Beginner's pluck: Writer Julian Stannard

Julian Stannard for Beginner's Pluck

A shy child, Julian always loved reading. As his father travelled a lot, he went to boarding school in England and discovered great literature.

“We did TS Eliot’s Waste Land for A level. I didn’t understand it all, but I found it fascinating, and I wrote bits and pieces.”

Julian spent many years in Italy.

“I taught English Language and Literature at Genoa University. I was there on and off until 2005.”

During that time, he wrote poetry.

“My first collection was published in 2001. Since then, they’ve been coming out every 3 to 4 years. I’ve published nine volumes.”

Since 2005, Julian has been teaching at the University of Winchester.

He wrote his debut — a satire on an English university, hurriedly during covid, but put it away for a few years.

“Many years ago, I wrote a novel about an Italian university, but it didn’t see the light of day.”

Who is Julian Stannard?

Date of birth: 1962 in Kent. “My grandfather was born in Cork.”

Education: Mount St Mary’s College; University of Exeter, Medieval English; University of East Anglia, PhD in English Literature.

Home: Southampton.

Family: Divorced with two grown-up children, Jack and William. “And an elderly mother, and a sister.”

The day job: Reader in English and Creative Writing at Winchester University.

In another life: “I’d loved to have been a foreign correspondent.”

Favourite writers: Fleur Adcock: “I sent poems to her when I was young. She replied and was encouraging.” Nikolai Gogol; Jean Rhys; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Angela Carter; Frederick Seidel; Paul Durcan.

Next book: New and Selected Poems, to be published in January by Salt Modern Poets.

Top tip: Don’t discuss the work; just do it. “And try and write something every day.”

Website: www.julianstannardauthor.com 

Instagram: @julianstannardpoet.

The debut

The University of Bliss. Sagging Meniscus: €20.50. Kindle: €9.51

It’s 2035, and The University of Bliss, a place espousing mental wellbeing, is about to appoint a new vice chancellor — and in choosing one who seems determined to make money out of the students, their slide towards the ending of all intellectual endeavour seems set in stone. Can things be reversed?

The verdict:  A brilliant satire on the rise of bureaucracy in education, which is both laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, and timely.