English Recommended Reading List

Mrs McLarnon

  • Poetry – TS Eliot The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and The Wasteland: Moving, plaintive and beautifully mellifluous
  • Play – Miss Julie by Stringberg: Intense and slightly bonkers – in a good way
  • Novel – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: A classic – strange, compelling, disturbing tale of taboo

Mr O’Brien

  • Play – Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett: Utterly mad, but will leave you feeling like you have also been waiting for Godot (whoever that is?)
  • Poetry collection – Essential Bukowski poetry: Visceral, provocative and at times brutally honest. Bukowski’s words create a terrible wreck, but beauty can be found in the power of truth
  • Novel – Lorna Doone by R.D Blackmore: A perfect read for anyone who likes a good romantic hero, the English countryside and unresolved conflicts

Mr Hawkins

  • Novel – The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald: Manages to combine both the failure and importance of dreaming and for its sheer linguistic craftsmanship
  • Poetry – Philip Larkin: Expresses profound human truths about ageing, death, disappointment, fear and failure in a deceptively simple, comprehensive form
  • Plays – Miller’s ‘The Crucible’

Mr Karimjee

  • Poetry – The Fire People, Lemn Sissay: A collection of contemporary poetry that has reggae, hip-hop roots. Introduced by Lemn Sissay
  • Play – Waiting for Godot; S. Beckett
  • Novel – The Buddha of Suburbia. Hanif Kureishi: Funny/tragic story of boy growing up in Brixton with Indian father and English mother

Mrs Morris

  • Novel – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman: Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
  • Poetry – Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath was one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century. By the time she took her life at the age of 30, Plath already had a following in the literary community
  • Play – The Ferryman, Jez Butterworth: A shattering tale and violent tale

Ms Griffin

  • Novel – Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte: The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature
  • Poetry – Robert Browning: Browning understood the corruption of man’s heart
  • Play – Richard II, William Shakespeare: A story of power and plotting

Mr Raybould

  • Novel – We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver: A horrifying, original, witty, brave and deliberately provocative novel
  • Poetry – E E Cummings – Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town
  • Play – Noises Off, Michael Frayn: Hailed as one of the funniest plays of all time