The life of a freelance writer is one of unreliable remuneration, shifting loyalties and sudden endings, as this book makes abundantly clear.
Read MoreBookshelf
Two reviews for the price of one! Engineering in Plain Sight
I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published.
Read MoreTwo reviews for the price of one! Climate Change for Dummies
I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published.
Read MoreTwo reviews for the price of one! Story Machines
I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published. The second one is what I actually wrote!
Read MoreTwo for the price of one: Reviews of No Excuses Turning around one of Britain’s toughest schools
Written mainly in the form of a diary, this is an account of how Colwell’s headship changed the culture of a community’s school.
Read MoreTwo Book Reviews for the price of one! Futureproof: A Comprehensive Framework For Teaching Digital Citizenship In Schools
I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published. The second one is what I actually wrote!
Read MoreBook review: Brave New World -- the graphic novel
I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review below is what the magazine published. The second one is what I actually wrote!
Read MoreEssay for an advanced literary course
One of the things we should all do as writers is study other people's works to try to discern how they achieved particular effects, or how they use language. It's known as 'close reading'.
Read MoreOn this day: Oulipo books
On 17 June 2021 I wrote a round-up of my reviews of books about the Oulipo. Here’s a link to that article.
Read MoreBooks to be reviewed ,by Terry Freedman
Indexes and tables of contents
One of the first things I look for when reviewing a non-fiction book is whether or not it contains an index. If it does, the next thing I check is whether the index is actually useful.
Read MoreBook review: A Head Full of Everything: Inspiration for Teenagers With the World on Their Mind
Being a teenager is not easy.
Read MoreReview: Murder Your Darlings
The book covers language, voice, audience and other aspects of writing.
Read MoreReview: A Little Book of Language
It's always been my contention that practitioners should know as much about what they do as possible.
Read MoreReview: How to read like a writer
This is a very interesting, and useful, book. It covers a range of types of writing.
Read MoreReview of Gothic: An Illustrated History (expanded review)
If watching a film in a cinema makes you wish you’d brought a friend along to walk home with, or reading a story makes you leave all the lights on when you go to bed, then there’s a good chance the film or the story was gothic.
Read MoreReview of Gothic: An Illustrated History -- Education version
This review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine. I’ve included it here because it meets some of the requirements of the English Programme of Study.
Read MoreOn this day: The Greek Myths
If you have forgotten what bad writing looks like, read on…
Read MoreReview: The New Penguin Book of American Short Stories
It is also worth bearing in mind that some of the best nonfiction writers, notably Gay Talese, make copious use of the fiction writer's tools.
Read MoreReview: Story Craft
An especially useful idea is the ladder of abstraction, which is equivalent, in cinematic terminology, to the level of detail in a scene, from close-up to long shot.
Read MoreReview: Index, A History Of The: A Bookish Adventure
This book has two indexes, one computer-generated, the other compiled by an indexer, so you can compare the two.
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