{"id":927,"date":"2020-09-21T08:34:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T08:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/?p=927"},"modified":"2020-09-28T12:17:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T12:17:16","slug":"neil-taylor-teacher-of-english-centre-for-academic-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2020\/09\/21\/neil-taylor-teacher-of-english-centre-for-academic-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil Taylor, Teacher of English, Centre for Academic English"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

“We needed our online classes to allow us to help academically but also to be a supportive, social space.”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I work part-time at Imperial as an Academic English Teacher in the\u00a0Centre for Academic English<\/a>\u00a0where I support students and staff with the written and spoken communication of their research. Alongside this I teach part-time for the Victoria and Albert Museum. On July 14 I published my first novel\u00a0The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, fulfilling my long-standing goal of publishing a book.<\/p>\n

I wanted to write a coming of age novel, not just of a person but of a decade. Evie Epworth is 16 in 1962 and she stands on the precipice of womanhood just as the\u00a060s, as we understand them, are about to begin. For Evie this is a period of change and uncertainty and there\u2019s that inevitable tension between childhood and adulthood. At times she seems endlessly knowledgeable and mature, at others she is notably na\u00efve. The girl and the era come of age together.<\/p>\n

It was important to me that the book was funny but also touching. I didn\u2019t want to shy away from important and topical issues. My\u00a0favourite\u00a0writers are authors who can say something meaningful but also make you laugh. I knew that I wanted to set the story in Yorkshire and I also knew I wanted to move away from the stereotype of \u2018the North\u2019 as\u00a0backwards or illiberal. Evie is unconcernedly accepting of her friend Caroline, a lesbian from London. A comment on both the arrival of the 60s and how London doesn\u2019t, and didn\u2019t, have the monopoly on acceptance.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no stranger to writing – academic writing is crucial to my jobs – but writing fiction is very\u00a0different. I would come home from work in the evenings and disappear into this 1960s Yorkshire village. There\u2019s a freedom that comes with being able (in fact encouraged!) to make it up. In the end though, the book needed a lot of historical research. The period in which it is set is central to the book, so I needed to be sure it was accurate.<\/p>\n

Balancing the three jobs over the last few months has been quite hard. I\u2019ve had a lot of work at Imperial as we respond to the challenges brought about by COVID-19. We\u2019ve moved our courses online and worked hard to make them as interactive as possible. I\u2019ve felt very sympathetic towards a lot of the PhD students I work with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before I joined Imperial, I thought science was all laboratories and white coats, but I\u2019ve since\u00a0<\/span>realised<\/span>\u00a0that for a lot of students their work is sitting in front of a computer coding. That\u2019s isolating enough when you\u2019re in London and surrounded by friends, but worse now everyone is scattered all over the globe. We needed our online classes to allow us to help academically but also to be a supportive, social space<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got\u00a0<\/span>a really amazing<\/span>\u00a0manager and team around me who\u2019ve made the last few weeks as\u00a0<\/span>I<\/span>\u2019ve moved towards publication possible. We\u2019re our own little family! I\u2019ve missed them massively, but we\u2019ve managed to recreate coffee breaks and \u2018water cooler moments\u2019 virtually. They\u2019ve been a huge support to me and I\u2019m incredibly grateful for all their help.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Neil\u2019s book, which is included on the BBC Radio 2 Book Club Summer Selection List, is available\u00a0here<\/a>. You can also follow his (mis)adventures on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We needed our online classes to allow us to help academically but also to be a supportive, social space.” I work part-time at Imperial as an Academic English Teacher in the\u00a0Centre for Academic English\u00a0where I support students and staff with the written and spoken communication of their research. Alongside this I teach part-time for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[288073],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-support-staff"],"yoast_head":"\nNeil Taylor, Teacher of English, Centre for Academic English - Imperial people<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2020\/09\/21\/neil-taylor-teacher-of-english-centre-for-academic-english\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Neil Taylor, Teacher of English, Centre for Academic English - Imperial people\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“We needed our online classes to allow us to help academically but also to be a supportive, social space.” I work part-time at Imperial as an Academic English Teacher in the\u00a0Centre for Academic English\u00a0where I support students and staff with the written and spoken communication of their research. 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