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Max Saunders' case study is based on his work on the critical edition of Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy of novels Parade's End (1924-8). This edition was used for the BBC/HBO series, adapted by Tom Stoppard. Saunders was literary consultant for the series, wrote about it in the media and gave the creative team advice. The adaptation has been watched by 2.5m viewers many of whom will not previously have been aware of Ford or his novels. BBC2 drama doubled its normal viewing figures for drama. The impact of the edition and of Saunders' wider scholarship on the adaptation is demonstrable in statements by the producer and director of the series.
David Ford's research on Scriptural Reasoning, a form of inter-faith dialogue in which Muslims, Christians and Jews meet to discuss extracts from their respective scriptures, has led to the creation of Scriptural Reasoning groups in multiple non-academic contexts, from UK prison chaplains to Israeli and Palestinian doctors, and so to deepening engagement and learning between people from different religious traditions. Those groups engage in the practice which Ford and others have developed, putting the underlying research into practice in a variety of local conditions, and thereby fostering peaceful and fruitful inter-faith relations.
This case study focuses on an exhibition of a collection of books owned or written by the great sixteenth-century writer Michel de Montaigne. These books were donated to the Cambridge University Library by the family of Gilbert de Botton. Philip Ford was involved in negotiating with the family for this donation, and subsequently wrote a monograph on the collection to accompany the exhibition. During the writing of this monograph, he worked closely with the exhibition's curator, Jill Whitelock (a senior librarian at Cambridge University Library), to determine the form and content of the exhibition. The monograph and exhibition attracted considerable attention and was followed up by public lectures by Philip Ford. The principal benefit from this project has been the enhanced conservation and presentation of the cultural heritage of sixteenth-century France.