Keep taking the Stanzas: Poetry and Wellbeing
Research has shown that poetry is good for you, whether it’s reading it, writing it or learning it by heart. We shall focus on poetry’s healing properties and discuss a variety of poems that have the power to lift our … More details …
Against the Odds: from Shakespeare’s sister to Virginia Woolf
Based on literary texts, this is an exploration of how women writers confronted gender stereotypes, found their voices and found publishers and readers. [Part One] Virginia Woolf said that ‘Intellectual freedom depends upon material things.’ In Day One of Two,* … More details …
It is a truth universally acknowledged……
…that Jane Austen remains one of our most popular authors. Austen’s use of irony, social commentary, humour and realism are some of the reasons why her novels have remained popular over the last 200 years. This course will look at … More details …
Using the Present to explore the Past
Read two best-selling historical novels in which a child acts as a ‘go-between’ for lovers separated by class. What do they tell us about the periods they portray? The Go-Between, by LP Hartley, is a deceptively simple but effective story … More details …
Infinite Variety: Amazing Adaptations of Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s plays have prompted some astonishing reactions, from West Side Story to Macbeth with a machine gun. This day-school explores the endless variety of Shakespearian adaptations, not just on stage and in cinema, but also in paintings, music, and haute … More details …
The Small House at Allington: Trollope
The fifth novel of the Barchester Chronicles is The Small House at Allington. This novel introduces us to a new range of characters whilst still maintaining contacts with established favourites. The story concentrates around Lily Dale a character about whom … More details …
Ted Hughes: the early years
After a writing career which spanned over 40 years, Hughes’ literary heritage is not only vast, but covers most genres, including not only poetry, but translations of the works of other poets and prose writers, short stories for children and … More details …
Reading 1968: Muriel Spark, Barry Hines and Elizabeth Taylor
Discuss The Public Image, by Muriel Spark, A Kestrel for a Knave, by Barry Hines, and The Wedding Group, by Elizabeth Taylor. We will be looking at each novel in turn, and thinking about the worlds they project, and the … More details …
Free verse or playing tennis without a net?
The great American poet Robert Frost said he would ‘as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down’, and yet much of modern poetry could be described as free verse, so how does it work and does … More details …
Nature’s other Minstrels
Bird song has long been associated with British poetry, especially in the Romantic period, 1780s to 1820s. This may explain why the nightingale became the most celebrated bird in English verse. The course will focus on poems by Coleridge, Wordsworth, … More details …
Daphne du Maurier
During this course we will study three novels by the Daphne du Maurier. Often under-rated because of her popular appeal we will look at the skill of her narrative style, consider her ability to write to a variety of sub-genres … More details …
Lorna Doone
This 1865 novel has never been out of print. We’ll discuss what makes it a compelling story; what it shows us about Victorian Britain and developments in novel-writing. Please read to the end of chapter 6, for discussion at the … More details …
Reading 1951: John Wyndham, Daphne du Maurier and Graham Greene
Discuss The Day of the Triffids, My Cousin Rachel, and The End of the Affair. We’ll look at characters, settings, motivations and common themes. Any unabridged copies are suitable. Please read chapters 1 – 8 of The Day of the … More details …
The other novels of Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins is probably best know as the writer of The Moonstone and The Woman in White. However, he wrote many other novels and this course will study No Name and Armadale. We will consider these novels in their wider … More details …
Great Art – Great Literature
How have some of the best minds responded to art? This course examines a series of great artworks—from Brueghel to French Impressionism—then analyses some of the literature written in response.
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