Reading Catch-up, December 2023
Some short reviews which first appeared in the Fortnightly since the summer.
Read More'Essential Grammar' by Jennifer Webb and Marcello Giovanelli
In Essential Grammar: the resource book every English teacher will need, Jennifer Webb and Marcello Giovanelli have written a helpful and practical guide to an area teachers often find difficult. It is their contention that far from being dry and pedantic, knowledge of how grammar works is liberating and opens up possibilities for pupils.
Read MoreOn Eclectic Reading
A reflection on reading eclectically, and on how books connect to each other in surprising and fruitful ways.
Read MoreChetna Maroo's 'Western Lane'
Chetna Maroo’s short tight début novel tells the story of an 11 year-old girl who has lost her mother, and the ways she, her sisters and father try to cope, especially through the unlikely medium of the game of squash.
Read MoreMartin Doyle's 'Dirty Linen'
Martin Doyle’s Dirty Linen: the Troubles in my Home Place is a powerful mixture of memoir, journalism and history. In it, the lives of people murdered in a single parish during the Troubles are given due attention.
Read More'Hamlet' webinar
Notes and links for a webinar via Tralee Education Support Centre, for teachers of Hamlet at Leaving Certificate.
Read More'Sentence Models for Creating Writing' by Christopher Youles.
Christopher Youles’s Sentence Models for Creative Writing is a useful short book for English teachers, properly sub-titled ‘A practical resource for teaching writing.’
Read MoreEmma Smith on 'Hamlet'
Notes on the Hamlet chapter in Emma Smith’s This is Shakespeare.
Read MoreRevising the sequence of 'Hamlet' 2
A simple way to help pupils understand which parts of a play are important for revising an individual character. Here, Hamlet, but any play by Shakespeare works.
Read MoreLaura Cumming's 'Thunderclap'
Laura Cumming’s marvellous Thunderclap: a memoir of art and life & sudden death mulls over our gaps in the knowledge of the artist Carel Fabritius, but it is about so much more, especially her father, the Scottish artist James Cumming.
Read MoreGabriel Josipovici's 'Hamlet: Fold on Fold'
Gabriel Josipovici’s commentary in Hamlet: Fold on Fold is consistently stimulating and thought-provoking, and blessedly free of academic jargon.
Read MoreJason Allen-Paisant's 'Self-Portrait as Othello'
Jason Allen-Paisant’s Self-Portrait as Othello is a thought-provoking collection of poems.
Read MoreOn the Importance of Studying Poetry
The argument for the most ‘important’ subject in school being … poetry.
Read MoreWilliam Wall's 'Empty Bed Blues'
William Wall’s latest novel, Empty Bed Blues, is the story of an Irishwoman whose life has been torn apart by her husband’s betrayals . A small town in Liguria in Northern Italy helps her see how she might live again.
Read MoreThe RSC Shakespeare Complete Works
The second edition of the RSC Shakespeare Complete Works edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen is well-worth buying.
Read MoreEmily Dickinson Face to Face
Martha Dickinson Bianchi’s Emily Dickinson: Face to Face is a brilliant evocation of her aunt’s life next door in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Read More'The researchED Guide to Cognitive Science' edited by Kate Jones
The authors in Kate Jones’s selection of essays looking at the basics of cognitive science explain key concepts in a valuably accessible way.
Read More'The Art of Explanation' by Ros Atkins
Ros Atkins’s The Art of Explanation: how to communicate with clarity and confidence is a fascinating fine-grained account of how he has reached the status of one of broadcasting’s most impressive ‘explainers’.
Read MoreRos Atkins explainer: Manchester City
Ideas for the use of a Ros Atkins ‘explainer’ in English class.
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