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#HistFicThursdays - Teaching Gothic Horror to the Next Generation

Of course, when I volunteered to write a blog for #HistFicThursdays, it was bound to be Gothic-based. All the pupils at school know now that, if they get me for English, they will be studying some Gothic Horror at some point! I have just taught my first full year of National 5, and the text I selected for the pupils’ Critical Essay (worth 20% of the overall grade) was A Warning to the Curious by the great M. R. James. There are so many fascinating things which can be said about the text: Paxton as a tragic hero; the setting of the First World War and how that is woven in throughout the text; the themes of revenge and respect for beliefs; the many examples of foreshadowing throughout… But teaching a group of teenagers to love (or, more realistically, to understand) M. R. James is not without its challenges. He writes in that wonderfully lyrical style which is key to the Gothic genre and, even for his time, he was using language which was perhaps slightly old-fashioned. Therefore, some ...
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John o' Groats Book Festival



What a weekend it has been! The 1st John o' Groats Book Festival has been in the pipeline for a long time, and it certainly lived up to expectations.

It started with a bang on Friday. A cartographer was launching her new set of Northern Scotland maps. Sadly, I was at work during this event but I've heard great things about it from people who were there. The cartographer's name is Val Fry and the publisher is Nicolson.

The first event I could attend was on the Friday evening when the authors were introduced, including 8 fabulous local authors who each had a 10 minute slot. It was great to see one of the organisers, Ian Leith, start the evening by showing his books.

The next author was Virginia Crow, published by Crowvus, who started her talk by showing the Day's Dying Glory book trailer which had people sitting on the edge of their seats.

Virginia Crow, author of Day's Dying Glory
It was super to hear so many local authors talk about their books, and read a passage or two. The authors included:
Dorothy Stewart (her books can be purchased here)
Meg Macleod
Sharon Pottinger
Laura Morgan
Margaret Mackay
Catherine Byrne

Please browse around the links above to look at the author's selling pages, or blogs.

I will write an individual article about the four main authors - Theresa Breslin, Christopher Brookmyre, Andrew Greig and James Hunter - throughout this week.
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