Modern texts

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:

Writer

Title

JB Priestley

An Inspector Calls

Willy Russell

Blood Brothers (musical version)

Chinonyerem Odimba

Princess & The Hustler*

Dennis Kelly

DNA

Winsome Pinnock

Leave Taking*

Shelagh Delaney

A Taste of Honey

Prose

Writer

Title

William Golding

Lord of the Flies

AQA Anthology

Telling Tales

George Orwell

Animal Farm

Meera Syal

Anita and Me

Kit de Waal

My Name is Leon*

Stephen Kelman

Pigeon English

*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.

GCSE English Literature

Inspirational new texts and poetry

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