Poetry

HERE KITTY KITTY!

Advantages: The book that the musical 'Cats' was based upon.
Disadvantages: None.

...with illustrations by Nicolas Bentley. Old Possums 'Book Of Practical Cats' is one of my favourite books of T.S.Eliot and it is this book and its cat characters that the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical 'Cats' was based upon. Cats have characters all of their own and they are each unique and individual. My two cats are brother and sister and they are entirely different in character. I have a blue cat which is the male and he is massive, a huge Tomcat, ...
...ever meet. Whereas his sister, who is a tortoiseshell, is dainty and like a princess and she demands special treatment at every turn, much to the dismay of my BlueBoy. They are both entirely different characters, but from the same litter; Much like children, cats need names to suit the type of personality and look that they possess. To call the amazing, beautiful, mysterious, magical, secretive and naughty housecat 'Kitty', is demeaning the many ...

Morning_Becomes_Electra 18.05.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T.S. Eliot

The World's Wife

Advantages: Easy to read, Funny in places, original (as far as i know!)
Disadvantages: Very anti-men and does not include notes about who these women actually are

...overly enthusiastic; having suffered through the terribly depressing poems of hers that we studied at GCSE. However, I was pleasently surprised as many of them are funny and seem a lot easier to 'analyse'. Ok now here's the review of the book itself: The World's Wife is a clever take on popular characters from mythology, fairytales and real people (all male, of course!) Duffy takes the tales and subverts them so we see these famous stories from ...
...have not had the chance to tell their stories before, including Mrs Midas, Queen Herod and Delilah to name but a few. The poems themselves range from downright funny ('Mrs Faust' and 'Elvis's Twin Sister' to shocking (such as 'The Devil's Wife', which gives a sympathetic view of Myra Hindley) to poignantly sad (See 'Mrs Quasimodo'). In short it covers a wide range of emotions to suit whatever mood one is in. My favourite poems were 'Mrs Aesop' ...

SilentLamb 01.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The World's Wife - Carol Ann Duffy

I'm only half that and enjoyed it...

Advantages: Chuckles ahoy!
Disadvantages: Very few

...And rightly so. Now We Are Sixty is the response of the author to him hitting the golden years, and at the same time creating a lovely pastiche of A A Milne's poems about Christopher Robin. Unfortunately, the book was dressed as being more for the silver-haired amongst us, when really the themes are applicable to (nearly) all, and the writing style is just so witty and enjoyable, there is no real age-bracket it would appeal to - it is a book for ...
...about Buck House as mentioned, now starts "They're changing sex at Buckingham Palace" and proceeds from there - luckily Christopher Robin doesn't go down with, or on, Alice at all. And in the rest of the poem it becomes clear this is a Club-member type spouting off against all and sundry: New Labour, cricket, the courts, Stephen Fry... "The King's Breakfast" has become "The Queen's Pickle", which is another brilliant re-working, wherein the old ...

theediscerning 26.09.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Now We Are Sixty - Christopher Matthew

'Witch' way will the story turn?

Advantages: unique plot, fun to act out
Disadvantages: the essays!

What's one of the most stressful things for anybody, of any age? Something that anybody can suffer from at any time in their life? It beats finance problems, health worries and family crises any day! Okay maybe that's a bit of hyperbole for you there, but in all seriousness, one of the things that stress me out the most is exams! Sitting my Highers this year, I have Prelims at the moment, to predict our final grades. I have just one prelim left,and ...
...And what are we studying? The Crucible! The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. The book was written in 1953, but the play itself is set in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Miller was inspired by the McCarthyism, and wrote this play based on the Salem Witch Trials. The book is published by Penguin, and has quite an unusual cover. The base of it is black with nothing more than a back of a head on it, a blue bonnet and bare neck. This does ...

Amy69 05.03.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts (Penguin Modern Classics) - Arthur Miller

Letters to Sylvia

Advantages: fantastic use of language
Disadvantages: sometimes hard going to read.

I bought this book several years ago and have been unable to put it down since! It is an honest and fascinating account of Ted Hughes ultimately tragic relationship with the American Poet Sylvia Plath. The couple met at Cambridge University in 1956 and married shortly after. However, their marriage was turbulent and despite having two children together, they broke up in 1962. A year later Sylvia committed suicide. Ted Hughes refused to comment on ...
...publication of this book in 1998 and for that he was accused of being a heartless, callous husband. However one only has to read it to realise that Hughes loved Sylvia very much. I highly recommend reading "18 Rugby Street" and "Life after death" from this collection if you don't read any others! A beautifully written book. ...

cora_95 04.11.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes