Thinking AloudEnglish Blog

This is the first in an occasional series: Books I Should Have Read as an English Literature Graduate, But Am Reading Now. I am third of the way through Jane Eyre, and the verdict so far is: yes, it is absolutely worth reading. In fact, it is far sharper, funnier and stranger than the cultural fog around it sometimes suggests. I had expected moors, suffering, repression, possibly a man standing in a corridor being emotionally unavailable. I had not quite expected to like J

Confidence comes from a trust in your own thinking. Not memorising a pre-packaged essay and praying that the question behaves itself; not adding context at the end of a paragraph like an anxious Victorian chaperone; not sprinkling in the word ‘liminal’ and hoping sophistication will occur. Confidence comes from trust. Some students went into the exam hall this year not just with revision behind them, but with confidence, clarity and the beginnings of a lifelong desire to r

There was a particular look on my puppy's post-op face: confusion mixed with mild indignation, as though the laws of physics had been quietly rewritten while she was asleep. And I realised I have seen this exact expression many times before. Usually across a desk when a teenager opens an English exam paper. Go with me on this one.

AO5 (critical engagement) has a reputation. It arrives in lessons and mark schemes like a spectral presence: vague, unsettling, prone to terrifying otherwise confident students into silence. ‘Different interpretations’, it whispers. ‘Critical debate’ . ‘Alternative readings’.

Question: Compare the ways both writers transform personal pain into public performance. There are few moments more alarming than flipping over an A Level paper and realising the exam board has gone rogue. That’s exactly how it felt in my imaginary Paper 3 this morning, when the unseen comparative poem turned out to be Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’, paired without warning with Lily Allen’s ‘Pussy Palace’.