The Fortnightly from Julian Girdham

The Fortnightly is about thinking, writing, reading, teaching & more. Every 2 weeks in the school term since 2016 - on Substack since 2024. Always free, but contributions are most welcome, and paid contributors will receive The Occasional, a close-cousin.

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207: Lizard handbags and so forth

Wendy Erskine, Julie Parsons, Edna O'Brien & Andrew O'Hagan, summer reading, Gustave Caillebotte and more.

Jun 13

Extra: Irish education, sunk cost fallacy & Wile E. Coyote

Comments on a new paper on Irish Education by the National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington DC, coupled with an outsider's thoughts…

Jun 8

The Occasional 13

James Baldwin, Wendy Erskine, Rory Carroll, Molly Twomey, Henry James, Audrey Molloy, Robert Caro, Michael Frayn, Stephen Grosz, William Trevor…

Jun 6

206: Still waters running deep

Louise Brangan & the Magdalene Laundries, Conor Farnan & English teaching, Seamus Heaney & 'Death of a Naturalist', Robert Caro, Claire Stoneman on…

May 30

205: Some consciousness hygiene

Martin Doyle & 60 Irish writers, English teachers meet, Naomi Alderman, Claire Keegan & Dua Lipa, Michael Pollan, C.S. Lewis, Yoïn van Spijk and more.

May 16

204: These practice children

Maggie Smith the poet, paper textbooks, Bleak House, Shakespeare ranked, Jeanette Winterson, Victoria Moul, Tom Doorley on Michael Campbell, Matisse in…

May 2

The Occasional 12

Creative writing with Claire Keegan, Ben Macintyre, Seichō Matsumoto, Beowulf, Maggie Smith (the poet), Adriaen Coorte in Oxford, Hiberno-English and…

Apr 18

203: Neither a hurling stronghold

Rory Carroll & Roger Casement, Claire Keegan, Julian Zabalbeasco, English Meet 2026, Bennie Kara on Graham Nuttall, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Barbara…

Mar 28

202: Extravagant handlebar moustaches

Donna Leon, Duff Cooper, the Great Pottery Throw Down, Erin Maglaque on Caravaggio, Uta Frith on autism, Karen Swallow Prior and Carl Hendrick on…

Mar 14

Extra: English classrooms in Ireland and the US

Thoughts prompted by an academic paper by Alexander Manshel on US High School English.

Mar 7

201: Filling buckets again

English Meet 2026, Barbara Oakley, Emma Smith, Jonathan Bate, Rosita Boland, Mackenzie Crook, Riz Ahmed & Hamlet, Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro and…

Feb 28

Extra: Teaching, L.M. Sacasas and Rory Sutherland's Doorman Fallacy

On the education fallacy that digital technology transcends the human.

Feb 14