The world is about to celebrate the 80th anniversary of a cornerstone day: VE Day, on May 8th. What about celebrating this day with your students by reading letters and testimonies from the period? These B1 activities based on authentic letters and testimonies from people who experienced WWII and VE Day will help the students get … Continue reading “80th Anniversary of VE Day”
This slogan from 1939 symbolises British identity in 2025 . You can find it on T-shirts, mugs, postcards and posters. The simple white words appeared on a red poster prepared for World War Two. But the poster wasn’t distributed. In 1939, the British government was prepared for a major war, and possibly an invasion. It … Continue reading “Keep Calm and Carry On!”
A new literary prize has been awarded for the first time. The Entente Littéraire prize celebrates books aimed at teenagers and young adults translated from English to be published in French or translated from French and published in English. The prize is championed by the UK’s Queen Camilla and France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron, to … Continue reading “Bilingual Book Prize”
The winner of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prize, the Booker, will be announced on 12 November. The six authors on shortlist in the running for the prize are from the U.K., Australia, Canada, the U.S.A. and, for the first time, the Netherlands. Also for the first time, five out of six are women. Get … Continue reading “Watch the Short List for the 2024 Booker Prize”
At a time when women helped wage war backstage, Lee Miller went to the front with her camera and risked her life to witness and share the reality of WWII with the rest of the world. The biopic by Ellen Kuras to be released in October and starring Kate Winslet pays tribute to this modern … Continue reading “Lee Miller: Photographing War”
On June 6, 1944 at dawn, Operation Overlord, the largest airborne and naval offensive in history, was launched by the Allied forces to open a second front in Western Europe against Nazi Germany. After months of titanic preparations mobilising nearly 5 million men and immense logistics, an armada of 4,300 landing ships and 500 warships, … Continue reading “Operation Overlord: the Turning Point of World War II”
There are many “D-Days” but only one D-DAY that everyone remembers and is still celebrated 80 years after it took place. 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in Normandy. More than 150,000 troops, from more than 13 different countries landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944, helped by thousands of civilians in … Continue reading “Commemorating D-Day”
Most people would feel proud of saving hundreds of mainly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia just before the outbreak of World War II. But Sir Nicholas Winton was haunted by all the children he couldn’t save. Until a surprise 50 years later on a TV programme showed him all the good he had done. A new … Continue reading “Doing the Right Thing”
We promised you a second part to our A1+ worksheet based on a comic-strip telling of Queen Elizabeth II’s life. The first worksheet ended with her meeting with Prince Philip in Dartmouth, in the south of England. In Part 2, we follow Elizabeth through the Second World War, marriage and up to her coronation. Your … Continue reading “Queen Elizabeth II Comic Strip Part 2”
A new film details a barely believable operation from World War II involving a dead body designed to fool the Nazis about Allied invasion plans and save the lives of thousands of soldiers. The success of Operation Mincemeat hinged on creating a carefully crafted fiction, which is where James Bond author Ian Fleming came in. … Continue reading “Spies Fooling Spies”