Thinking AloudEnglish Blog

If you (or your teenager) are studying Edexcel A Level after the summer, you might be tackling the full Romantics selection - or just Keats.  For AQA, OCR, or IB, one or more of these revolutionary poets are likely to appear.  These long holidays offer the perfect opportunity to deepen understanding without cracking open another anthology... just yet.

Welcome to the strange twilight zone that is mid-May - the middle of exam season.  You may be starting to feel like you live with a ghost who only emerges for snacks, sighs a lot, and occasionally mutters something about "how many exams are left?".   Days are counted in exam papers.  Life is looking endlessly bleak.  Hurrah, it’s the mid-point moan: the bit where adrenaline has worn off, motivation is flagging, and no one’s quite sure what day it is (without looking at an exa

While much of Hong Kong enjoys the serenity of Buddha’s Birthday, lotus lanterns, temple visits, maybe even a rare moment of peace, parents of exam-taking students are more likely lighting incense in the vague hope it will cleanse the air of teenage angst and essay-induced doom.

I was working with one of my lovely A Level students the other day, and we were deep into our discussion of Hamlet - when it happened.  I got it. I got Hamlet.

Easter is nearly upon us, hurrah, up to three weeks for your child to revise for their exams.  Are you ready?  Are they? 

Rejection: the gut-punch every writer faces.  History is full of books dismissed before becoming literary classics. 

Fear not.  Be it GCSE, IB, or A Level English Language and/or Literature, here are a few survival strategies... chocolate is involved.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an English student in possession of a novel must be in want of the right answer.

While Western culture often casts snakes in a sinister light (looking at you, Bible), the Chinese interpretation is far more nuanced...

If I Am, I Am, I Am is about the individual’s fight for survival, Hamnet is about the collective weight of loss. 

There’s nothing quite like a Francis Bacon exhibition to remind you that life is equal parts grotesque, tragic, and utterly captivating. 

Because here’s the thing: good literature essays demand a belief in your argument.

Let’s be honest - securing those top grades at A Level or IB English Lit isn’t about your child nodding earnestly at Hamlet.

Tuition. That golden ticket to better grades, fewer exam jitters, and the occasional boast at the school gates. 

Here’s the secret: with a solid plan, your child will breeze through their English essay faster and with fewer bumps along the way. 

There he was, in all his intellectual glory, stretching like a cross between Socrates and Usain Bolt. 

Shush, I know we shouldn’t have favourites.  But if I had to choose, go on then, it would undoubtedly be the IB’s Literature and Performance

Shakespeare is nothing if not a crackingly good storyteller.  That he stole most of his plot lines is neither here nor there, just don’t ask

There's an unmatched thrill in perusing the dusty shelves of a second-hand bookshop, where the scent of old paper and the promise of...

Remember, reading is something that draws you into other worlds.  Listening does that too… So let me introduce you to Radio 4.