Well Well Well(s)

Once, in our GCSE English class, we did a Weakest Link style game. My question was 'Who wrote The Time Machine', and I said George Orwell, and felt rather stupid. The same thing happened tonight at the latest drinks to welcome English Masters students...

Well, not quite the same thing, obviously. But an eminent and doubtless redoubtable fellow of St John's College was asking me about my dissertation topic, and I mentioned middlebrow domestic literature and got the customary recoil - but it got worse when I started talking about the use of the word 'middlebrow', saying that George Orwell coined the term, but Virginia Woolf refined it. Perfectly possible, I suppose, since he was born 38 years before she died. But, of course, I had made the same mistake again, and meant H.G. Wells. And then felt very stupid while the said eminent and doubtless redoubtable fellow laughed at me and started talking to someone else...

What made matters WORSE was that I was standing next to a group which included Hermione Lee, and very much wanted to go and say hello, but didn't want to be rude... and then she left quite early. I do hope I have the chance to see her later in the year...

Also amusing quite how many of the English doctorate students recognised me from my days behind the desk in the Bodleian.

So! Another day in the world of a new Oxford graduate. Another drinks party next Monday... Please make me feel better by sharing any similar incidents from your lives.