Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is locked up in the ‘red room’ early in the novel and there suffers mental anguish and torment because of her cruel treatment by her… Read More »Does Jane Eyre ever escape the ‘red room’ or is she metaphorically incarcerated there for the entire novel?
I have just discusssed the GCSE Descriptive writing ‘challenge’ for students in my previous blog. Before I retire to read the Sarah Waters’ Novel,The Nightwatch, I wanted to add AN ESSENTIAL… Read More »How can English Tuition BOOST your grades?
Oddly enough many students feel under confident about the descriptive writing component of the GCSE English curriculum. I say oddly enough as my personal taste always veers strongly in the… Read More »English tuition and GCSE Descriptive writing.
But Briar crept on me. Briar absorbed me. Now I feel the simple weight of the woollen cloak with which I have covered myself and think, I shall never escape!… Read More »Sarah Waters' Fingersmith- revisited!
Sarah Waters’ novel The Nightwatch is dramatised tonight. I must confess I started the novel when it was first published and then abandoned the experience, disappointed by the careful restraint… Read More »Sarah Waters: The Night Watch
English Tuition can provide a very dramatic boost to pupils’ understanding and appreciation of language. The ‘aha’ moments when students realise the value of language and its power to change… Read More »English Tuition: Why reading matters!
A Smart light: Inner knowing, self-constructed reality. A stream of stimuli meeting higher level or lower level thoughts. Knowing what we feel, feeling what we know. Yes! By Moira… Read More »Jamie Smart with Manchester Business NLP and EI Group: July 5th 2011.
July 4th is the USA’s National Day of Celebration. Independence Day is celebrated by Americans all over the world, enjoying the powerful awareness that experiencing Independence from the ‘shackles’ of dependency… Read More »When is your Independence Day? July 4th everyday!
Today the young blackbird I’d scooped off the patio, panting, motionless head down on the paving, took an initially faltering return into the world as good as new! Last night… Read More »We are the animal Kingdom-Life is confidence!
‘The awful daring of a moment’s surrender, which an age of prudence can never retract.’ ( T.S.Eliot, The Wasteland.) This quotation stopped me in my tracks whilst reading Aidan… Read More »What risks are you taking by staying where you are?
I offer Expert English Tutoring from Horwich, Bolton, just 5 minutes from the Reebok Stadium and the M61. Students travel from many parts of the North West for English tuition,… Read More »English Tuition in Bolton, Bury and Manchester!
I have been reading my second copy of Aidan Chambers’ novel, Dance on my grave, after having a temporary break during a visit to a physiotherapist for my back, when… Read More »Finding the can of magic beans!
Katherine Mansfield – Collected Stories ISBN: 1840222654 ‘I haven’t written a word since October and I don’t mean to until the spring. I want much more material: I am tired… Read More »Katherine Mansfield- The Journal and the Collected Stories.
Words have the power to shape the smallest moment. Our lives are experienced from moment to moment, shaped around our words as particles of feeling. And sometimes, these feelings seem… Read More »Resource yourself indefatigably!
‘Barrabas came to us by the sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she… Read More »Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits: My top 10 Novels!
Today I noticed a man paying complete attention to a field of sheep. He stood looking calmly at the sheep and as far as I could tell, they stood looking quietly… Read More »Magic Happens when you pay attention at 9am in Bolton!
Everyone on this planet loves attention. And by attention I mean respectful care. A form of listening that is awake to your personal presence and individual spirit. A listening that… Read More »English Tutoring: Paying attention brings magical results
Today significantly involved the relaunch of Tusitala English Tuition and an improvement in my back pain! Naturally I rushed to the computer in order to try out both the back… Read More »Virginia Woolf makes a promise!
The sunshine has reappeared, the light is bright and Tusitala has had a new makeover! I feel as if I am walking around a new house with changed carpets and… Read More »Looking around Tusitala!
Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. ( Gandhi) Here you have balance, congruence and integrity!
I’ll tell you, shall I, something I remember? Something that still means a great deal to me. It was long ago. A dusty road in summer I remember, A mountain,… Read More »Eleanor Farjeon’s It was long ago
Imagine a letter under your door, posted by hand a hundred years before. It has your name on it and the ink is old ink, and yes, the writing is… Read More »The letter under the door. Can you hear it?
I am a great believer in synthesis. All effective writing involves synthesis- combinations of ideas and sensory impressions that powerfully communicate to the reader. Today I am synthesising the 6… Read More »Gerry McGovern's 6 cs of Killer Web Content: Inspired advice.
I have been a huge fan of Dr Who since I was a child marvelling at Patrick Troughton and his tartan Victorian disguise. Lots of dark heavy furniture too… I… Read More »Elizabeth Bowen’s Demon Lover and Dr Who’s crack in the wall.
THIS IS HOW is MJ Hyland’s third novel and continues her acute analysis of adolescent—in this case late adolescent— disaffection. Family dysfunction is less prominent than in her earlier novels;… Read More »Barry Wood's review of M J Hyland's THIS IS HOW.
Zero Hour Tomorrow all the trains will stopand we will be stranded. Carshave already been immobilisedby the petrol wars, and sitabandoned, along the roadsides.The airports, for two days now,are closed-off… Read More »GCSE Welsh Board: Unseen Poem, Zero Hour by Mathew Sweeney
Essays matter. Examinations matter. Students today know perhaps more than ever before, that the results they obtain for their essays will either help them realise their dream university or college… Read More »How can I get better marks or grades for my essays?
QUIS EST ISTE QUI UENIT “I ought to be able to make it out,” he thought; “but I suppose I am a little rusty in my Latin. When I come… Read More »M R James: Oh, whistle, and I”ll come to you, my lad.
Everyone dreams of a special place of escape. A place we can escape to when the confines of the world seem weighty and suffocating. I am always curious about car… Read More »Finding your own voice: W B Yeats and his Lake Isle of Innisfree!
‘…Full of scorpions is my mind’ cries Macbeth in Act Three of Shakepeare’s play. He knows his consciousness is plagued with destructive thoughts, all extracted from a word pool none… Read More »Macbeth and the word pools we would NOT like to swim in!
