Tag archives: Jane Austen

Does spelling matter?

“You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.” – Rabbit of Owl in A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner, chapter 5 As part of his agenda to improve primary school education, Michael Gove plans to invest more teaching time in [...]

Posted on: April 3 2013 | Comments: 6 | Categories: English in use | Tags: , ,

Pride, prejudice, and an obsession with Colin Firth

A look at Jane Austen’s life and how it influenced Pride and Prejudice, with a detour into the world of Bridget Jones, wet shirts, and Colin Firth. Austen’s early life: Birth and boarding school Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at the rectory in Steventon, near Basingstoke, Hampshire. She was baptized at Steventon [...]

Posted on: September 11 2012 | Comments: 0 | Categories: English in use, Word origins | Tags: , , ,

Pride and Prejudice interactive text analyser

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride and Prejudice is one of Jane Austen’s best-known love stories, and one of the nation’s favourite novels, achieving second place in the BBC’s Big Read Top 100. You may think you know this novel inside out; you may know how many times Mr. Collins was asked to [...]

Posted on: June 14 2012 | Comments: 6 | Categories: Interactive features | Tags: , , , , , ,