Before exams, teachers, tutors and parents always remind students, ‘Read the question!’ It’s so important. Before we start answering, we have to make really sure that we know what…
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My students ask all sorts of questions. One of the important parts of my job is to be here for the questions they don’t feel they can ask in class….
I always thought English was my subject. I also thought it was the only one I could be good at. As an undergraduate, I watched my friends reading Law, working…
I chose English because I thought it was an easy subject. To be absolutely honest, I used to be surprised that what we did in English classes at school counted…
In the UK, we can start to notice signs of autumn around now, and those tiny changes in the air and weather always make me think of stationery, new…
I often speak to parents* who are concerned that their children don’t read, or don’t read enough. They ask me, ‘Can you persuade him/her to read?’ I do try to…
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) was a politician, satirist and poet who was friends with John Milton. He is described as a metaphysical poet. This is a term given to a number…
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is now one of America’s most read poets, but during her lifetime she was largely unknown and only a handful of her poems were published in newspapers….
John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet, writer and civil servant whose epic poem, Paradise Lost, can be counted among the greatest poems in the English language. Milton was a…
If you know any part of one poem in English, it’s quite likely that you know, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud…’ which is the beginning of William Wordsworth‘s…
Did you know that today, 1st September, is World Letter Writing Day? When was the last time you wrote a letter? I know, I can’t remember, either! The last time…
What might have been and what has beenPoint to one end, which is always present. T.S.Eliot – Burnt Norton Ten years ago, for the whole of 2012, I made a…