Now, don't get worried, no rats will be harmed in this story!
Rat Tickling is the name of a recently released book of poems by New Zealand poet, author and Lincoln University tutor, James Norcliffe.
The title Rat Tickling came about because Mr Norcliffe once read a small newspaper item saying that rats respond to tickling in much the same way as humans do. The story is apparently true, but has since been ridiculed by other scientists.
That aside, the first section in this interesting collection of poems is called Rat Tickling and the first two poems are about the ticklish feeling we are all familiar with.
In addition to being a well-known New Zealand author and poet, Mr Norcliffe also teaches English to students undertaking the Foundation Studies Programme at Lincoln University.
He is a Senior Tutor and examiner and teaches the Lincoln Foundation Studies English Language and Communication and Integrative Study Skills courses. These subjects aim to equip students with the English language and study skills they will need to cope in an English-speaking academic environment.
When asked about his combination career Mr Norcliffe says that he gets a great deal of enjoyment from both writing and teaching although when they are not going well they can be "mightily frustrating."
Overcoming this frustration calls for creativity, he says.
"In this way, I believe, both writing and teaching are creative pursuits. Teaching probably exhausts the creativity of most people but I find I can reserve enough to get a bit of writing done although while I m teaching this tends to be a hurried poem here or a shortish short story there.
"The satisfaction in writing for me is in the pleasure of crafting a well-made thing. I wear three writing hats and each offers different rewards," he says.
"Writing for young people is unalloyed pleasure the pleasure of fantasy and play; of taking an imaginative idea and running with it.
"Fiction for adults is probably hardest structurally but deeply satisfying when it works. Poetry is probably my greatest love and the one that gives the most intense buzz.
"Poetry allows for chance and collision and sometimes seems to come to some extent from somewhere else that somewhat archaic idea of the muse."
Mr Norcliffe is also an editor, with Bernadette Hall, of a collection of Canterbury poems recently released, called Big Sky.
In 2000 Mr Norcliffe held the prestigious Burns Literary Fellowship at Otago University.
Before coming to Lincoln University he had a background in teaching off-shore. He worked for a short time in the Foreign Languages Department at Nankai University in Tianjin, China, where he taught English/American literature and language. And between 1995 and 1998 he worked for the Centre for British Teachers as a teacher in Brunei Darussalam, a small and very rich sultanate on the island of Borneo.
When asked how he would like to be remembered Mr Norcliffe said he would like to think that some of the things he's written will remain to be read and enjoyed for a little while longer than yesterday's news famously, wrapping today's fish and chips.
For further information contact
Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury
Tel: (03) 3252811 ext 8549.
Email: Ian Collins