For those of you who may be unaware, the title of my blog refers to Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. It derives from a commonly held superstition that speaking the name of the play in a theatre will cause disaster to befall. The play itself is filled with superstition and centres around the battle between good and evil. Poor old Macbeth is given an insight into the future and impatient man that he is, he gives into temptation. In his search for power he turns towards evil and embarks on a path of murder and destruction, that ultimately causes mayhem and much much more, but, alas, I've said enough already.
You have to read the play to see what really happens and buy the guide which I've written for Cross Academe. It will help you to understand the bard's play as best you can and/ or give you or your student the best chance of getting that grade!
It's out in January I believe and it is fantastic if I say so myself. Comes highly recommended. It's filled with all my years of teaching experience and my wonderful expertise of course in the subject, not to mention the fact I sweat blood and tears to write the guide and Steve Eddy, friend and series editor and David Cross have done a fine job of making it look nice, so there are some lovely pictures too! The guide comes in a magazine format and there is an accompanying PDF for teachers which I think you can buy separately and which gives you all the answers to questions (Shhh don't tell the others) and lots of suggestions for teaching, covering everything from context, scene by scene analysis, characters, themes, structure to exam practice! Well worth the money.
If I've won you over with this taster then I'm sure if you ask nicely you could pre-order the guide from the Cross Academe team.... so until next time, enjoy reading- and writing and more!
