Originally published in 1932, this definitive guide to English Literature edited by Margaret Drabble has been updated on several occasions. The main focus of the alphabetical listing is writers and their major works. Writers of course include authors, playwrights and poets. Shakespeare is afforded two and a half pages, which must be one of the longest entries. (Milton’s is comparable.) Within the entry for any writer, an asterisk next to the title of a work or the name of another writer indicates a separate entry where more detail can be found. So, if you want to read about one particular Shakespeare play, look under its title rather than under Shakespeare.

English Literature, Jenny Stringer, Margaret Drabble

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A wide choice of materials is available for beginners learning French, but resources that help you attain fluency and study the finer, more advanced points of grammar are harder to find. One that definitely warrants consideration is Teach Yourself Improve Your French. It comprises a book and two sixty-minute CDs for learners at intermediate level.

The ten units contain dialogues with explanatory vocabulary lists and language activities based upon the dialogues. There are in addition two of Victor Hugo’s poems, one or two passages about France’s geography, economy and education system, a weather forecast and a President’s New Year address. Business vocabulary is introduced as well as colloquial style. You can hear an official phone call and a more informal one on the CD, and learn how to compose a letter as well as fill in forms in French.

French, Jean-Claude Arragon

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Whether you are embarking on self-study or a private tuition course in French,THE FRENCH EXPERIENCE is highly recommended. Writing and grammar are not over-emphasised, but if you wish to speak, understand and read texts, there is a wealth of material here. Each unit focuses on a particular topic such as health, travel, food and drink, professions, holidays and so on, providing useful vocabulary for tourists as well as residents. The CDs contain authentic dialogues and interviews recorded in France; within each unit the recordings concentrate initially on listening and recognising vocabulary, and then on the learner producing similar language through role-play.

THE FRENCH EXPERIENCE 2 enables you to progress through intermediate level French, increasing your fluency and understanding.

French, French grammar

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The transition from primary to secondary school in the UK is not always an easy one, and parents who wish to encourage their children to develop good reading and writing habits might be on the look out for a book such as ‘Testing KS3 English – Year 7‘.

The book contains six test papers, each of which focuses on a particular topic such as school, monsters, woodlands or football. Each test paper includes three passages for reading followed by comprehension questions of different types and then a writing test related to the topic. For example, Test Paper 3, entitled Times of celebration, has an extract on Christmas, a fictional passage centring on bonfire night, and a poem entitled ‘Diwali in Kerala’. In actual fact each test paper features one poem.

Christine Moorcroft, English, KS3, Ray Barker

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Whether you are embarking on self-study or a private tuition course in French, The French Experience 1 is worth considering. Writing and grammar are not over-emphasised, but if you wish to speak, understand and read texts, there is a wealth of material here. Each unit focuses on a particular topic such as health, travel, food and drink, professions, holidays and so on, providing useful vocabulary for tourists as well as residents. The CDs contain authentic dialogues and interviews recorded in France; within each unit the recordings concentrate initially on listening and recognising vocabulary, and then on the learner producing similar language through role-play.

Danièle Bourdais, French grammar, Marie-Thérèse Bougard

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I’ve said this before and I’m sure I will say it again: anyone taking up the study of a foreign language seriously needs to have a thorough understanding of its grammar. I love using ‘La Grammaire en Clair’ workbook with its accompanying cartoons and generous helpings of humour running through the exercises, and it is fine for GCSE and probably AS Level French. But it doesn’t cover absolutely everything. Schaum’s French Grammar, on the other hand, leaves no stone unturned.
A glance at the back-cover blurb reveals that this book contains more than 4,000 test items as well as exercises to help with communication activities. It is divided into chapters that make information easy to find. When introducing a particular aspect of grammar, an explanation is given, followed by examples that use bold for the words that this grammar point focuses on, and a translation of each example into English in italics.

French grammar, Mary E. Coffman Crocker

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Testing KS3 English: Skills and Practice, Year 8 contains six test papers based on the themes of Work, Science fiction, Prejudice, Families, Wolves and Dancing. Within each test paper are three reading passages, each followed by questions, and two writing assignments, one major and one minor. The first reading passage in each paper is a shortish one, the second requires ‘more complex skills’ to be used, and the third is intended to provide an opportunity for more independent work by the pupil. All except two of the reading passages have coloured drawings accompanying them, which would encourage a visual learner or a less confident reader.

Year 8 in England and Wales is the second year of secondary school, when pupils are aged between twelve and a half and thirteen and a half. By now they should be used to their school and have begun to develop a more independent way of working.

Christine Moorcroft, English, KS3, Ray Barker

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This book is aimed at pupils in Year 9 at secondary schools in England and Wales. It comprises a set of six test papers, the first four of which contain three reading passages followed by comprehension questions and also a writing assignment that is linked to the topic of the reading texts. The topics of the test papers are London, Pigeons, Food, Farms, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. These last two are included because pupils study a Shakespeare play in Year 9 and are questioned on it in the National Test. The problem, however, is that the syllabus has recently changed; whereas the majority of pupils used to study Macbeth, most of them are now studying Much Ado About Nothing. The Shakespeare component of this book is therefore now sadly out of date, and the two test papers presented at the end of the book have no real relevance for pupils preparing for the Key Stage 3 tests. If you buy this book for your child, you should be aware that only the first four test papers will be of use.

Christine Moorcroft, English, KS3, Ray Barker

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If you are looking for a workbook for verbs, French Verb Drills by R. de Roussy de Sales would be an excellent choice. The book is divided into two main sections, Part 1 being on regular verbs and part 2 on irregular verbs. Part 1 has twenty-seven subsections dealing with the various tenses and moods; several of them are devoted to regular -er verbs that have idiosyncratic changes in spelling such as ‘Verbs ending in -yer that change -y- into -i-’. It does make for clarity when such subtleties are singled out and given a page or half a page to themselves. Etre and avoir are in actual fact included in Part 1 although they are irregular verbs; this is presumably because they need to be learned in order to form compound tenses (such as the passe compose or perfect tense) of regular verbs.

French grammar, R. de Roussy de Sales

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The very fact that Natalie Goldberg’s book ‘Writing Down the Bones‘ is easy to read is testament to her skill as a writer. This should be encouragement enough for any writer to follow her advice. Her ideas so clearly expressed that they are absorbed without effort. The variety of them keeps the momentum of the book going.

Goldberg began teaching writing workshops in 1975 to nuns, hippies and juvenile delinquents amongst others. In 1974 she began practising sitting meditation. She studied Zen formally from 1978 to 1984 and this deeply influenced her approach to writing.

Creative, Natalie Goldberg

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Grammar has long been out of fashion and is considered boring, but it gives us the bricks with which to build our own sentences in a language. La Grammaire en Clair by Paul Rogers and Jeremy Long is the only book I have come across so far that brings an element of humour into the learning and practice of grammar.

Each grammar point is afforded either one or two pages, depending on its complexity. The book’s particular appeal stems in part from its use of comic strips for each topic, where the grammar being taught is used in context, often in several different ways.

French grammar, Jeremy Long, Paul Rogers

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