House of industry

I returned to a long-neglected task today, the revision of my doctoral thesis with a view to publication. This has been neglected for years, and I was happy to neglect it because I didn't like the thesis very much, and less so after it was torn apart in the viva and only grudgingly passed, although I reviewed the examiners' report today and there are actually some complementary statements in it.

It's been nearly eight years since the doctorate was approved and last week two people asked how the work was getting on, one of them a celebrated and prolific history professor, the other someone who finished her doctorate at the same time as me and has just had her book published. I have long been resigned to someone else, a Cambridge historian, having her tanks on my lawn; she started her doctorate as I was finishing mine, and her book is due very soon. However, I think that if I can improve one of my chapters and put together a proposal, I might be able to secure a contract, and thus an incentive to publish, before the end of this calendar year. It's a thought anyway.