Writing the opening to a story requires a ‘hook’ so that the reader feels engaged and wants to follow your writing into a new world away from their daily concerns.… Read More »GCSE English Language Creative Writing: Engage your reader by using direct address. ( Bolton English Tuition)
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!
THE TREES are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones 5… Read More »W B Yeats: The Wild Swans at Coole: Analysis and Review of AQA anthology poem.
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.
We all like telling each other stories about our lives and this is how we share aspects of who and what we are. We connect with others and with ourselves through storytelling as… Read More »Private English tuition/tutor Manchester and Bolton: Saki, William trevor and Katherine Mansfield- tales of the unexpected!
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.
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.
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!
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!
This should prove my final analysis of the poem as the GCSE beckons this week. Giving voice through the dramatic monologue to a rather sinister, ‘seedy’,sexually predatory male ‘river god’ makes the reader feel they… Read More »Stevie Smith The River God: Final Analysis-the boastful predator who loves rhymes!
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.
How can you successfully answer an examination question on a poem, whatever the poem may be, even with bad headache and no confidence?! This short blog will help you tackle… Read More »James Fenton, In Paris With You: An analysis.
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?
This is an analysis of Mametz Wood, stanza by stanza: For years afterwards the farmers found them – the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades as they tended the land… Read More »Owen Sheers: Mametz Wood: A Short Analysis
We are on the verge of the GCSE English examinations once more, so I thought I would look again at Carol Ann Duffy’s Hour, a poem originally collected in Carol Ann… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy's 'Hour': Goldfinger, Midas and the ecstasy of Love!.
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
