I first read The Master and Margarita at Liverpool University when I was studying Russian Studies with English. My tutor Professor Arnold McMillin found my reaction slightly bizarre. as I… Read More »Waking up with the Master and Margarita-Bulgakov's helter skelter tapestry of fantasy and pantomine.
Halted against the shade of a last hill, They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease And, finding comfortable chests and knees Carelessly slept. But many there stood still To… Read More »Wilfred Owen's Spring Offensive: a healing pause.
The English Patient ‘If I gave you my life, you would drop it. Wouldn’t you?’ Set in post-war Italy, The English Patient focuses on four survivors coming to terms with… Read More »Cath Corri: Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant— Success in Cirrcuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightening to the Children eased With explanation… Read More »Emily Dickinson’s view of truth!
Yesterday I was fascinated by a pest controller telling me about cockroaches and their two brains. I do think Dr Who should maximise upon this enthralling fact! Today, I picked… Read More »Michael Morpurgo: A Elephant in the garden.
Below the surface-stream, shallow and light, Of what we say we feel – below the stream, As light, of what we think we feel – there flows With noiseless current… Read More »Why reading poetry helps us know ourselves better?
The trees rustled encouragingly as she hurried towards the familiar destination: another meeting at Spicer’s bar. She did not, absolutely did not, allow herself to imagine the figure waiting for… Read More »Another Misssion by Anna McNamara
Daphne Du Maurier – “The Old Man” Being unfamiliar with Du Maurier’s work, I didn’t know what to expect from this short story, and, having scanned the contents page of… Read More »Daphne Du Maurier's 'The Old man' with Alison Ridyard
Carol Ann Duffy – “You” – The Volatile Nature of Love In a characteristic adaptation of the sonnet form, Duffy expresses the contrasting emotions of passion and passivity, and the… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy's You: The Volatile nature of Love by Alison Ridyard.
Daphne Du Maurier – “The Birds” “There were robins, finches, sparrows, blue tits, larks and bramblings, birds that by nature’s law kept to their own flock and their own territory,… Read More »Daphne du Maurier's The Birds by Alison Ridyard
Sometimes days become more fluid than chocolate milkshake! The other week I had the Emily Dickinson phrase, ‘started early, took my dog’ in my head in connection with the latest… Read More »Kate Atkinson and Jackson Brodie.
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!
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.
The poet Keats once famously avowed that writers were like ‘camelions’- chameleons in the sense that they enter ‘into’ their characters and then even ‘become’ their characters for a while.… Read More »Daphne Du Maurier in overalls: Kiss me again, stranger!
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?
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
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!
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!
CAROL ANN DUFFY (1955–present) In Mrs Tilscher’s Class You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger, tracing the route while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery. Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum.… Read More »In Mrs Tilscher's Class
