Starting with Hartley’s 1953 novel, then moving on to McEwan’s 2001 novel we’ll be thinking about the way society is presented and the way the story is told.

In each session we will discuss our reactions to a section from one of the novels. We’ll be thinking about the way the stories unfold and looking for writerly techniques. Is the past ‘a foreign country’? How do writers present the past? Do they also show us something of the times in which they were written? Please read to the end of Chapter 6 of The Go-Between for discussion at the first session.