Why does Private English Tuition work so effectively? Today I asked Carole Berry, who regularly tutors students for GCSE, A level and Undergraduate levels why Independent English tutoring proves so… Read More »English Tuition Bolton and Manchester: How Private Tuition can help you to succeed!
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.
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
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!
‘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.
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.
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!
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!.
The tiny red hand lifted the bottom blind and watched the boy trying to pick up a worm on the path. He looked happy for once and the hand let… Read More »English Tutor Bolton, Bury and Manchester: The Face in the Wall- Climbing Tiles.
Last Saturday I taught this poem and found lots more to say as I realised I had missed so much before. Surely that is the secret of a good poem? It has… Read More »Andrew Forster's Brothers : An Analysis Revisited.
It burnt him. Stung at his open eyes. And even if he found he could blink away the sharp grains, the room still looked odd, far away. He felt tired… Read More »English Tutor/tuition Manchester, Bolton and Bury: The Face in the Wall and the sand.
Nettles by Vernon Scannell My son aged three fell in the nettle bed. ‘Bed’ seemed a curious name for those green spears, That regiment of spite behind the shed: It was… Read More »Vernon Scannell's 'Nettles': An Analysis of the AQA poem.
Saddled with you for the afternoon,me and Paul ambled across the threadbare field to the bus stop, talking over Sheffield Wednesday’s chances in the cup while you skipped beside us… Read More »Andrew Forster’s ‘Brothers’: An Analysis- how casual is betrayal?
Someone famous had once turned their face to the wall and died because they had run out of the words they cared about. The face couldn’t recall who they were and perhaps… Read More »English tutor/tuition Manchester, Bolton and Bury: The Face in the wall remembers George.
