University of Chichester

To complete what has been a very fine week, I've just been appointed an Associate Lecturer at the University of Chichester, where I'll be leading a second-year module on post-War British culture in the next academic year.

I'm looking forward to this. As I've said here before, I really like Chichester, both as a city and a university, and I'm very grateful to Dr Hugo Frey, the Head of the History Department, for giving me this opportunity. It's a new and unexpected direction for me.

I'm also grateful to Dr Adam Locks of the Media Studies Department, who first invited me to Chichester to participate in the splendid Avengers conference last year.

I rather wish I'd had the likes of Hugo and Adam around when I was at college, as opposed to the lecturers I did have, who insisted I should be reading Henry James and Edith Wharton rather than Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells. So I'm really pleased to be joining them, in a junior capacity. It should be fun.

The Avengers at 50

I spent last weekend at the very lovely University of Chichester for a convention to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Avengers. I was there under the excuse of my book about Terry Nation, who wrote half a dozen episodes of the show and was story editor for the last season, and I'd like to thank Dr Adam Locks and Michael Holley and their team for inviting me and for organizing such a fabulous event.

It was a wonderful weekend, full of very nice people and an impressive line-up of guests, including (from left to right) four of the great television writers: Richard Bates, Brian Clemens, Terrance Dicks and Richard Harris.