
George Orwell and William Shakespeare
George Orwell aka Eric Blair (1903-50) is now clearly second only to Shakespeare in the pantheon of English literary giants. In our current contemporary context, […]

#MyHouseofSky #JABaker #review and my #reading in December
“There is no mysterious essence we can call a ‘place’. Place is change. It is motion killed by the mind, and preserved in the amber […]

Dæmon Voices #review and my #reading in November
Philip Pullman’s Dæmon Voices – Essays on Storytelling is pleasurable reading for English teachers, students, writers and anyone who loves stories. Best known for the […]

La Belle Sauvage #BookofDust #review and my #reading in October
“But the meaning of a book is never just what the author thinks it is. It’s a great mistake to rely on the author to […]

#Autumn #TropicofCancer #review and my #reading in August
I want to show you our world as it is now: the door, the floor, the water tap and the sink, the garden chair close […]

#STC1984 #Orwell A New Adaptation by Icke & MacMillan #review and my #reading in July
“I think we’ve ended up being incredibly faithful to the book.” Duncan MacMillan George Orwell’s last novel, published in 1949, was not expected to have […]

#Churchill and #Orwell: The Fight for Freedom #review and my #reading in June
“The Struggle to see things as they are is perhaps the fundamental driver of Western civilisation. There is a long direct line from Aristotle and […]

#UtopiaforRealists #review and my #reading in May
Consider this: The word utopia means both “good place” and “no place.” What we need are alternative horizons that spark the imagination. And I do […]

The Handmaid’s Tale #review and my #reading in April
“Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won’t do that again.” The Handmaid’s Tale p. 307 I suspected re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood prior […]
Lost Connections by Johann Hari #review and my #reading in January
“We have been systematically misinformed about what depression and anxiety are.” […]