Tearle, is joined by fellow English lecturer Dr Barbara Cooke and Dr Kerry Featherstone, a lecturer in Creative Writing as they look at Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno and Thomas Hardy’s A Popular Personage.

The podcast aims to entertain as well as educate and, in this episode, they discuss how pets can help with mental health, the film adaptation of CATS that is causing quite the stir and the bear Lord Byron kept as a pet during his time at Cambridge University.

Tearle, Cooke and Featherstone also enjoy reading poems from two º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ alumni, Nat Moores and Shruti Chauhan.

Moores is the recent winner of the Overton Poetry Prize and the academics read the final poem in her collection, entitled Single Girl Lies Hidden, which focuses on the #MeToo movement.

Chauhan’s poem ‘62p’ draws upon the poet’s time working at Beaumont Leys library, finding unusual in the mundane.

Dr Barbara Cooke’s research focuses on twentieth-century autobiography and life writing. She is also the co-executive editor of the complete works of Evelyn Waugh.

Dr Kerry Featherstone specialises in contemporary travel writing, with a particular focus on Afghanistan.

Listen to the episode below or download from the iTunes store here. Previous episodes from the series can also be found online.