An aside. This image reminds me of an attic record shop in Ormskirk where I used to buy records every week with my Saturday job money and first saw this… Read More »Private English Tuition Top Tip using Simon Armitage’s ‘Give’ for Undergraduate, GCE and GCSE Reading Prismatically!
They had been playing cards for hours and the fire was low. The boy smiled strangely as he turned over his last card. ‘But that’s not a card we play… Read More »GCSE/GCE English Tuition:50 word story-The Tower.
All stories are ghost stories at heart, even the heartless ones! (I have now posted another FREE analysis of Susan Hill’s Woman in Black on Tusitala. AND A FREE WOMAN… Read More »Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black: Analysis of First Sighting: GSCE/GCE English
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html Human beings synthesise experience all the time. This is how we make sense of what might otherwise seem a shapeless, chaotic world where even the act of knowing how to… Read More »Private English tuition/tutor Bolton and Manchester: Winterson and TED's Brene Brown on vulnerability and making connections.
Wind This house has been far out at sea all night, The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills, Winds stampeding the fields under the window Floundering black astride and… Read More »Ted Hughes 'Wind':Analysis of AQA anthology- Place.
In every cry of every Man, In every Infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear. Consider the use and effect of the… Read More »William Blake’s ‘London’ analysis: AQA Anthology – ‘Place’ Part Two.
I am! I am! yet what I am none cares or knows, My friends forsake me like a memory lost; I am the self-consumer of my woes, They rise and… Read More »John Clare, 'I am' or 'Written in Northampton County Asylum': Analysis.
Are you writing something a little bit disturbing? Do you want to improve your descriptive writing or to think about setting and atmosphere? Thriller writers like John Connolly and James Lee Burke are… Read More »The Burning Light by John Connolly: Analysis and first thoughts.
What colour is sadness? What colour is passion? What colour is joy? Patrick Ness and David Almond both use a form of graphic novel to explore the profound sadness of… Read More »Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls and David Almond's The Savage: The Graphics of Grief
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.
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.
‘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!
Effective writing engages the reader because they feel involved. In this way all writing must persuade the reader of something and one of the most vivid ways to engage a reader is… Read More »GCSE English Essay Writing Tip: Sensory Impressions!
Shelley’s Ozymandias is a striking poem about the abuse or the futility of power. I say striking because it contains images that remain with you and will not go away.… Read More »Shelley’s Ozymandias:An Analysis Revisited of the AQA Poem-character and voice!
Shelley’s Ozymandias is a striking poem about the abuse or the futility of power. I say striking because it contains images that remain with you and will not go away.… Read More »Shelley’s Ozymandias:An Analysis Revisited!
Here’s one of my favourite examination tips and it works for all levels of exam when students are writing analytical essays, doing close readings of texts and even writing creative, descriptive pieces. As you… Read More »GCSE/GCE English Tutor/Tuition, Bolton, Manchester, North West: A favourite examination tip!
I said yesterday that we find the voice of the River God progressively alarming. His voice provokes unease as he tries to pretend to be innocent if not benevolent. ‘I bless their swimming.’ Do… Read More »Stevie Smith's The River God: Part Two.
I may be smelly, and I may be old, Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools, But where my fish float by I bless their swimming And I like… Read More »Stevie Smith, The River God: An Analysis of surreal intimacy?!
Charlotte Mew’s poem, The Farmer’s Bride leaves this reader rather glad to be alive in this age rather than the oppressive time of the poor Farmer’s Bride, whose voicelessness is brilliantly captured… Read More »Charlotte Mew’s The Farmer’s Bride-commentary and afterthought!
It was a mean house nowadays. Even when the rooms were filled with visitors, laughing and eating, there was this deposit of smallness on everything, like cold fat after cooking.… Read More »English Tuition, Bolton, Manchester and Bury: The Face in the Wall-Meanness Defeated.
This is a disturbing poem, not least because the speaker, who we assume to be the ‘farmer’ narrates the story of the unfortunate’bride.’ I say unfortunate as she has no… Read More »Charlotte Mew, The Farmer’s Bride: An Analysis of sexual repression, fear and violation?
This is a disorientating poem. It communicates a profound sadness and despair through its choice of language, images and sounds, all combining to produce an elegy for a loss that extends far beyond… Read More »Stevie Smith, ‘Come on, Come back.’ An Analysis-the mind gone walkabout?
