Reading Lessons: An Interview with Carol Atherton
Indie Book Award Shortlisted, Carol Atherton, will be at The Reading Room to talk about what books can teach us, what reading does for us and why all this matters.
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 ofReading 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.
Carol Atherton has taught English since 1996 and is currently Head of English at a secondary school in Spalding. Originally from Merseyside, she read English at Oxford before doing a PGCE at Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD at the University of Nottingham. She is a Fellow of the English Association and a member of the National Association for the Teaching of English. Atherton has written for a range of publications aimed at teachers and students, and she co-authoredTeaching English Literature 16–19(Routledge, 2013).Reading Lessons is her first trade publication.
Carol will be interviewed by writer and editor, Grace Pengelly.
Carol will available to sign copies of her book. If you decide to pre-order a copy of Reading Lessons when booking, this will be available for collection fro The Reading Room within 2-3 working days and we will will email you when it has arrived. Alternatively, you can collect it on the day of the event.
