upwardly mobile merchants, avari...

It was an honour to speak alongside authors Iain Sinclair, Michael Donkor, and Helen Mort at The British Library Conference on ‘Romanticism’ earlier this year. Thank you Dr Andrea Varney for organising this event.

I was invited to suggest engaging ways of introducing the contexts of Romanticism to students studying literature at GCSE and A Level, by using collection items, art, essays and manuscripts held at The British Library. (My section begins at 57 minutes in the video below.)

The conference was also supported by a teaching pack I was asked to write, full of a variety of differentiated exercises based upon a range of material and debates surrounding Romanticism. Thank you to Dr Varney and her team for their expertise and hard work in editing my drafts.

The British Library sadly suffered a cyberattack earlier this decade, and their wonderful web-site ‘Discovering Literature’ is gradually being reassembled. To bridge the gap, many of those realises are available to teachers via Padlet.

Romantic poetry in context: CPD for English literature teachers Get fresh ideas and resources for teaching William Blake, William Wordsworth and Romanticism at KS3–5, drawing on the British Library’s Discovering Literatur...