Excellent times at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Someone remarked that it was like seeing their bookshelves come to life, which seems apt; I chatted with Bee Wilson, Elisabeth Luard and Fergus Henderson, watched Claudia Roden, Jacob Kennedy and Jennifer McLagan, and added many more writers to my reading list; I met academics, fellow-travellers and stars of the future like Rebecca Johnson and Amanda Couch, who I watched perform a Mesopotamian-style liver divination – not something I ever thought I’d see.
It was, if not actually humbling, at least a signal honour to present a paper to such an illustrious and appreciative crowd, to have a space where I, as a non-academic with a semi-academic background and a wide range of interests, could come and be a part of the debate. The papers’ll be edited for online and physical publication before the end of the year, at which point I’ll put up my presentation, too; for now, since this kind of effusiveness doesn’t come naturally to me, here is a portrait of a pig.
Thom Eagle 
Thank you for the introduction to the work of Amanda Couch– am so interested in thought-provoking art practices like hers…
It sounded brilliant, I’m very envious. Look forward to hearing more about your paper. Does it pertain to offal, perchance?
Definitely going next year. Was going to this year but had an attack of the shyness despite Elisabeth urging me to come on OFS FB page (bane of my real-life, that shyness and ‘I’m not worthyness).
Glad to see you made your mark- looking forward to seeing what you do post-OFS too.