Explore History, Culture & Writing

A sideways glance: succinct, powerful. This short workshop on the essential components of flash fiction will teach you to tell a complete story in very few words. Please note: this course will have a 2-hr break from 12:30-14:30.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Give creative writing a try on this fun and supportive online short course. Ideal if you want to express yourself but need help in getting started. Guided exercises will encourage you to experiment and unlock your imagination.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

In the inaugural 1952 Sight and Sound greatest film of all time poll, Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist The Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette) was voted in first place. Seventy-five years after its initial release, we will celebrate and analyse the film’s enduring popularity with both audiences and critics alike.

Establishing itself in the immediate post-war period, initially in Europe and later in world cinemas, art cinema is characterised by distinctive film styles and narrative structures that set it apart from popular forms of cinematic practice and representation. This course will consider its origins and development, its key films and filmmakers, and critical accounts of the concept art of cinema.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

André Bazin famously asserted that, ‘the cinema more than any other art is particularly bound up with love’. Join us for this one-day course and explore the extent to which Bazin’s remark may be seen to be true. We will look at how love is represented across the history of film and explore the ubiquity of love at first sight in classical Hollywood cinema. We will consider the extent to which romance, primarily heterosexual, has been a structuring narrative device in popular cinema, while also considering films that explore same sex romance. We will look at a range of genres, including, of course, the rom-com, or romantic comedy. We will also think about love of the cinema itself – cinephilia – as a possible reason for our regular and continued return to this frequently most powerful of experiences. We will consider work by directors such as Jean Genet, Douglas Sirk, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pedro Almodovar, and others, as well as looking at specific films such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and Groundhog Day (1993).

Want to keep full creative control of your writing project? Learn more about self-publishing and how to give your book (poetry, fiction or non-fiction) the best chance of achieving high sales.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.