New beginning
The Artful was having a good morning. Grandma Isaac had whispered something deep down into her ear about the amber fountain being ready again…’ready again’ she had drawled in that… Read More »New beginning
June 2009
Lydia Davis: Samuel Johnson is Indignant
Samuel Johnson is Indignant: that Scotland has so few trees. Lydia Davis is mistress of the succinct! Everytime I read this I break out into a smile!… Read More »Lydia Davis: Samuel Johnson is Indignant
Anchor
She had placed the three penny bit under the mat one morning when they had all gone out and somehow it had chosen to stay there, shiny and manageably… Read More »Anchor
A knock on the head!
Lynda had been so very lucky that the bruising began to fade in a matter of days. The car had saved her everyone said. It had lived up to its… Read More »A knock on the head!
Carol Ann Duffy: Premonitions
Dedicated with love to the memory of UA Fanthorpe We first met when your last breathcooled in my palm like an egg;you dead, and a thrush outsidesang it was morning.I… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy: Premonitions
English Tuition Manchester and Bolton Review June 2009
June has turned blissfully warm and all my GCSE and A level students are on the best side of their examinations, now all enjoying the possibility of a long hot… Read More »English Tuition Manchester and Bolton Review June 2009
Small white bear
He had sat just over there when his Grandma told him sadly he was the winter’s child. ‘Your heart is strong, but buried deep. Remember, you must always wait for the… Read More »Small white bear
Carol Ann Duffy: Politics
How it makes of your face a stone that aches to weep, of your heart a fist, clenched or thumping, sweating blood, of your tongue an iron latch with no… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy: Politics
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief… Read More »A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Ozymandias by Shelley
I MET a traveller from an antique land Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk,… Read More »Ozymandias by Shelley