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
When You Are Old WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, … Read More »GCSE, A Level English Tuition: W B Yeats' When you are old.
My daughter and I were watching a sweet gathering of small birds on our bird table over breakfast today and I asked her what would happen if the birds decided… Read More »Daphne Du Maurier and The Birds!
Writers are often questioned about their early, formative ‘influences’ or about other writers who may have inspired their work. For students undertaking the entrance examinations for schools such as Bolton… Read More »English Entrance Examinations: The Creative Writing essay with a little inspiration from Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book.
Reading this story on my inversion table just now seemed to double the peculiarity of the experience. For not only did I jolt out of ANY expectations I may have… Read More »The Old Man by Daphne Du Maurier: A twist with a twist!
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?
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.
This poem, ‘You‘ begins Carol Ann Duffy’s sequence of love poems, unambiguoulsy called Rapture! Aliosn Ridyard’s commentary on this blog is excellent and discusses the techniques by which Duffy communicates… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy's You from Rapture: Commentary
