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I'm torn between James Hogg, Confessions of a Justified Sinner and anything by Mervyn Peake.

Not one single piece, but one kind of teaching: putting a really good (preferably difficult) poem in front of a small group of students who've not seen it before and working through it with them. I've not had time in my schedule for ages to do this kind of close reading 'for it's own sake' with my college undergraduates, but I managed to carve some out this term and it was much the most exhilarating teaching I did in the term. We looked at a pretty wide range in 8 weeks: Roy Fisher, Denise Riley, Frank O'Hara, T. S. Eliot, Byron, Keith Douglas - pieces they were unlikely otherwise to have had time for in the syllabus. They loved it; I loved it. It's a great exercise in on-the-spot critical judgement, and honing your critical descriptive skills - and it can be made to connect closely with work they are doing in a more historical contextualised way for other courses. (Several of them went on to write about O'Hara, for example.) But if you are asking me which single text I most like teaching: it's a really hard call. Daniel Deronda, perhaps? Culture and Anarchy? but then I feel a strong tug back to the more contemporary poets even as I write this ...

I dither. I rowed for my Cambridge college's graduate crew for a bit, and coxed briefly - but drew a line under that part of my sporting career after an incompetent undergraduate cox steered a boat (I was subbing at no. 2) into a barge at the side of the river. The entire force of the boat at race speed went into my stomach (on the blade handle). I came to under the water, not knowing which way was up. Growing up in NZ, I'd seen endless repeats of the 'how to avoid drowning' ad: blow bubbles; they will rise to the surface; follow them up ... Problem was, the water was so filthy I couldn't see the bubbles. I eventually worked my way out from under the boat and swam to safety. Then was violent ill all night. Now I stick to running. And no, I've never been tempted by University Challenge.

There's a pretty standard list: strong academic record, good references, interesting and sufficiently focused project - which is doable in the time available (the timing varies significantly from country to country - in the UK it is 3 years). It needs to be ambitious enough to justify 3+ years full time work, have a visible research dimension, and be coherent in its own terms (why these writers on this topic? ... ). And it needs to be well written. Not least, it needs to genuinely interest you.

Hm. I'm not in fact English by birth and upbringing. I was born and grew up in New Zealand, and came to the UK in 1987 to do my doctorate at Cambridge. I spent the better part of 2 years in New York between 2001 and 2004, loosely attached to NYU, while writing The Long Life. I've also spent time in France (again, writing). So - yes, I've thought about it. But England has a strong pull for me. Something about the history, the landscapes, the intelligence of the political culture ...