Although settled at Oxford and in Wales, academic, teacher, acclaimed novelist and poet, Patrick McGuinness loves to be on the move, crossing borders and boundaries between countries, languages, and genres. In this talk, hell be weaving together some of the fascinating impressions, experiences, and influences from a highly varied lifetime. Patrick is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford. He grew up in the Belgian city of Bouillon, which he celebrates in his acclaimed memoir, Other Peoples Countries . Patrick has written two novels which deal with semi-fictional material, The Last Hundred Days, centred on the end of the Ceausescus regime in Romania, and Throw Me to the Wolves , a fictionalised account of the wrongful arrest for murder, and final release, of his former English teacher, Christopher Jefferies.