Join Fiction: Spec A Anthology “Significant Cigarettes”
A self-paced 2-part pre-recorded class IGCSE/GCSE students.
£7 per week — £12 for both weeks
Printable resources
Worksheets and activity sheets to print for every lesson.
Video lessons
Pre-recorded lessons to watch whenever suits — as many times as you like.
Watch any time
Instant access on any device — pause, rewind and rewatch at your own pace.
The book we’re reading
The opening chapter of Rose Tremain's novel The Road Home, "Significant Cigarettes" follows Lev, a middle-aged man from an unnamed Eastern European country, on a long coach journey to London. Having lost his wife and his job at the local sawmill, he leaves his young daughter behind with his mother and travels west in the hope of finding work and building a better life. Beside him sits Lydia, an educated fellow traveller who helps him with his English. Smoking is banned on the bus, so Lev clings to an unlit cigarette as a small comfort — each one a marker of hope and reassurance on an anxious, uncertain journey. It's a quietly moving portrait of grief, poverty and the migrant experience, told with warmth and realism.
Part One
Author Interview
Text discussion
PPT analysis on setting and characters
Exploring Language and Key ideas, identifying sentences and note impressions they create.
Part Two
What is dialogue?
Purpose of monologue and dialogue in writing
Narrative writing tips
Punctuation in dialogue.
Writing tasks