Courses in London & Online

In his literary essay On Fairy Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote that “in human art, fantasy is a thing best left to words”. Despite this claim, The Lord of the Rings is arguably one of the most profitable media franchises of the 21st century. It has inspired academy-award winning films and record-breaking TV series, and continues to generate material that resonates with new generations of fans to explore. This course will explore the history of adapting Tolkien to the cinema, considering not only what was altered or left behind in attempts to turn Tolkien’s vast mythology into the stuff of popular cinema, but what might also have been enhanced as a result.

Are you excited by the language of Maths? Do you want to understand how numbers, symbols and formulas enable us to identify and solve problems as well as find patterns and structure in the world. This course will extend your analytical and problem-solving skills and help you develop logic to plan and manage activities. A Maths GCSE is one of the most commonly required qualifications by employers and universities and by achieving it you will enhance your job and education prospects. Please note the Friday classes are not every Friday, but approximately every third week.



Contact universal.skills@citylit.ac.uk / 020 4582 0423 for information and to book a pre-course assessment. You can also click the Start Assessment button on this page.

This course is free for learners who have not achieved a GCSE grade C (4) and higher in Maths. For more information Click here

We chart the fortunes of the first four crusades and the rise and fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem using Christian and Muslim sources. Why did these events occur and what were the consequences?

Come and discover Swedish on this lively online taster.

Develop your lipreading skills and strategies for face-to-face communication and keep up-to-date with relevant equipment and services. This course is suitable if you have completed a lipreading class at improvers' level.







This course will be taught in spoken English and not in sign language.

For classical guitar players, this online class will work on technique and fingerstyle versions of Baroque, Spanish and popular music.

Explore the art of counterpoint, a musical technique in which two or more melodies are combined to create a highly



engaging musical texture. Over the year you will learn contrapuntal technique from Renaissance to Twentieth Century styles, through score analysis and practical exercises. The course is split into three terms, focusing on Renaissance style in term 1. Break week: 28 Oct 2025.

This course examines the transformative period of Japanese cinema during its so-called Golden Age (from late 1940s to early 1960s), a time when Japan’s traditional film studio system was at its peak, and several iconic directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi, were making their most iconic films. We will discuss, analyse, and contextualise several of these directors’ films, as well as look at films by other directors of that period, such as Mikio Naruse and Masaki Kobayashi, and more. We will consider the socio-political and film industry contexts which shaped the films, including the cultural meanings behind the samurai genre, the post-war Occupation of Japan by Allied Forces, and the international impact of Japanese cinema on global filmmaking.