insults

The Shakespeare insult generator is still working!

May 14, 2025 in Useful websites, Archives, The lighter side

Listen, thou fobbing clapper-clawed clotpole! The internet is useful for more things than mere facts.

What An Insulting Site! (Update)

May 15, 2020 in Useful websites, Archives, The lighter side

Listen, thou fobbing clapper-clawed clotpole! The internet is useful for more things than mere facts.

Latest Book Reviews

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Bookshelf, Reviews

Review: The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World

Bookshelf, Reviews

I wrote this review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that optimism is something all writers need a great deal of!

Bookshelf, Reviews

Review: Small Habits Create Big Change

Bookshelf, Reviews

I wrote the review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that the “small habits” approach to writing is something useful to consider.

Bookshelf, Reviews

Should writing tutors embrace "produictive failure"?

Bookshelf, Reviews

My review of this for Teach Secondary magazine has just come out. Here is the published version, followed by the copy I submitted, which is slightly longer because it has a little more detail. I wrote the review wearing my school teacher hat. However, it struck me that the “productive failure” approach to teaching is something I’ve done, to some extent, in my creative writing classes.

Bookshelf, Reviews

Artificial Intelligence, Bookshelf, Reviews

Is Artificial Intelligence actually any good?

Artificial Intelligence, Bookshelf, Reviews

I’ve reviewed this book for Teach Secondary magazine. Although my review is written from the standpoint of the question, “how useful is AI in schools?”, I do thiink it has relevance here because many writers, and writers’ organisations, are also scrutinising AI.

Artificial Intelligence, Bookshelf, Reviews

Bookshelf, Reviews, Nonfiction Notebook

Nonfiction notebook: 6 types of book review

Bookshelf, Reviews, Nonfiction Notebook

I love books, and I love reviewing them. However, I’ve decided that a one-size fits all approach to reviewing books (or anything else, come to that), just won’t do. So I’ve categorised my reviews into 6 types.

Bookshelf, Reviews, Nonfiction Notebook

Bookshelf, Journalism, Reviews

Review: The Newsmongers -- two reviews in one!

Bookshelf, Journalism, Reviews

was intrigued to discover that a popular news magazine of the sixties had been anticipated by Defoe.

Bookshelf, Journalism, Reviews

Bookshelf, Reviews

Review: The Shortest History of Music

Bookshelf, Reviews

The Music Programme of Study requires students to have an understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history, and an appreciation of different musical styles.

Bookshelf, Reviews

Review: How to think like a poet (two reviews in one!)

Bookshelf, Reviews

In all, twenty three poets are considered, and they constitute a wide variety: alongside the usual ones like Milton and Chaucer, we find Sappho and Basho. Each chapter is a mixture of biography and quotations.

Bookshelf, Reviews