Surrey English Blog

Final year English Literature student Georgia discusses the merits of choosing modules at University which compliment your degree AND personal interests. “Looking back to my time in the lower sixth form, specifically to university selection time, I remember how convinced I was that I was going to go to university to study an English Literature […]

When the first lockdown happened in March, I was still on my professional placement and thankfully working part-time two days a week. But what did I do with the other five days? Like many other people, I baked banana bread and started to follow daily workout routines, but I admittedly only kept this up for […]

Today’s blog post looks back at advice from the Little Bird Book Blog, written by Surrey SLL graduate Rosie. With so much going on in the first term at university, she looks at her five top tips to help study for your English Literature degree.   “As it is September I can’t help but be […]

2020 has been a year of adjustment, a year of acclimation. Our world has changed. The past is, in many ways, unrecognisable. The streets of my home city, lined with people in masks, plastic visors, barriers, one-way systems and bottles of hand sanitiser, are a new and unfamiliar landscape. There is plenty that has been […]

‘Reality is broken. Game designers can fix it.’ – Jane McGonigal Video games have long been associated with escapism. This week I want to talk about video game narratives and their place amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. It’s no secret to my friends and family that I am an avid consumer of video games. I used […]

To celebrate National Writing Day, MFA in Creative Writing graduate Nassma Al Bahrani offers her top tips for starting and developing your craft. “When it comes to Creative Writing, the journey is arguably more satisfying than the destination. Whether you find yourself honing your writing skills for a potential career choice or for the pure […]

This week’s blog is slightly different. I feel it would be wrong not to address the Black Lives Matter movement that has so rightly been occupying media attention over the past few weeks. Addressing and contextualising literature in the light of our current socio-political climate is an integral part of this blog. But even more […]

“The things you used to own, now they own you.” The first rule of Fight Club? You don’t talk about Fight Club. And yet this week, Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel, Fight Club, is exactly what my guest, Emma Brine, wants to talk about. Fight Club is Palahniuk’s second novel. A ‘tantalising exploration of violence, male […]

“My ambition is handicapped by laziness.” Charles Bukowski: a ‘mythic roughneck’, a ‘brawler, gambler, companion of bums and whores, boozehound with an oceanic thirst’. Bukowski is the author of a wealth of literature, ranging from poetry, to short stories, to full novels. Referred to as a ‘laureate of American lowlife’, and well known for his […]