She has social cache and money, and is very fond of her daughter (bizarrely called Terence, or Terry) and seemingly satisfied with where she has now ended up. Some people are envious are her, and she seems divinely unaware of it. Certainly she isn’t desperate for a man, as so many single women are in novels of the period, and could perhaps have survived into her dotage without anything upsetting happening. degree of separation: I’m quite pleased with this link. The title of Blithe Spirit is taken from Shelley’s ‘To a Skylark’– and his sonnet ‘Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life’ is the source of the title of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil. If I’m honest, I don’t remember masses about this, except that I liked it and it was a bit bleak. Can you think of a time when you tried to solve a problem that didn't go as planned? What was the result? But… Terry has other plans. We learn fairly early in the novel that she has been having an adulterous affair with a Mr Andrew Leigh, who seems rather too dull to have inspired one woman to want to be with him, let alone two. But such things are – and Mrs Andrew Leigh, Rosie, discovers the fact. Rosie has married ‘above her’, and sees this as an opportunity to unsettle the dignified, unkind, subtly sneering world into which marriage has brought her. (One brilliant moment describing her antagonism to Terry is: ‘she would have told her, too, if she hadn’t been so high and mighty, with her nails like reproaches and her clothes so many sermons’.) Activity: Ask students to retell the story using their own words, emphasizing the cause and effect relationships.

First, of course, is Lucas. He is a slightly dull but dependable young man who is unbelieving and angry that Bell has left him in the most casual way possible. Despite the anger, he wants her to come home and quietly forget the whole thing. This all makes him sound like the staid villain of the piece, but Lucas really has out sympathy. He and Bell have had a fairly happy marriage so far, from his perspective at least, and he is ready to forgive and forget her curious blip. But he has a job and can’t look after baby Toby – and so he gets shepherded off initially to a lady in another flat (who is indignant) and next to Lucas’s mother. Floyd isn’t very good at throwing things into the tree. Can you design a game which might help improve your throwing skills? Could you have a competition with your friends in which you have to hit a target?

In 2007, Jeffers was the official illustrator for World Book Day, and in 2008 Lost and Found became Oliver's first book to made into animation by London-based Studio AKA. Very little happens, apart from everything, save maybe the episode in which Carla’s ex, Maya (Eleanor Fanyinka), gives her and Dan a spliff and they go shoplifting in “the magic forest”. It’s their term for the independent, massively expensive deli nearby (she goes in to hold jars of costly preserves to her face and croon and frankly, I have never felt so seen). Because it’s esoteric. It’s all right to put shaggy old East End pawnbrokers or sharp-nosed shysters or hand-spreading fat crooks into a play for laughs or a gentle tear or two. But you can’t write a serious play exploring Jewish feelings and expect anybody but Jews to understand it.” This house Midhurst, on his honeymoon, had bought Daisy, simply because she admired it, and he was in love. As easily as if it had been a trinket out of a shop window the rich young man bought it for her, and almost with as little personal exertion. All he had to do, and did, was to mention it to their hotel proprietor in Cannes, and for what seemed to him a small sum, and to the owner and go-betweens a big one, the tiny farm because Daisy’s.

I’m delighted that the 1962 Club is here – join Karen and me in reading and reviewing books from 1962. Any language, format, genre – we’d love to build up a picture of 1962 between us. We’ve been doing these club years for such a long time now, and it’s always a highlight of my reading/blogging year. Though Martha is not Jewish, they are accepted onto the kibbutz because they lie that they’re married. From the start, it doesn’t go well. Aaron is not built for physical labour, and finds the hours in baking heat harvesting vegetables both exhausting and mindless. He doesn’t particularly like the communal way of eating, or having other people’s children everywhere. Perhaps because he is escaping somewhere rather than being excited about the arrival, he resists everything. Even though we are in his mind, he is not a sympathetic character. It is evident that he considers himself too good for this. Activity: Before revealing each outcome, ask students to draw what they think might happen based on Floyd's action. This activity encourages critical thinking and allows students to anticipate effects based on causes. Look at Floyd’s facial expressions and body language at different points in the story. How is he feeling? Could you try to recreate his posture and explain what emotion is being portrayed? Novels about cats are very hit-and-miss in my experience, often being too fey or leaning into a kind of kooky magical realism that isn’t my cup of tea. But non-fiction about cats, like Tangye’s, are almost always wonderful in my experience. Because they are written by people who love and know cats – who appreciate their character, their dignity, their independence. And who form loving friendships with cats, knowing that the cat isn’t slavishly desperate to please them but, rather, any affection is earned.I still can’t partly because a person that Lucas expects me to be. I know now that I don’t want to, and so I do it badly. I’m neither one thing nor the other, and it makes me half hate Lucas, though it’s not his fault. And I don’t want to hate him, he’s not a person to hate. And then there’s Toby, my baby. I’m very fond of him, but he’s something tying me down to this life that isn’t really mine.”