It’s Sunday night, 16 September and I’m preparing to return home tomorrow. There are strains of a lovely jazz concert coming from the Old Bank Hotel, really soulful and pensive which sort of sums up how I feel right now.

It’s been a eventful visit actually, apart from my recording the programme for BBC Radio 3 and visiting Chedworth and Cirencester, I spent all day last Friday at a conference about Theorising Performance which was very interesting and there were lots of overlaps between the idea of performance and poetry readings. I then went to a lovely launch party and supper at Magdalen for Oliver Taplin’s latest book. We had an open-air supper under the cloisters at Magdalen and it was great catching up with so many people I know and meeting new ones.

Anyway, back to the packing!

This face, darling, could bring wise men to war,
it doesn’t need your macho-man protection.
I’m used to being the centre of attention,
it’s jealousy I seek, not country air.

The smell of goat’s best sampled from afar,
as for lyre-skills, dear, that’s pure invention,
a ruse, to make you think it’s my intention
to sooth your muse, not follow my own star.

I’ll gladly join you in a glass of red,
but I’m not for interweaving through the night.
By ten I’m usually ready for my bed,
to dream of Cyrus’ passions at their height.

And turning men to pigs; that’s in your head.
You do it to yourselves – put out the light.

For the first time since I arrived I finally got to my favourite spot in the Corpus library. I’m in search of information on Horace’s women, so that I can give them the opportunity to answer back in my version of Odes Book I.

I had another fascinating lunchtime chat about that very subject with Robin Nisbet on Wednesday. He’s an absolute fountain of knowledge and of course I do appreciate that it is a matter of debate about whether the named women in Horace’s Odes actually existed. One of the good things about writing poetry is that one can take liberties, so whether or not they really did exist in Horace’s poems, I have given them a life in my versions, based on information and inspiration from various Odes.

I don’t feel brave enough to share them with Robin, but have posted one in my poetry section - enjoy!

I visited the Roman Villa at Chedworth and Cirencester Museum on Thursday and saw some fantastic mosaics. If I could have floors like this I would rip my carpets up tomorrow!

I found the ones at Chedworth really inspiring because they are still positioned in exactly the place they were originally laid down. I found myself wondering how many sandal-clad feet had trodden those mosaics, imagined the chatter in the bath house, it’s so much more real when these things are left in their original places.

I bought a couple of lovely postcards of some of the mosaics, but I can’t put them up here because of copyright restrictions. I’m hoping that a photograph I took will turn out OK so that I can put one up here later.

I’ve had a really busy few days since I arrived, the most exciting of which was when I went to BBC Radio Oxford with Professor Stephen Harrison to record our contribution to a series of Horace programmes under the title, ‘Classical Essay’, to be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in the week commencing 17 December 2007.

We had to work through a live link to Bristol and they could pick up noises from our studio in Oxford that we couldn’t even hear ourselves! The wonders of technology.

Since doing the recording a horrible thought struck me, when I was asked to speak so that they could get a sound level, I recited ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, I hope they don’t get it mixed up with my Horace poems!

Forgot to mention the reference to Kybald Twychen, this is the old house where I’m staying which was once the home of Eduard Fraenkel himself.

When I arrived on Monday I had to reposition the furniture so that I could find a piece of level floor for the desk. I have enough trouble with computers without trying to work on a slant! But the house has great character and I feel very cosy here.

This coming Monday sees me once again, bound for Corpus Christi College, Oxford. I am looking forward to having time to think, reflect, and do some rewrites of my current work in progress, plus I have to contribute to another exciting little project about which more later!

I continue to be wrapped up in Horace and in that connection, will be ‘in conversation with Professor Stephen Harrison’ of Oxford University. The event will take place at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle at 7pm on November, 16th 2007, so if you’re reading this blog, do come along and support the evening.

I spent 5th and 6th July at the ‘Perceptions of Horace’ Conference at UCL. This is the first time I have read my poetry to a whole audience of Horatians so quite a test! Once again though, and thankfully, my work was enthusiastically received.

At the conference I met several people who up until then had only been well-known names to me - people whose commentaries and writing I keep encountering, real experts like Niall Rudd for example,who gave us a wonderful insight into ‘Horace in Pope’s Correspondence’. I enjoyed meeting and having a chat with Jane Stevenson who presented a paper about women from earlier times, who had interpretted/translated Horace. It was great to have the opportunity to hear such experts in person and have a conversation with them.

I am particularly grateful to Luke Houghton who organised the conference and having already set a very tight programme, managed to squeeze me in after he’d heard me read at the University of Durham in May.

I felt pleased, given the re-working of my versions of Odes based on ‘Odes Book 1′ into tighter form, to have a positive comment from John Talbot from Brigham Young University in the United States - his paper, ‘A Late Flowering of Horatian Alcaics in English Poetry’ was fascinating. I was particulary pleased by the encouragement and positive response from Stephen Moorby of UCL whom I hope to work with in the future. He was very enthusiastic about trying to get my poems to his Latin students which would be good. And of course, as ever, I was greatly supported by Stephen Harrison who introduced my session and who himself gave a great paper on ‘Horace and the Victorians’

I enjoyed meeting up again with Jennifer Ingleheart and Barbara Graziosi from the University of Durham whom I hope to work with on a future project.

All of this - two whole days with Horace and to top it off a meal at the Italian washed down with wine - Horace would have approved. What a feast!

I took part in the 'Current Debates in Classical Studies Conference between 18-20 May and under the heading 'The Roman Poet Horace Meets The Workers of Teesside - The Poet Maureen Almond in conversation with Stephen Harrison (Oxford University)', presented poems from 'The Works' and from my current work in progress.

This was a particularly enjoyable event for me, especially having Professor Harrison there with me because ours has been a a wonderful collaboration. I found it most satisfying and surprising that so many people from around the globe can identify with my poetry. Copies of 'The Works' are now at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tel Aviv in Jerusalem as well as all points of the compass here. I always hoped that my poems would have a universal appeal, but never imagined they would travel so physically far afield!

My grateful thanks go to Professor Lorna Hardwick and to Carol Gillespie for inviting me to address this conference at The Open University and of course my continued thanks to Professor Harrison.

I did my second reading at the University of Durham on 5th May as part of their Augustan Poetry Day. My presentation, 'Horace in Other Words' was a good opportunity to read some of my work in progress from my recontextualisation of Odes Book I.

I'm very pleased to say that these were well received which is most encouraging at this stage of my PhD.