Years ago there was a song by The Smiths’ Morrissey with the happy sing-a-long line ”shyness is nice”.It might have been catchy but I didn’t agree with him at all,… Read More »English Tutor/tuition Manchester, Bolton and Bury: How to be shy and enjoy it! Part One
Medusa has been explored several times on this blog and I will be writing a full length, Tusi Note on the poem in the next few days. However Carol Ann… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy’s Medusa Analysis: Rage as petrification-FREE VIDEO!
Whitney Houston could bring down the rafters of her listener’s soul. I loved the sheer exuberance and innocent energy of her early singles; gospel had come to MTV and a… Read More »Whitney Houston: The Voice that soared!
Reading can be a sneaky business. Even now, I still get told, come on let’s DO something sometimes when I am ‘caught’ reading, as if reading is somehow a squandering… Read More »Nine Writers who changed my life: English tutoring Manchester and Bolton
Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books, with one of the most feisty and resourceful heroines in English literature. Virginia Woolf found the emotional lives of the characters in… Read More »Jane Eyre's first encounter with Rochester:Chapter 12- A short Analysis on the irony of retrospect!
George knew all about rooms. He had read about rooms where people started to rot inside and stare at each other across furniture where dust sat waiting, denying them light.… Read More »The Plasticine men three: The importance of Rooms.
This is one of my favourite Carol Ann Duffy poems. It appears in Mean Time and has a witty pathos all of its own. Even as the poet receates… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy's Litany: An analysis revisited.
Pablo Neruda’s poem embraces the suffering endured by human beings because they choose to differentiate themselves so keenly and resolutely from one another. The I/thou relationship so fraught with misunderstanding,… Read More »Pablo Neruda: Too many Names- a tusi bite.
One of the most useful and practical techniques advocated by NLP involves taking responsibility for your life and behaviour at cause rather than at effect. Jimmy Petruzzi’s new book about… Read More »Excel in English: Are you performing at cause or at effect?
I love devouring anecdotes and ‘bits’ of real stories as they feed into all sorts of experiences and writings. Serge Lutens creates wonderful perfumes and the ‘genesis’ tale of his… Read More »Private English Tuition Manchester/Bolton/Bury: The scent of a good story
”We few, We happy few, We band of brothers.” Agincourt beckons and Shakespeare’s King Henry V is trying to rally a beleagured English army before they they face the French who… Read More »Tusi-bites: Henry V and the rule of three by Janet Lewison
”Such a staircase, with its accessories, in the older and more crowded parts of Paris, would be bad enough now; but, at that time, it was vile indeed to unaccustomed… Read More »Charles Dickens’ Masterclass on place in A Tale of Two Cities.
Rose’s mother was called Carol and she spent most of her day in a large airy office at the top of the house, guarded from her family by a stained glass… Read More »Refuge: Rose’s Mother.
I have just started reading David Almond’s new novel The True tale of the Monster Billy Dean.It’s windy outside as Bolton gets the ‘tail’ end of Hurricane Katrina. Oddly enough… Read More »Reading The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond.
JUST FOUND THIS POEM OF MINE – WRITTEN IN 1980 – 31 YEARS AGO – AGED 23 – UNTITLED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE IN LIFE FROM EVERY WALK AND STATION FROM EVERY… Read More »Cath Corri: An untitled poem.
Raynard Corri was the bastard offspring of Captain Africa (the lard mogul) and Tracy. The captain disappeared without Tracy, who perished alone , along with her diamond collection, the victim… Read More »Bern Corri by Cath Corri
I’d done it before (and doubtless I’ll do it again, sooner or later) woke up with a head on the pillow beside me -whose? – what did it matter? Good-… Read More »Salome by Carol Ann Duffy: the ‘soul-lessness’ of cliche?
She might yet be able to help him to the building of the rainbow bridge that should connect the prose in us with the passion. Without it we are meaningless… Read More »E M Forster Howard's End-only connect!
Carol Ann Duffy – “Havisham” Adopting the persona of Charles Dickens’s infamous spinster, ‘Miss Havisham’, and delivered in the form of dramatic monologue, Duffy offers an insight into the disturbed… Read More »Carol Annn Duffy's Havisham by Alison Ridyard
English Tuition encourages confidence in YOU because YOU are the the main focus of your lesson. YOU are the centre of attention and this attention gives you the opportunity to ask… Read More »English tuition encourages greater confidence and articulacy.
I first read Susan Hill’s collection The Boy who taught the beekeeper to read in June 2003. I can’t remember if that June was a sunny month, but I always… Read More »Susan Hill’s story: The Boy who taught the beekeeper to read.
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?
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
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 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!
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!
