Who Wants To Be A Mediaeval Millionaire?
When teaching 11 to 14 year olds about mediaeval literature like Beowulf or Gawain and the Green Knight, one runs into the enormous...
A Useful Glossary of Literary Terms
An incomplete but workable glossary for anyone pursuing an interest in literature: Adventure novel: A novel where exciting events are...
Tolkien and the Sinfulness of Creation 2
When we read The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, we are looking through a small keyhole into the wider created world which Tolkien began...
25 Quotes About Poetry
The ones who can truly give voice to the power and truth and beauty of poetry and literature are the writers and poets themselves. Here...
More Successful Actions as a Writer
Here are some more practical successful actions as a writer, tried and tested! 1. Treat writing as a job. Arrive at your writing space in...
Some Magical Quotes About Literature
The best people to listen to when it comes to the power and magic of literature are authors. Here is a selection of some of their...
Teaching English Literature to Teenagers
When teaching English Literature to teenagers, a common practice in schools from the time when I was at school myself (and probably for...
The Power of Tropes
As we have seen in How Stories Really Work, there are four basic genres, each growing out of the kind of effect a writer wants to produce...
What's the Point of English Literature?
At some point in teaching teenagers, usually just before or soon after you have entered the dreaded ’S’ subject (Shakespeare), someone in...
How to Teach J. B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'
Of course there is no one definitive way to teach anything, but this advice is based on the experience of over fifteen years of teaching...