I had the great pleasure of being involved in a few of the interviews that make up a huge digital resource underpinning the whole English ‘package’ being offered by Cambridge University Press [see previous posting]. This ranges across interviews with authors, performers, and academics (for A-level) to dramatic presentations of play excerpts, with exploration, and poems.

One of those interviews was with Lemn Sissay, MBE, the brilliant poet, performer, writer, broadcaster, and social commentator. Lemn made a writer’s visit to my school many years ago and I have always regarded him as someone who lives to write and be creative as well as enthusing others to do so. Lemn contributed excellent poems to my previous book Poems in Your Pocket by Longman, and he makes a number of short commentaries for the Writing Workshops units where I believe his honesty and enthusiasm, as brief as digital clips need to be, will provide genuine stimulus, as well as grounding in real experience,  for students.

Another was with the American author and musician Willy Vlautin whose debut novel The Motel Life was recently made into a film, and whose band The Delines produced, for me, the album of 2014: Colfax, his spoken narratives getting further expression through music.

There is a Writing Workshop about dialogue – Pete Can’t Speak. But You Can – which uses an extract from Vlautin’s award-winning and third novel Lean on Pete. As a huge fan of American writers John Steinbeck and Raymond Carver, the tradition of presenting the simplicity and yet potency of realistic dialogue is continued in his own work, with Lean on Pete providing memorable examples. Willy’s interview about this and other aspects of his life and writing is brilliant and I thank him for his honest enthusiasm in giving it.

My WW writing partner Martin Phillips has been at the forefront of producing all of the digital material used across the entire ‘package’ I have been referring to and it is a treasure trove of insight, examination, exploration and engagement covering all aspects of the study of English at both GCSE and A level.