In the English Classroom

The tasks below are designed to stimulate creative writing responses for your students. All of the tasks are informed by content from the novel and by Neil Gaiman’s interview which you can find at the beginning of this pack.

Food as hospitality, food as love

In his interview, Neil Gaiman talks about how food can have an emotional significance for characters and readers.

Explore how food is described in The Wind in the Willows and in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. You might also explore how Charles Dickens writes about food in A Christmas Carol, or Oliver Twist, for example.

Now that you have explored those ideas, and of course how food is described in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, write two contrasting short pieces in which food is presented as a luxury or as punishment.

Whilst you’re writing, consider the five senses, but also the connotations of certain foods. For example, turkey is often associated with Christmas, while peaches and strawberries are associated with summer. Some foods are considered quite exotic, while others are associated with specific cultures.

Before you start writing, think about when food is too hot, or too cold. What colours are considered positive? How does ‘golden brown’ contrast with ‘charred’, for example?

Share your writing with a partner, or with your class.

Different Perspectives

‘Adults rarely seemed to believe me when I told the truth anyway. Why would they believe me about something so unlikely?’

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (chapter 3)

In the play and the novel, there is a significant difference between the way in which children and adults deal with the same situation. The Boy’s instinct tells him not to trust adults and he is initially cautious when he is introduced to various ideas by the Hempstocks, even though all of their actions are rooted in love.

Think of (or invent) a time when a child’s experience might be described completely differently to an adult’s. With a partner, write the two different versions of the same story, as told by a child and an adult.

For example:

• A child’s first visit to the dentist. Think particularly of the noise, the smell and the different instruments and machines that the child might see and hear

• A visit to meet Father Christmas

• A day at the beach

• The breaking of a precious vase

• Playing with Lego™ and inventing a ‘robot’