St Mary's and Wordfest

Cambridge Wordfest 2010 is about to arrive and with it a whole host of famous writers. We are delighted to be sponsoring the Writing History event on Saturday 10th April. Some of our 6th Form will be there with Man Booker Prizewinner Hilary Mantel and Rebecca Stott, a previous visitor to St Mary's. Check out the programme and book your tickets before they all get snapped up.

A Poetic Visit

A group of Sixth Formers welcomed poet Anne Stevenson into their A Level English class on 2 February to speak about 'Correspondences', the set of historical poems which she wrote in the 1970's. Anne Stevensonengaged the group with her explanation of the background to this distinguished work, describing how her personal history contributed to its composition.

Anne Stevenson's lovely sense of humour and her lucid explanations provided an insight into her work as a poet and the students were thrilled to have the opportunity to ask their own questions and to formulate further ideas for their comparative coursework on women in society.

To read more about Anne Stevenson's poetry click here, here, here or here. 

weRead

There are also useful reviews and discussions about a whole range of books on the weRead site.

If you want to find out more about the The Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway Medal for children's literature then check out the website. We will be shadowing the shortlisted books at St Mary's.

World Book Day

World Book Day is coming this Thursday. To discover more, see videos, read extracts and find out about competitions click here.

Kipling and Indian Literature

There was an interesting discussion yesterday about Rudyard Kipling on The Today Programme. The BBC describe it in this way:

British author and poet Rudyard Kipling is known for his love of India, but his reputation in the country remains controversial.

Plans for a museum commemorating Mr Kipling's Mumbai home have been shelved over concerns that it would be politically unpalatable, as he was a renowned imperialist, fierce opponent of independence and a chronicler of the British Raj

Andrew Lycett, Mr Kipling's biographer, and Aravind Adiga, and Indian journalist and author who won the 2008 Man Booker prize for his works The White Tiger, reflect on Mr Kipling's relationship with India.

Our Newest Society

OK, so it doesn't really look like this. The Lower 6th Literary Society is actually dynamic, forward-thinking and vibrant. And it's just been founded so come and join us on Friday lunchtimes at 1.15 in the Undercroft. We'll be looking at J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye when we've had chance to (re)read it but before that it's a case of bring and share. Oh yes, and there'll be cake.

Matilda

Some of you may have listened to BBC radio's major dramatisation of Roald Dahl's Matilda this Christmas. If so you may have recognised the voice of Miss Honey, played by Emerald O'Hanrahan, one of our former students. Emerald has starred in a number of BBC productions recently so keep an ear out for her. If you missed the broadcast you can at least still enjoy the book.

Websites - Books: Books - Websites

Want to find a good book but don't know where to look? You might want to check out these websites from Booktrust, Oxford University Press and the Guardian

Three authors for the price of one!

Erin Hunter is not an author, as you might expect, but three authors (Kate Cary, Victoria Holmes and Cherith Baldry) who have taken the name of Erin Hunter and written a series of books called Warrior Cats. There are over thirty books so far and they are still more to come.


Our Year 7 blogger tells us that you have to like cats and know a little about them if you are going to understand what's going on. She explains that when reading the books it's like you are watching what's happening, as you can hear what the cat is thinking. Erin  Hunter is her favourite author and she can highly recommend the whole series.

Charles Dickens

If you have finished looking at the previous post on Great Expectations you might want to look at this animation about the life and work of Charles Dickens.

Now have a look at this animated timeline to fill in a few more details. If you have time create a timeline of your own.

Robert Burns

Just in case you're preparing for Burns Night and are looking for a grand, wee poem ...

Authors' websites

An awful lot of authors now have their own websites. So if you are interested in Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, Judy Blume or Terry Deary you might want to check out their sites.

Obviously, as an English teacher, I'm also going to point you in the direction of some less populist authors. Why not look at the website, for example, of the poet Michael Symmons Roberts or the novelist Ian McEwan?

Wilfred Owen

The 6th Form are currently working on the poetry of Wilfred Owen. He's important enough to have a blog all of his own and this blog is really useful too from Miss Ring.

Year 9 recommends ... Agatha Christie

In Five Little Pigs Hercule Poirot is called to take up a murder which happened 16 years ago and find the real culprit; will he manage it?

Death in the Clouds is a thrilling murder mystery/crime book in which, Hercule Poirot, a distinctive Belgian detective, gets on the trail of a murder committed practically right in front of him. It happened, peculiarly, not on the ground but up in the air, on a flight from Paris to Croydon. Because the murder was committed on a flight, it appears that there are not many possibilities to have committed a murder but as time goes on, the reader can suspect anyone and the possibilities become infinite. Poirot must solve the mystery and bring the murderer to justice.

This book was published in 1935 and is very much written in an old-fashioned style but is very easy to read and understand. The author uses some unusual phrases but they are not hard to decipher.

The book is written in a series of short chapters which keep the reader interested and intrigued as many of the chapters end on cliffhangers. There are also many twists in Death in the Clouds so that just when Christie leads you to fully believe and suspect one person to be the murderer they are cleared and when the murderer is revealed the result is so unexpected that it leaves you in awe of the amazing talent that Agatha Christie had.

This was a gripping tale of suspicion and suspense and I highly recommend it to anyone of about 11 years old and upwards.

Who was the author of 'Alice in Wonderland'?

Charles Dodgson or Lewis Carroll? The Oxford Mathematician or the reclusive writer? To find out more about this fascinating man you might want to look here or here.