Book of the Week

Red Notice by Bill Browder
Recommended by Alessandro Comoli

Red Notice, judged on its literary qualities alone, perhaps is not the most impressive novel. However, this account of the manager of a major hedge-fund manager (Browder), his interaction with Vladimir Putin, and his uncovering of the nefarious affairs at the root of the Russian oligarchy makes for a fascinating read and is very applicable to the modern context.

Titus: Why Now?

Next week's school play is Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.  In today's post, Mr Broughton offers an introduction to his version of the tragedy: you can also watch a new trailer for the production here.  

‘A heap of rubbish’ was Edward Ravenscroft’s description of the play, although he was happy enough to create from it one of the most faithful Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare’s work, one which enjoyed huge popularity for over fifty years.

The Final Shelfie Quiz - answers revealed!!!

Thanks again to all of you who participated in last week's shelfie quizzes, whether it was by generously contributing a shelfie, or by having a go at the quiz.  Here are the results of Friday's final test of your deductive skills. 

The Final Shelfie Quiz ...

Today is our final quiz - and it features an eclectic mix of shelfies generously contributed by teachers from the Drama, Physics, Economics, and Classics dept - Mr Kerr, Mr Warriner, Mr Jacoby, Mr Block and Miss Waterfield - plus rowing coach Mr Bourne (OP), the head of the US Universities Dept Mrs Graham AND (drum roll ...) the High Master himself, Professor Bailey.

SO - whose literary interests embrace James Bond and the Beatniks? Where does John Colet meet the one ring to rule them all? Who has abandoned shelving altogether and stacks their books in a vertical tower?  And is that another copy of Moby Dick we see before us?  It's your final chance to match the shelfies to the teacher: and here's the link - have fun! 

World Book Day: Shelfie Quiz Number 4 ...

As today is World Book Day, we're delighted to report that yesterday's shelfie quiz had the highest rate of successful identifications so far. Find out how many you got right later in the post.

Today's penultimate quiz features shelfies generously donated by teachers from the History, Biology, ICT and Theology & Philosophy departments.  So - whose shelves go from CSI to cacti, and whose from psychopathology to pumpkins?  Who enjoys travel writing and classic detective fiction, and who likes talking to serial killers? Who loves lists, and who else arranges their books by colour (this is clearly a thing), and whose arm is that???  Mr Watkins's? Dr Brigham's? Dr Bennett's? Dr Langley's? Mr Gaydon's? Miss Ramsay-Overall's? Mr Green's? or Dr Shammas's?  You tell us - here's the link to Thursday's Shelfie Quiz.

World Book Week: Shelfie Quiz Number 3 ...

Yesterday's quiz offered produced some interesting results - find out how many shelfies you correctly identified later on in the post.  Today, we have a selection of shelfies very kindly volunteered by teachers from the Art, Chemistry and Modern Languages depts. Whose interests range from Spike Milligan to metaphysical poetry, or from the Mafia to Milton? Which teacher arranges their books by colour? Whose collection includes The Short and Snarky Guide to Coxing? Who likes fantasy, sci-fi and cooking spicy food - Mrs Holmes? Mr Smith? Mr Lowes? Mrs Mitchell? Miss Kemal-ur-Rahim? Miss Grogan? or Mr Hollands? You tell us: here's the link to Wednesday's Shelfie Quiz. 

World Book Week: Shelfie Quiz Number 2 ...

Thanks to everyone who had a go at our first shelfie quiz yesterday. You can find out the answers, including who all those copies of Moby Dick belonged to, below. 

Today's quiz features teachers from the Maths, Computing and Engineering departments.  Can you figure out whose interests range from Murakami to Monty Don? Where does Hogwarts meet the Night Circus, or Tolkien hunt the White Tiger, or Howard Marks prop up Jack Reacher? Whose bookshelves span coding to cricket, or Dante to Wodehouse? Click on the link to take part in today's quiz - Tuesday's Shelfie Quiz - and see if you can identify the shelfies from Miss Douglass, Mrs Hamma, Mr Allon, Mr Toller, Dr Shravat, Miss Cloete and Dr Harrison. 

World Book Day 'Match the Shelfie to the Selfie' Quiz ...

 This Thursday, 

and to celebrate all things book-related, the blog is running a week of 'match the shelfie to the teacher' quizzes.  Every day, we'll be posting some 'shelfies' - photos of bookshelves (you'd probably figured that out) - belonging to SPS teachers, and challenging YOU, the Pauline reader, to work out which shelfie belongs to which teacher.

Today, it's the turn of the English Dept.  Mr Hager, Miss McLaughlin, Mr Gardner, Miss Warner, Miss McLaren and Mr Espey have bravely sent in their shelfies: so, on whose double-stacked shelves do Keats and Seneca sit shoulder-to-shoulder? Where does Shakespeare touch base with Langstone Hughes? Henry James squash up with Samuel Beckett? George Eliot snuggle with Strindberg? Where is Nabokov on nodding terms with Flann O'Brien and Sylvia Plath with Proust? Who has more books on film than they know what to do with? and whose bookshelves buckle under a whopping seven copies of Moby Dick? 

Click on the link to find out and take part in today's quiz: Monday's 'Match the Shelfie' Quiz - and check out tomorrow's blog-post to see how many you got right. Have fun!