GCSE text from 1997?

[deareloise]

Does anybody know what this was?

We had an anthology and the only poem I can remember was Island Man by Grace Nichols. There were also extracts and short stories.

I remember one was Talking Heads about the biscuit under the sofa (or something!) and the one I’d like to find is one where a a farmer is looking at a group of women to choose one for a wife, and one pulls a face at him and it causes all the women to turn against him.

I think it was NEAB.

Any ideas?

Pretty sure we had the lyrics of a Beatles song as part of the anthology - maybe Eleanor Rigby?

Text-wise, definitely The Crucible. I remember it being good timing with the Daniel Day-Lewis film coming out around the same time.

Can't for the life of me remember which Shakespeare(s) we did. Much Ado and Hamlet were A-level, I think.

Sorry, not very helpful (and might not even be the same exam board). Too long ago...

And realise that doesn't answer your question at all...

I don't recognise the scene you describe, but sounds a bit Hardy-esque?

I only remember cream cracker under the settee.

Cream cracker under the settee was on your GCSE syllabus?

I remember that being shown for the first time!
I did actually do GCSEs too, not O levels/CSEs! I'm not ancient...

You can buy the book from Amazon here

It was cream cracker under the sofa
The other one you remember was about women in a workhouse. They were all desperate to get out of there so made themselves as neat as possible. Then the farmer came in and he was repulsive so the women tried to make themselves repulsive by pulling faces or showing their hands which were rough from pulling oakum. All except one women who didn’t look at him until he touched her and then she bit him.
There was a Shakespeare text about Cleopatra and that’s all I remember. It’ll be up in my parents attic somewhere.....

There was also a passage from Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Mine, in 1995, was The Merchant of Venice, Far From the Madding Crowd and I can remember any of the poetry. I had the worst teacher who nearly put me off for life. Fortunately I stuck with my plan for A Level Eng Lit where I found an amazing teacher who gave me back all my love for reading.