Literature
Historical background
Girl with a Pearl Earring does not demand detailed historical knowledge – Chevalier has constructed the narration so that we can understand the human relationships involved in their own terms. We know...
Literature
First person narration
There can be few students who don't know what the term 'first person narration' means, and recognise it in action the first time the pronoun 'I' appears. However, what does first person narration actually...
Blog
The Bank & the Gym Free
The Bank/Gym polarity has surfaced again among my mental currents. Metaphors and analogies function as identifiers for ideas which float around the mind, like tags on the fins of dolphins or rings on...
Blog
E-marking crux Free
Productivity has been down on this website for the last few weeks – I have been swamped by the demands of helping to introduce e-marking for the May 2011 English B papers. The experience has been, shall...
Blog
Los indignados Free
Plaza Catalunya, in the very centre of Barcelona. The site of the May 15 / Spanishrevolution encampment, occupying the square to demonstrate their protest against the social consequences of the financial...
Blog
On mastery 2 Free
Some footnotes to On Mastery (q.v.) ... About six weeks after the inauguration, when Carlos Fabra had invited the citizens of Castellón to enjoy the delights of the new Castellón airport, they were legally...
Blog
Moderating orals Free
Moderating orals is a bit of a weird business … Here I sit in my top-floor studio, laptop and speakers in front of me and the piles of DHL packages arranged around the desk, having (as I tweeted the...
Blog
Books'n'roses revisited Free
After posting my comments on Sant Jordi, I thought to check on a few details that I decided not to include. This led me to a Wikpedia article, which informed me that some of my ideas were not quite accurate....
Blog
Books'n'roses Free
Yesterday, the 23rd of April, was the day of Sant Jordi. Which is a very big day indeed in Catalonia, centred around a tradition that I find enchanting - that you should give a rose and a book to...
Blog
Top-up and Trickle-down Free
Esperanza Aguirre, the flamboyant right-wing president of the Community of Madrid, has announced an educational initiative: the Bachillerato de Excelencia. This 'elite baccalaureate' will be aimed at...