Frank Foley
Frank Foley
Literature Lover!
Online Study Groups
Join me for a wonderful series of online study groups exploring great works of literature!
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These 3-week groups are a perfect introduction to a range of superb novels, short stories, and works of drama, from the timeless classics to more contemporary groundbreaking works.
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Literature shines a light on the human condition, challenges our perspectives, and poses questions we may have never considered. Join a group today and help keep literature alive and loved in the 21st century!
Awaken the literature lover within!
Schedule
Autumn 2024
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
3 online sessions from Monday 16th September, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
A publishing phenomenon when it was released in 2006, The Elegance of the Hedgehog asks existential questions about identity, meaning, and finding purpose in life, as well as exploring issues such as class, the value of art, and the obvious, but easily overlooked difference between appearance and reality.​
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a fascinating novel full of philosophical and cultural allusions, and always sparks interesting discussions in class, so book your place today!
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
3 online sessions from Monday 14th October, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
F Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1941) was an American novelist and short story writer who captured the zeitgeist of the Jazz Age with his novels in the 1920s.
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Regarded as one of the great American novels, to some extent The Great Gatsby is a classic tale of poor boy made good in the pursuit of love.
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But wrapped in Fitzgerald's symbolism and intricate patterning, and filtered through themes of idealism and the American dream, it becomes one of the great works of 20th century literature.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
3 online sessions from Monday 11th November, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
Elizabeth Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for her wonderful 2009 book Olive Kitteridge. Marketed as a novel, but more accurately described as a collection of linked short stories, Olive Kitteridge is a superb work of fiction.
In this session, we'll focus on the story, "Incoming Tide" an exquisitely crafted story dealing with unbearable pain, death, love, opportune moments, and the value of human connection.
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
2 online sessions from Monday 9th December, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
Please join my free course on Truman Capote's famous 1958 novella!
We've all seen the film, but here's a chance to read the darker, more gritty book!
This short novella deals with questions of identity and who we are, home and belonging, imprisonment and freedom, and memory.
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This short course will run for two sessions in December 2024.
Winter 2025
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
3 online sessions from Monday 13th January, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was an English novelist known for her novel, Frankenstein, which she began writing when she was just eighteen. Mary's father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and women's rights advocate, Mary Wollstonecraft.
Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus was first published in 1818, and tells the story of Victor Frankenstein who, in the name of scientific progress, creates a creature capable of conscious thought and self reflection. The novel addresses questions of identity, social values and judgement, and the consequences of actions.
Join me for this fascinating 3-week exploration of a classic work of English literature!
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
3 online sessions from Monday 10th February, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
Michael Ondaatje is a Canadian poet, novelist and film-maker, born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1943. He has published seven novels and a number of poetry collections, and won the Booker Prize in 1992 for his novel, The English Patient.
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Set in Italy during the Second World War, the novel interweaves the stories of four disparate characters as they try to make sense of their broken lives. The novel addresses questions of identity and character, and the context in which this is judged, as well as issues of race, ownership and boundaries, and the importance of stories.
That Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3 online sessions from Monday 17th March, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer, born in Enugu in 1977. She has published three novels; Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013). In 2014, Adichie published the book-length essay, We Should All Be Feminists.
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The short-story collection, That Thing Around Your Neck was published in 2009, to largely positive reviews. It consists of 12 stories exploring ideas concerning feminism, Nigerian and American culture, corruption, domestic violence, and Western colonialism.
This is a 3-week course exploring a selection of stories from the collection.
Spring 2025
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
3 online sessions from Monday 14th April, 7 - 9 pm (UK)
Made into an acclaimed film by the Coen brothers, No Country is one of McCarthy's most accessible novels. Set in 1980, in a remote part of the border between the United States and Mexico, the novel explores themes of fate and free will, identity, personal codes of morality, and violence and social order.
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Join me for a philosophical and fascinating three weeks!
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
3 Session from Friday 12th May 2023, 10 am - 12 noon (UK) - Umbrella Centre, Whitstable
July 1956. Darlington Hall has a new American owner. Lord Darlington is dead, and his butler, Stevens, carries on as he always has.
But change stirs memory, and Stevens will soon begin a journey that will take him out of the house and into recollections of the past, forcing him, for the first time in years, to re-evaluate his life and missed opportunities.
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In this 3-week course we will explore Ishiguro's understated and deceptive novel, reading between the lines and under the surfaces to explore issues of memory and the past, repression and suppression, and unreliable narration.​
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Stories
3 sessions from tba
Born in 1975, Zadie Smith is an English writer, who has published numerous works, including novels, short stories, plays and essays. Her first novel, On Beauty (2000) was published to wide acclaim and was an immediate best-seller.
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Smith's short story collection, Grand Union was published in 2019. It includes 19 stories, which together display the range of her intellect, wit and mastery of the short story form.
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Over 3-weeks we'll discuss a selection of stories - TBA
A Way of Being Free by Ben Okri
Essays
3 sessions from Wednesday 12th January 2022
A Way of Being Free (1997) is a collection of twelve previously published essays by Nigerian writer, Ben Okri, best known for his 1991 Booker Prize winning novel, The Famished Road.
This short course celebrates freedom, creativity and the magic of stories through this wonderful collection! Evocative and poetic, it is a passionate, almost spiritual, celebration of storytelling and the creative imagination.
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Over three weeks we will discuss themes including identity, freedom and the power of stories to shape our lives.