I am a highly approachable Independent Expert Private English/English Literature Tutor located in Greater Manchester with over twenty years teaching and tutoring experience from Secondary to Postgraduate Degree level.
I love Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black. It’s a delayed text. In a crucial way its delay relates to grief, to the process of mourning itself where the teller is very reluctant to… Read More »GCSE English: Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black meets James Bond’s Goldeneye!
The rain set early in tonight, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, and did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with… Read More »Robert Browning- Porphyria’s Lover analysis (GCE): A Masquerade of Spontaneous murder?
‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came’ The Dark Tower has fascinated readers for centuries. Writers from Shakespeare in King Lear, to Browning in Childe Roland; Alan Garner in Elidor… Read More »GCSE English Merlin review- What’s Morgana’s secret game?
Ferrara That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and… Read More »Browning’s My Last Duchess Analysis: Three ideas to fire your essay! (|Part One)
My love of James Bond is firmly anchored to my childhood. The era of the double film bill. Marple’s Odeon Cinema. The primary school party if you were lucky enough to be invited. I… Read More »GCSE English Tuition Bolton and Manchester: ”Skyfall” Review-James Bond Resurrected!
Love’s time’s beggar, but even a single hour bright as a dropped coin, makes love rich. We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers or wine, but the… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Hour’- Commentary and analysis. My definitive Hour!
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, Before high grav’d books, in charact’ry, Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Hour’ and Keats-‘When I have fears that I may cease to be!
Les Grands Seigneurs Men were my buttresses, my castellated towers, the bowers where I took my rest. The best and worst of times were men: the peacocks and the… Read More »Dorothy Molloy ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’ Analysis of the AQA poem: What is strange or interesting?
Give Simon Armitage Of all the public places, dear to make a scene, I’ve chosen here. Of all the doorways in the world to choose to sleep, I’ve chosen yours.… Read More »Simon Armitage’s Give: Analysis of AQA Anthology poem.
The kind old face, the egg-shaped head, The tie, discreetly loud, The loosely fitting shooting clothes, A closely fitting shroud. He liked old city dining rooms, Potatoes in their skin,… Read More »John Betjeman ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’: Analysis and Review
He was seven and I was six, my Brendon Gallacher. He was Irish and I was Scottish, my Brendon Gallacher. His father was in prison; he was a cat burglar.… Read More »Jackie Kay's 'Brendon Gallacher': Analysis-from AQA Character and Voice.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness , illustrated by Jim Kay and inspired by an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, has recently been (uniquely) awarded both the Carnegie AND the… Read More »A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness: Analysis and Review-Sometimes only Rage will do!
David Almond’s Skellig is a novel very much concerned with the experience of community and communion explored through the eyes of a young narrator called Michael who finds his life radically changed when his… Read More »Skellig by David Almond: Analysis of Chapter 42
Today’s dream. Something small and soft brushed against my legs as I was about to open the door. Two black eyes looked up into mine and a beak opened and… Read More »The Quail, the crow and the walnut wardrobe: English Tutor/tuition Manchester, Bolton and Bury.
I have written before about the value of ‘scent’ in descriptive writing. And I mentioned Luca Turin’s scintillating book about the A-Z Perfume and now of course I should also mention the famous thriller about ‘Grenouille’… Read More »GCSE/GCE Descriptive Writing: AL Rehab Perfume Review!
‘Falling in love is glamorous hell’ writes Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy in her poem ‘You’ collected in Rapture. Madeleine Miller’s novel The Song of Achilles has recently won the… Read More »The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller: Analysis of Desire Part One.
Last week I was lucky enough to teach a session on David Almond’s Skellig for the MA in Children’s Literature at the University of Bolton. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening… Read More »English Tuition Bolton, Manchester and Bury: David Almond’s ‘Skellig’- analysis one.
The visitor had been sitting on the step since George had left the house with his dog. It was peculiar to watch him without speaking, but the visitor had no choice. The boy and… Read More »The Face in The Wall: The woman who would not look away.
Daphne du Maurier knew a thing or two about obsession. Her writing often makes us intimate with people so alive to their own point of view that any other viewpoint… Read More »Daphne Du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel: Analysis Two-Believing something does not make it TRUE!
Introduction. Daphne Du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel is a compelling novel to read. It explores sexual longing, intense jealousy and finally the act of murder as the ultimate resolution… Read More »English tutor/tuition Manchester, Bolton and Bury: Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel- review and analysis.
On the grass when I arrive, Filling the stillness with life, But ready to scare off At the very first wrong move. In the ivy when I leave. It’s… Read More »Seamus Heaney 'The Blackbird of Glanmore': Analysis and essay tips.
One of my favourite books of ALL TIME is by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, entitled Perfumes:The A-Z guide. This is THE ‘bible’ to scent and is so readable that… Read More »Creative Writing Bolton/Manchester: The Power of Scent! (Arabian perfumes one)
Had I not been awake I would have missed it, A wind that rose and whirled until the roof Pattered with quick leaves off the sycamore . And got me… Read More »English Tuition Bolton and Manchester: Reading matters!
