Jonathan Swift was an Irish writer who lived between 1667 and 1745. He was known for his sharp wit and biting commentary on the social and political issues of his time. Swift’s works are a reflection of the views he had on the world and his dissatisfaction with...
November is a month that we associate with bonfires, with Guy Fawkes, with Thanksgiving and, more recently, the more commercial Black Friday and Cyber Monday. November is also the month when many of us will be shopping ahead for Christmas, the lull before the crazy...
Literature knows no bounds, in that it can transcend languages and cultures. Yet, for these works to be so accessible, to a global audience, they must undergo the complex process of translation. Translators, the unsung heroes of the literary world, face great...
The Literary Trust released some rather alarming news recently, announcing that, in 2023, they had recorded the lowest level of children reading for enjoyment since they started asking in 2005. The Annual Literacy Survey was based on 71,351 responses from children...
When I was at school, I had a trusty mini dictionary in my bag and out it came in my lessons (not just in English) for any tricky words I needed help with. Dictionaries were a mainstay of pupils’ desks everywhere. Nowadays, we tend to rely on spell checks (but as we...
The Lord of the Rings (1954) is a text unlike any other. While millions of readers have no doubt picked up the books to give them a read, some fans may have gotten more than they bargained for in doing so. Perhaps Tolkien experienced a similar circumstance himself in...
