SNAPSHOT CLASSICS

EDUCATIONAL GUIDES FOR ALL LEVELS
90 Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, Herts SG5 2DU
Tel: +44 (0)1462 456868     Mob: +44 (0)7768 627344

For further information please contact Martin Morris on
enquiries@dickens-online.co.uk
t: 01462 456868 or m: 07768 627344

February 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW PUBLISHER LAUNCHES FIRST EDUCATIONAL TITLES

Award-winning writer launches his first seven titles to re-introduce our classic heritage to students at all levels by making them more approachable and more easily absorbed and hopefully help reverse the serious and worrying decline in UK literacy

These guides have been designed to aid literacy, introduce our classic heritage to a new and wider audience and help raise exam passes and grade successes in the English Literature curriculum across O, AS, A and Degree standards.

www.dickens-online.co.uk is the web site that explains the Snapshot Classics concept and provides on-line ordering facilities for students, schools and wholesalers.

Snapshot Classics are the brainchild of award-winning writer Martin Morris. It is obviously a commercial venture but involves a subject very close to his heart.

 “I am concerned at the decrease in literacy in UK schools and also at the way our classic heritage is being chiselled away in favour of easier and less substantial titles simply to make exam results look better in league tables,” says founder Martin Morris.

The Snapshot Classics Library is producing all the titles of the National Curriculum English Literature titles as study and revision guides for GCSE, AS, A and Degree levels over the next two years.

“I have a network of authors currently working on classic authors like Shakespeare, Austen, the Brontës and Hardy, to more recent writers such as Golding and Steinbeck and the newer additions to the curriculum such as Zadie Smith. There will eventually be around 50 titles for schools to choose from. I’m very excited by the whole project.”

The first seven books to be published are Dickens titles, due in part to a contract awarded to Snapshot Classics by the recently-opened Dickens World educational theme park for use with their increasingly popular school programmes (and to whom Martin Morris is a consultant as a Dickens expert). The remaining nine major Dickens titles are currently in preparation. All Snapshot Classic titles are priced at £5.99, or on-line at £6.99 including UK post and packing.

Snapshot Classics is also working on plans to introduce an interactive version where students will be able to interrogate and extract from both the Snapshot and the full original editions for research and project purposes.

Each printed Snapshot Classic is a precise chapter-by-chapter evolution in less than 10% of the original length. This not only means that each can be read up to 20 times in the time it takes to read the original, but also that today’s pupils are introduced to a very approachable and user-friendly format that it is hoped will then encourage them to read the originals in all their glory.

Snapshot Classics also include full Plot Synopsis, full Character Index, Glossary of unusual period words, an explanation of Money in Victorian Times wherever appropriate, Author Biography and Literary Timetable. The first appearance of any character, location and unusual word appearing in the Index or Glossary is underlined in the text.

PICTURES ARE AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT THIS STORY

EDITOR’S NOTES
●        Snapshot Classics are precise chapter-by-chapter evolutions of plot taking up typically up to 10% the length of the original
●        Students can read a Snapshot Classic up to 20 times in the time it takes to read the original and know the plot and characters off by heart and pass any exam
●        All Snapshots include character index and glossary of unusual terms, plus author notes. They also, where relevant, include a full explanation of Money in Victorian Times
●        Readers wanting to know more simply go to the same chapter number in the original text
●        Interactive software currently under development will allow the interrogation of Snapshot and full texts to aid research and assigned project development
●        Schools can also order any titles not yet produced with an eight-week timescale

For further information please contact Martin Morris on 01462 or 07768 627344 or via  enquiries@dickens-online.co.uk.