Companion guide
Spark something powerful
Inspirational new texts and poetry for GCSE English Literature.
Modern texts
We’ve introduced two plays and a novel to our selection of texts for Paper 2 Section A: Modern texts.
Students have the option to study one of the new texts from the list below:
Prose
*first teaching from September 2023 and first exams in summer 2025.
All three of the new texts are by women writers and while they tell very different stories, they all have some qualities in common.
- They’re funny, moving and uplifting stories.
- The narratives all centre around family relationships and explore universal themes like love and loss, belonging and connection.
- They each have historical and modern relevance, addressing important social and political issues and ideas which will resonate for young people.
- Each text tackles challenging and sensitive topics through the characters’ hardships but these aren’t stories of struggle. They’re layered and complex stories and in the end are empowering and positive.