The 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to British-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro whose work includes The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. A more conventional choice than the 2016 winner, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Ishiguro, 62, was born in Nagasaki, Japan, but arrived in Britain at the age of five. His … Continue reading “Nobel Prize for Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro”
Until January 21st, 2018, the American Pop Art movement has taken up residence in the Musée Maillol in Paris. For the first time in France, you can see more than sixty works from the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. This is a rare opportunity to discover key pieces of the … Continue reading “POP ART – Icons That Matter”
From 27 September to 1 October, Dinard will celebrate the 27th edition of its British Film Festival. The winners’ statuettes for the festival are “Hitchcocks”, and the trailer for the festival sets a suitably eccentric British tone with an Alfred Hitchcock lookalike participating in a Busby Berkeley-style synchronised swimming routine. The films in this year’s … Continue reading “Hitchcock’s Home in Dinard”
What’s the link between a GIF and Game of Thrones? illustrator and animator Eran Mendel! Throughout Game of Thrones’ seven seasons, he has created GIFs, each focussing on an iconic moment of the show and it is really cool to watch. Today, the Internet loves using GIFs. 2017 marks the 30th birthday of this file … Continue reading “My Kingdom for a GIF!”
On 25 September 1957, U.S. civil rights activists won the right for African American children to go to the same schools as white children at Little Rock, Arkansas. But 60 years on, many schools in the U.S.A. are still separated along color lines. And one of the most segregated school systems in the country is … Continue reading “U.S. School Segregation Today”
September 25, 2017, marks 60 years since the “Little Rock Nine”, a group of African American students managed to gain access to the all-white Central High School in Arkansas. It was a landmark moment in the civil-rights movement to obtain equal treatment for all citizens, irrespective of colour. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court had … Continue reading “Little Rock School Integration, 1957”
In 2006, the documentary The Inconvenient Truth made Al Gore into the most prominent ecologist on the planet. Gore won a Nobel Prize for its impact on public opinion about climate change. Ten years on, An Inconvenient Sequel shows the positive changes that have been made, and Gore’s tireless work in continuing to promote solutions … Continue reading “Al Gore: Still Saving the Planet”
Pendant la première semaine de cours de septembre, Sarah se tourne vers l’un de ses camarades. Elle glisse le bout de son index du haut de sa paume gauche vers le bas, et dit en même temps “What’s…”, pointe le garçon en face d’elle “your…”, puis tapote les deux premiers doigts de sa main droite … Continue reading “Hands Up to Speak!”
This year’s UK National Poetry Day is on 28 September. A great opportunity to get some poetry into your class, and to explore this year’s theme: Freedom. The National Poetry Day site shows the amazing variety of experiences that simple word can evoke, from “Invictus”, the poem that inspired Nelson Mandela in prison, to Edward … Continue reading “Freedom Poems for National Poetry Day”
How did an Italian explorer working for the Spanish crown become an American hero? Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the U.S. It is celebrated on the second Monday in October and commemorates Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas on 12 October 1492. In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue Children’s … Continue reading “Columbus Day”
