GCSE

Will is single and doesn't want children but when he meets Marcus, aged 12, they both discover they can benefit from their friendship. Strong language.

Passion, politics, love and death combine in the story of the legendary love triangle between Mark Antony, Octavian, and Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt.

In the midst of Mao's cultural revolution, two boys are sent to 're-education' camps and have to rely on each other and the daughter of a local tailor to keep going. Their lives are changed when they find a suitcase packed with Western novels, and after listening to the stories of Balzac so is the little seamstress.

Barnaby Rudge, pathetic and half-witted son of a murderer, and his raven Grip play unwitting parts in the Gordon riots of 1780 and in the family feud of the Haredale and Chester families.

These tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from Southwark to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer used the tales to depict a critical portrait of the society of his time and particularly the Church.

Through Coriolanus's searing scorn for the turbulent citizens of Rome, Shakespeare shows how the qualities that make a successful and heroic general in wartime fail to translate to a time of peace.

Krishna, an English teacher in the town of Malgudi, is delighted by his domestic life, where his wife and young daughter wait for him outside the house every afternoon. Devastated by the death of his wife, Krishna comes to realise what he really wants to do, and makes a decision that will change his life forever.

Whilst Uma, a plain spinster, lives in India smothered by her overbearing parents, her over-indulged younger brother Arun is studying in Massachusetts. He is bewildered by the freedom and culture he finds in the home of the Patton family.

Sunday Express Book of the Year. Whitbread Winner. Felicia's journey across the Irish Sea in search of a friend leads her into a dark and unforgiving landscape. Whitbread Book of the Year Winner.

Pip is brought up by his sister and her husband Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith. At the house of the strange Miss Haversham he falls in love with Estella, and aspires to become a gentleman. When money comes to him from a mysterious source he assumes his benefactor is Miss Haversham.

Bolingbroke, the decisive usurper of Richard II, has been transformed into the careworn King Henry IV, thwarted in his desire to expiate his guilt by going on crusade due to the threat of civil war. His wayward son is won over by the decadent charms of Falstaff but wins a decisive battle.

Political unrest abounds in England after King Henry IV dies. His young son, Henry V, is left to take the throne and deal with suspected treason, the invasion of France, and a royal courtship. Two knaves and a braggart provide comic relief.

Young Francis Cassavant returns from war maimed and disfigured and is forced to confront his past in the shape of the youth leader who betrayed him and the girl he still loves.

Used to roaming alone through the large house in which he lives with his father, Edmund, aged 11, bitterly resents the arrival of the new housekeeper's son. It was his house; he was King here. So he sets about ridding himself of the intruder with malicious relentlessness.

Le Fanu draws on Gothic conventions, such as ghosts and vampires, to examine the results of supernatural experience on the psyche. The book, containing five tales, purports to be the casebook of Dr Hesselius, a pioneer psychologist.

Four mothers who have moved from pre-revolutionary China to San Francisco meet and form the Joy Luck Club to eat dim sum and to share stories. Forty years on they and their daughters tell stories of hope, loss and their struggle to come to terms with their cultural identity.

Julius Caesar is the most successful general Rome has ever had, and now he wants to be king. Cassius, Brutus and other senators are determined not to see power fall into the hands of one man. And so they plot to kill him.

Richard emerges from the chaos which surrounds the reign of Henry VI determined to become king by removing his elder brother Edward IV, by convincing him that their brother Clarence is plotting against the crown. The series of murders and conspiracies that Richard masterminds confirms his claim that "I am determined to prove a villain".

For all of her 22 years, Amy Dorrit has lived in Marshalsea prison, trapped with her family because of her father's debts. Her only escape is to work as a seamstress for the kind Mrs Clennam. But when it is unexpectedly discovered that her father is heir to a fortune, some shocking truths emerge and Amy's life changes for ever.

Long convinced that his family are only after his money, Martin Chuzzlewit takes in an orphaned girl - Mary Graham - to be his nursemaid. But when Martin's grandson - young Martin - falls in love with Mary, he is disowned. Cast out, young Martin travels to the American West to build his fortune. However, his journey has unforeseen consequences.

A Venetian merchant, Antonio, borrows money from Shylock, a Jewish money-lender, to help his friend Bassanio, woo the beautiful Portia. Shylock stipulates that if Antonio defaults, he will claim a pound of Antonio's flesh. When Antonio's ships are lost at sea, Shylock calls in the debt and Portia disguises herself as a lawyer to defend him.

On a tropical island shattered by war, the eccentric Mr Watts is the only remaining white man. He starts to read Dickens’s Great Expectations to the island’s children, in the ruins of the schoolhouse. The adults, too, are drawn to listen and begin to share their own stories. Richard & Judy Bookclub

A poetry anthology for students preparing for the AQA GCSE English Literature specification Unit 2. This selection covers a range of poems from the English, Welsh and Irish Literary Heritage chosen by teachers to engage and stimulate readers in the classroom.

A vivacious woman and a high-spirited man both claim that they are determined never to marry. But when their friends trick them into believing that each harbours secret feelings for the other, they begin to question whether their witty banter and sharp-tongued repartee conceals something deeper.

Kathy, Tommy and Ruth are all products of Hailsham House, a school where they are sheltered from the outside world and subjected to frequent medical checks. As the children grow and mature into adults the sinister purpose of Hailsham becomes apparent.

Paddy Clarke is ten in 1968 and loves George Best, Geronimo and the smell of his hot water bottle. He hates zoos, kissing and boys from the Corporation houses and his brother. He knows that his mother is crying, that Da leaves the house in silence, but he doesn't know why... Man Booker Prize Winner.

When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, 15-year-old Kambili's father, involved in mysterious ways with the unfolding political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to their aunt's. Here she discovers love and a life - dangerous and heathen - beyond the confines of her father's authority.

This collection of poems is aimed at students preparing for OCR GCSEs in English, English Language and English Literature. Divided into two sections, Literary Heritage Poetry and Contemporary Poetry, it inlcudes works by Robert Browning, Chaucer, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen, Christina Rossetti, Shakespeare, Simon Armitage, Gillian Clarke, Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, and Benjamin Zephaniah.

A romantic tragedy of two teenagers from rival families who fall in love. A sentence of exile and an impending arranged marriage force the two to flee. A friar suggests a ruse to accomplish their union, but miscommunication causes it to backfire.

Besieged by the German Army, the people of Leningrad face shells, starvation and the Russian winter. Like many other people the Levin family struggles to stay alive through the Siege.

An anthology of contemporary short stories, an optional text for students preparing for the AQA GCSE English Literature specification Unit 1. The selection, chosen by teachers to engage and stimulate readers in the classroom, includes work by Helen Dunmore, Clare Wigfall, Elizabeth Baines, Haruki Murakami, Peneope Lively, Ridjal Noor, and Leila Aboulela.

In February 2001, 24 year old Ellen macArthur completed the Vendee Globe, the world's toughest yacht race. In doing so she bacame the youngest Briton and the fastest woman to circumnavigate the globe. This is the story of the young woman from a small Derbyshire village who overcame all obstacles to make her dream come true.

'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, tells the story of his stay at Eel Marsh House to administer the affairs of its former inhabitant Mrs Alice Drablow. As a series of nightmarish events unfold, he gradually uncovers the tragic secrets of his client and the identity of the woman in black.