Intimations
Zadie Smith’s new book is both slight and capacious. Intimations: six essays is just 81 pages long in small format paperback, but into these pages Smith packs an enormous amount.
Read MoreTeaching Walkthrus
Teaching Walkthrus is a stimulating resource: practical ideas are laid down with great precision. It will help a lot of teachers to clarify their practice.
Read MoreThe Fortnight in September
The constant undertow of R.C. Sherriff’s 1931 novel The Fortnight in September is time. The two significant words in the title are about time, and it colours everything that follows, but this is not a melancholic story.
Read MoreJames Shapiro on Manifest Destiny
James Shapiro is a superb analyst of Shakespeare. In a recent podcast interview by Peter Moore from Travels from Time he concentrates on one year, 1845 (of course, Shapiro has written book-length studies of 1599 and 1606), including two extraordinary stories: Ulysses S. Grant’s casting as Desdemona and Charlotte Cushman’s performance as Romeo.
Read MoreThe Nickel Boys
The Nickel Boys is an excavation of a part of American history that I had not known about. Reform ‘schools’ took in children of any colour, but given the overt racism of the Jim Crow era, the brutality of such places was particularly horrendous for black children.
Read MoreThe Five
In Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Linda (Willy Loman’s widow) says, ‘Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person’, and this is what Hallie Rubenhold is doing in The Five. She rescues the murder victims from history, from their erasure by stereotype, laziness and misogyny, and makes them real again.
Read MoreThe Years
‘Family narrative and social narrative are one and the same’. This is a great narrative about family, first as a child and moving through the teenage years to marriage, motherhood and eventually being a grandmother. It is also about France itself, culture, technology, consumerism and so much more.
Read MoreVoices of Poetry
For many years our school has had a wonderful summer event: ‘Voices of Poetry’, with pupils and staff reading out poems in many languages. It works. It’s often magical. My colleague Ronan has put it together this year as a virtual audio event, and here are 40 minutes of pleasure for you.
Read MoreMr Loverman
Bernardine Evaristo’s 2013 novel Mr Loverman is hugely enjoyable, just like her Booker Prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other.
Read MoreShakespeare in a Divided America
James Shapiro’s latest book, Shakespeare in a Divided America, is brilliant reading. Shapiro skilfully shows how Shakespeare has been ‘present’ in so many of the most important moments in American life.
Read MoreThe Ministry of Truth
Dorian Lynskey’s The Ministry of Truth: a biography of George Orwell’s 1984 is a superb introduction to the novel, and a vital read for English teachers.
Read MoreWilliam Trevor at school
This is the text of a talk I gave on Thursday 23rd March 2017 as part of an event to mark the life and works of William Trevor. In the second part of the event, the author Joseph O’Connor read Trevor’s great story ‘Another Christmas’ and answered questions from the audience about Trevor’s work.
Read MoreGirl, Woman, Other
Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other is wonderful: such a tonic for ‘our time.’ While I found the previous Booker winner, Milkman by Anna Burns, an extraordinary achievement in sustaining a voice (dense, intense, disturbing), Evaristo’s book is just so hugely enjoyable.
Read MoreClosing the Reading Gap
Closing the Reading Gap is a sibling to Alex Quigley’s previous book, Closing the Vocabulary Gap, and joins it in being one of the most accessible, interesting and helpful books on education in recent years.
Read MoreIn Memory: Eavan Boland
The unexpected news this afternoon of Eavan Boland’s passing felt just like hearing of Seamus Heaney’s death : a sharp, dismayed ‘Ah no. No.’ Losing great writers leaves us bereft, even if we didn’t know them personally. The words of a great poet with a long career like Boland or Heaney seep into us over decades. They become part of what we are.
Read MoreWilliam Wordsworth quotations
Here’s a Quizlet set for those preparing Wordsworth for the Leaving Certificate. Even if you’re not learning these quotations, they should prompt thoughts about key ideas in the poems. The reverse ‘answer’ side includes brief comments on significance. The main thing: use the quotations for thinking purposes.
Read MoreTeachers vs Tech?
it is particularly welcome that at this time one of the sharpest minds in education, Daisy Christodoulou, should turn her attention to the relationship between teaching and technology. Here are some thoughts on her third book, Teachers vs Tech? the case for an ed tech revolution.
Read MoreLeaving Certificate English resources
During these uncertain and anxious times for pupils, here is a summary of some resources for Leaving Certificate English candidates that may be helpful when working at home. Regular updates coming.
Read More97 quotations from 'Hamlet'
Quotations are the core of an answer on Hamlet. If you are preparing to answer on the play in an exam, it’s essential you can refer in detail to the text. Think of what should replace 'blank' in each case, then click to see the answer. Now write down (or, better still, discuss with a friend): how could this quotation be used? how is it helpful/interesting? how does it connect with others? Use this exercise not just to retrieve, but to think.
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