An English teacher's love letter to reading and the many ways literature can make us and our
lives better. How can a Victorian poem help teenagers understand YouTube misogyny? Can Jane
Eyre encourage us to speak out? What can Lady Macbeth teach us about empathy? Should our
expectations for our future be any greater than Pip's? And why is it so important to make space
for these conversations in the first place? In a career spanning almost three decades English
teacher Carol Atherton has taught generations of students texts that will be familiar to many
of us from our own schooldays. But while the staples of exam syllabuses and reading lists
remain largely unchanged their significance - and their relevance - evolves with each class
as it encounters them for the first time. Each chapter of Reading Lessons invites us to take a
fresh look at these novels plays and poems revealing how they have shaped our beliefs our
values and how we interact as a society. As she recalls her own development as a teacher
Atherton emphasizes the vital undervalued role a teacher plays illustrates how essential
reading is for developing our empathy and makes a passionate case for the enduring power of
literature. 'Atherton must be an inspiring teacher if her marvellous book is anything to go
by' The Independent 'Beautifully written sensitive and full of warmth ... A vital point of
reflection for anyone who has taught or been taught English literature' Jeffrey Boakye 'A
love letter to literature itself ... At a time when English is under attack as an academic
subject Carol Atherton's powerful defence of it reminds us what we are in danger of losing'
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst author of The Turning Point
