Professor Tim Kendall
Professor
4343
01392 724343
Overview
My research interests are William Golding's fiction, war poetry, nature writing, and archives. I have ongoing projects in each of these areas.
My latest book, co-authored with Fiona Mathews and shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, is Black Ops & Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals (Oneworld, 2023). Part natural history, part travel writing, and part bad jokes (what exactly did the beaver say to the tree?), the book criss-crosses Britain in search of eight mammal species that are threatened with extinction. The animals are the heroes. There is no spiritual healing and no self-discovery.
Fiona and I also make a podcast series together: Mammals R Us.
My anthology Poetry of the Second World War, a kind of sequel to Poetry of the First World War (2014), is forthcoming from Oxford World's Classics in 2024. Let's hope it's the last in the series.
Research
My new book, co-authored with Fiona Mathews, is Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals (Oneworld, 2023). It comprises natural history, travel writing, entertaining campaigning, and bad jokes.
I have various ongoing projects:
A 5-volume variorum edition of Ivor Gurney's poetry, which I'm editing with Philip Lancaster for OUP. Volume 1 appeared in 2020; volume 2 will be published in 2024.
An edition of the correspondence between William Golding and his editor, Charles Monteith, for Faber & Faber (forthcoming 2025).
An annotated anthology of Second World war poetry, which will serve as a kind of sequel to Poetry of the First World War (2013).
A full-length book on William Golding, literary fandom, and why we like some authors more than others.
Supervision
War poetry; archives; writers' letters; anthologies; nature writing. Specific authors include Robert Frost, Charlotte Mew, Sylvia Plath, Keith Douglas, Ivor Gurney, Rudyard Kipling, William Golding.
Research students
The following PhD students successfully completed in 2013:
- Philip Lancaster (PhD on Ivor Gurney).
- Carrie Smith (PhD on Ted Hughes, co-supervised with Jo Gill).
- Rebecca Welshman (PhD on Thomas Hardy, Richard Jefferies and Victorian Archaeology)
In 2014:
- Sadia Rehman (MbyRes on T. S. Eliot).
In 2015:
- Jasmine Hunter Evans (PhD on David Jones, co-supervised with Rebecca Langlands).
- Lucy Tunstall (PhD on Sylvia Plath, co-supervised with Jo Gll).
In 2016:
- Grant Repshire (PhD on F W Harvey).
- Suzanne Steele (PhD on war poetry).
- Luke Thompson (PhD on Jack Clemo).
In 2018:
- Pete Bunten (PhD on Henry Williamson).
- Bysshe Coffey (PhD on Percy Shelley).
Publications
Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2001 | 1996 |
2023
- Wortley A. (2023) Representations of Migrancy in the Poetry of Contemporary Irish Poets in Britain.
- Briggs DL. (2023) The Odyssey Complex: Reading and Writing Midlife Poetics and Middle Style.
2022
- Tyner-Mehta J. (2022) Women Poets and Eating Disorders: 1840s–1970s.
2021
- Osborne B. (2021) Disenchantment and Re-enchantment in the work of William Golding.
2020
- Gurney I. (2020) Ivor Gurney: The Complete Poetical Works. Vol. 1: March 1907---December 1918, volume 1, pages i-lvi-1-340.
2019
- Angear H. (2019) An epistolary Thomas Hardy: proximity and distance.
2018
- N/A. (2018) Britain's Mammals 2018, The Mammal Society.
- Kendall T. (2018) William Golding's Great Dream, Essays in Criticism, volume vol 68, number 4, pages 466-487, DOI:10.1093/escrit/cgy018.
- Kendall T. (2018) 'Freely Proffered'?: The Deaths of Rupert Brooke and Julian Grenfell, Sacrifice and Modern War Literature : From the Battle of Waterloo to the War on Terror, Oxford University Press, 113-123.
- Kendall T. (2018) John Allan Wyeth's Dead Landscapes, Dead Ground 2018-1918, Clutag Press, 191-199.
- no author. (2018) Norton Anthology of Poetry, Norton. [PDF]
2014
- Kendall T. (2014) Ivor Gurney: The Poet Who Loved the War.
- Kendall T. (2014) Ivor Gurney: the Poet who Loved the War.
2013
- Kendall T. (2013) Civilian War Poetry: Hardy and Kipling, The Poetry of the First World War, Cambridge University Press, 198-209.
- Kendall T. (2013) Wilfrid Gibson and the First World War, Dymock Poets and Friends, volume 12, pages 52-60.
2012
- Kendall T. (2012) A VERY ENGLISH HERO The making of Frank Thompson, TLS-THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, no. 5721, pages 25-25. [PDF]
- Kendall T. (2012) The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry, DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199559602.001.0001.
- Kendall T. (2012) The Art of Robert Frost, Yale University Press. [PDF]
2010
- Kendall T. (2010) Modern English War Poetry, DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562022.001.0001.
- Gleave R. (2010) Introduction, Islamic Jurisprudence in the Classical Era, Cambridge Univ Pr, 1-21.
- Kendall T. (2010) '"Time Will Erase": Anne Stevenson and Elegy', Voyages over Voices: Critical Essays on Anne Stevenson, Liverpool University Press, 206-213.
2009
- Kendall T. (2009) ‘One Another’s Guide: Robert Frost and Edward Thomas’, Dymock Poets and Friends, volume 8, pages 1-14.
- Kendall T. (2009) Gurney and Fritz, Essays in Criticism, volume 59, no. 2, pages 142-156, DOI:10.1093/escrit/cgp003.
2008
- Kendall T. (2008) Against Contemporary Poetry, PN Review, no. 179, pages 24-27.
2007
- Kendall T. (2007) The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry, Oxford University Press.
- Kendall T. (2007) Thomas Hardy's Witness, War Poetry Review, no. 1, pages 7-23.
2006
- Kendall T. (2006) Modern English War Poetry, Oxford University Press.
2005
- Kendall T. (2005) Strange Land, Carcanet Press.
2004
- Kendall, T and McDonald P. (2004) Paul Muldoon, Liverpool University Press.
2001
- Kendall T. (2001) Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study, Faber and Faber.
1996
- Kendall T. (1996) Paul Muldoon, Seren Books/Poetry Wales Pr Ltd.
Teaching
Modules taught
Biography
I was born in Plymouth in 1970. At Oxford I completed my BA (1991) and D.Phil (1994). I spent a year there as lecturer before taking up a research post in Newcastle. Two years after that, I accepted my first permanent position at Bristol. I returned to Devon as Professor of English Literature at the University of Exeter in 2006, and served as Head of Department from 2007 to 2013.
In no particular order, my passions are poetry, wildlife conservation, running, William Golding's fiction, and Plymouth Argyle.
I have a podcast series with Fiona Mathews about wild mammals: Mammals R Us.
