Both of these arrived by post today (I’m having a bit of a Battlestar Galactica and Conan the Barbarian revival). As a child, I remember owning both these books. Proudly, I showed my primary school teacher, Mr Lee, the Galactica book to his bemusement. Conan of Aquilonia was the first Conan book I ever read. I bought it from a spinner rack in a SF bookshop in Rochester called Stargate One. I loved that bookshop.
Read MoreLiterally the most exciting trailer I have seen in a decade. Literally. There really aren’t better movies than giant monsters punching each other!
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Very pleased Phil Beadle’s The Fascist Painting was delivered today. It jumps to the front of my “to read” queue.
Read MoreGood to see this positive story about schools. Following, Wiliamson’s obnoxious call for parents to report schools, OOFsted (ha! infantile Roblox misspelling) has been “overwhelmed” by messages, mostly praising teachers. “Ofsted’s call centre team are sorting through emails to identify genuine complaints or concerns, but the vast majority are believed to be from parents praising their child’s school during lockdown in defiance of Williamson’s advice.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/ofsted-gets-thousands-of-emails-praising-schools-after-ministers-remarks
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Our Christmas lights are staying up until Candlemas. Our neighbours have already taken their lights down but it’s a pretty grim time all round and a little bit of light is still needed.
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On Twelfth Night 2021 during the lockdown COVID pandemic I finished re-reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It’s the first play in my attempt to read everything by Shakespeare by the end of the year. I studied Twelfth Night at A-level and taught it once for the old Key Stage Three SATs just before the Millennium. Despite the years, it’s a play I remember fondly and still vividly recall attending a small performance with other sixth formers in a church in Chatham when I was 18. I watched the first half of Trevor Nunn’s 1996 movie again last night and thoroughly enjoyed…
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It’s beyond question that Boris/Al and his ministers just aren’t up to the job of leading the UK in this crisis. Again and again they’ve avoided properly forward planning and left it too late when inevitable actions have to be taken. It’s time for them to go. Boris must resign. Once more it’s been left far too late to deal with the extraordinary spread of the virus. Sorry, but I don’t believe it’s all down to some mutant strain. It’s down to dithering and the pressure of ultra-right wingers who are happy to see the chaos and devastation the virus…
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Jan’s turned the piles of books I’m taking upstairs into a DIY assault course!
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Back in August I hunted the house searching for this. Spent hours going through piles of books and boxes in the attic. Now I’ve found it along with a heap of other books hidden behind other books in a bookcase downstairs. Teaching Shakespeare is about the best book on… well… teaching Shakespeare that there is. (I also found Visible Learning by John Hattie that I seem to have only got half way through and Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman which I must re-read and convince my department to teach next year if it’s still on the syllabus.)
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