Leavers' Post

Sadly, at the end of this term, Mr Sanderson and Mr Cullen-Hewitt are leaving St Paul's, but they very kindly paused while packing up their books to answer the blog's questions. 

What were you reading when you were a teenager?

Mr Sanderson: Honestly, shamefully, hardly anything for pleasure, until I left school; then Waugh, Greene, Orwell. More recently, McEwan, Roth. 
Mr Cullen-Hewitt: I think I tried to be a bit edgy with my reading as a teenager. I got really into the Stephen King horror novels for a while. The Shining, Salem's Lot, Misery and Carrie were all brilliant, and The Tommyknockers was bizarre but entertaining. 

However, things fell apart when I tried to read one of his newer horrors; I got about two chapters into Cell and had to stop reading it. The magic had gone and I haven’t read a Stephen King since. I also got really into dystopian novels; Riddley Walker was challenging but very rewarding, and I really enjoyed A Clockwork Orange, but it was 1984 that I loved the most. My GCSE English teacher had hinted that we might study 1984 as one of our set texts and I devoured them all over the summer holidays before starting Year 10; in the end we studied Silas Marner instead and (despite being a brilliant teacher) I’ve never quite forgiven him for it. I won’t share his name as he may or may not be a current teacher at St Paul’s…

In our penultimate post of the year, Daniel Pavlu interviews Mr Martin about his brilliant dystopian novel, The Quiet ('engrossing and wholly original': Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One).  

Carnegie Award

In today's post, Mrs Wilkinson reports back on this year's Carnegie Prize 'shadowers' and reveals which book is their selection for the 2026 prize.  

A group of 4th formers has been meeting all term to read and judge books from the shortlist for the Carnegie Medal for Writing 2026. 

Last week, groups from all over the country submitted their vote for the book they think should win the highly acclaimed prize of best book. Out of a shortlist of eight, our winning vote went to Twenty-Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds. 

Books of the Week

Today's books of the week have been suggested by 4EN.A and 4EN.H.

The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton (O.P.)

Recommended by Nicolas Desaedeleer

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton features Gabriel Syme, a poet conscripted to a secret anti-anarchist council, who seems to infiltrate a peculiar anarchist group. The underlying conflict revolves around revealing the identity and motives of the council’s members, especially the elusive figure of Sunday. The book gives much to think about: right and wrong, faithfulness, scepticism, and whether a blatant evil can be self-deluding. Most impressive is its dream-like narrative and structure: a political thriller that gradually grows into an allegorical work of facts and propositions, its absurd reversals and symbolism making one question whether the invincible is indeed invincible, and heroism reconstructed by paradoxically humorous illustrations and unending suspense.

Books of the Week

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein

Recommended By Cyrus Ghaffarpour

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein are, on the surface, an unusual duo. Thaler is an economist who has since won the Nobel Prize, whilst Sunstein is a Harvard Law Professor and served in the Obama administration. Together, the two of them produce a unique mix of scholarly rigour, combined with a genuine interest in why we ordinary people make the choices we do, and it is this that makes Nudge read more like a conversation you didn’t realise you needed to be having, rather than a dry textbook.

Books of the Week

Today's books of the week have been suggested by 4EN.G and 4EN.J.  

Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge by John Gimlette 

Recommended by Enzo Daoud

Wild Coast is a travel book about the author's journey through Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. It explores isolated areas and shows the lives of its inhabitants. Gimlette’s vivid descriptions of the environment are central in making the book an engaging read. He writes about thick rainforests, gushing rivers, and remote areas, which helps the reader imagine the setting. His journey feels exciting with a hint of danger.

Books of the Week

Today's recommendations are all non-fiction books, and they've been suggested by 5EN.A.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
Recommended by Siddarth Raj Krishnamurthy

This is an autobiography, written in the form of diary entries, about Adam Kay's time as a junior doctor. It is insightful about his work, and how important the NHS is as well as why it is under so much strain. The structure of the diary entries makes the book seem more immediate and personal, making it easier to understand the author's experiences. Although it is humorous at the start, there is a more serious tone in the middle and at the end of the book as he explains how his job had a significant impact on his life. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in medicine or hoping to become a doctor.

Book of the Week

Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac

Recommended by Olly Zage

'People who don’t know this forsaken region don’t know what silence is. It surrounds the house like a solid thing born out of the thick mass of forest where nothing lives, only the occasional hooting owl–at night, we think we can hear the sobs we stifle.'

Neither heroine nor anti-heroine are appropriate words to describe the position assumed by the titular character  in François Mauriac’s 1927 novel. As much as anything, this ambiguity reflects Thérèse’s own sense of moral and spiritual untethering, and the brilliance of description and characterisation by which Mauriac is able to convey and instil a similar malaise in the reader.

Books of the Week

Today's post offers some non-fiction reading suggestions from 4D.

Night by Elie Wiesel
Recommended by Neel Achar

I chose this because I wanted to gain some historical knowledge on the Holocaust. I was also interested in the father-son bond involved in this book. The book is an autobiography which explores the teenage years of the author in his journey to survive the concentration camps. The soul-crushing, depressing tone gives the book a distinctive flavour, although the constant melancholy was sometimes overwhelming, making the book unbearable to read. The author's style is extremely realistic, describing the situation from their point of view as it goes from hopeful to a dire, desperate scenario of survival. I recommend it because it educates us all on the horrors of the Holocaust, providing us with useful historical knowledge. Secondly, it explores the belief in 'God' and how an omni-benevolent being would allow such suffering to his people.

Amadeus

Director's Notes on Amadeus by Peter Shaffer

Mr Anthony

During her eleven-year tenure as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher attended only one production at Britain’s National Theatre: a performance of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. 

Poster for the original RNT production of Amadeus in 1979, designed by Richard Bird and Michael Mayhew

She described it as a 'filthy play' and upbraided director Peter Hall for depicting Mozart as a scatological imp with a love of four-letter words. When Hall pointed out that Mozart’s correspondence was laced with lavatorial flourishes (a missive to his cousin, Marianne, is touchingly signed off: 'by the love of my skin, I shit on your nose, so it runs down your chin'), Thatcher held her ground: 'It is not possible,' she insisted, 'not from someone who could create works of such beauty. It cannot be so.'

Simon Callow as Mozart in the original RNT production

World Book Day

It's World Book Day! And LGBTQ+ History Month!! And International Women's Day (on Sunday)!!! To quote Lorelei Lee in Gentleman Prefer Blondes, 'things keep on happening all the time'. We can't keep up.  

We've got a couple of recommendations for LGBTQ+ History month in a moment, but first, a reminder to check out the Kayton Library's celebration of reading for World Book Day (and International Year of Reading).  You can't have missed the magnificent Bookflix posters all around the school, blazoned with reading suggestions from teachers, prefects, Polecon, the Boat Club. If you want something a bit more targeted, try the librarians' 'Round the World in 80 Days' challenge. With just under 80 days left in the school year, can you read a book from every continent? You can pick up a booklet with suggestions for each location from the library: stickers and Haribo for every continent you tick off.  

And if you fancy something more substantial (and possibly even healthier) than inter-continental Haribos, you can win Nando's vouchers in the library's annual 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' quiz. Outside the library, there's a table laid for several mystery, literary guests: can you work out who they are? If you want some tips, have a look at last year's quiz (and the answers) here: have fun!  

Meanwhile, some suggestions for LGBTQ+ History Month.  

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse

Recommended by Mr Gardner

This prize-winning collection of poetry, published in 2021, presents an extraordinary and at times quite explicit poetic exploration of the bodily. Whilst the collection is most striking for its focus on visceral suffering, anguish and persecution, there is also joy—or at least the tantalising promise of it—in the poetry’s projection of a transfigured ideal of beauty and desire.

If you would like to read a sample of greathouse’s poetry, a poem from her most recent publication Deed is linked here.

Books of the Week

Today's books of the week are recommended by 4EN.D.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Recommended by Aryan Chaudhary

This is a humorous novel, and very satirical: the author writes it using shifting timelines, which can be quite difficult to follow at first. I liked the absurd aspects but did not like the non-linear structure as much. 

My favourite character was Orr, who chose to be 'insane' in order to overcome the system, and by being mad, escaped the war: he crashed many planes, but survived every time.  I would recommend this novel to people who enjoy satire, comedy and books about war, but it can be confusing at times.

Books of the Week

Today's books of the week are recommended by 5EN.A.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Recommended by Nico Mahoney Velez

I chose this book because it is a classic story about fairness, kindness, and growing up in injustice. It was recommended to me, and I wanted to read about how a small town deals with racism and justice during the 1930s. 

Book of the Week

The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

Recommended by Cillian Bramham

The first thing about The Wheel Of Time that strikes many readers is the length of the series as a whole. Even if you do not count the prequel, New Spring or the cut chapters of River of Souls and A Fire Within the Ways, the 14 main novels come to around 15,000 pages in total. 

This means that the books can and will take up a significant portion of your time. It also leads to pacing issues throughout the novels. Whilst none of the books can be explicitly called boring, there is a section, dubbed affectionately by the community as 'the slog', between books 7-10 where nothing really happens as most of the time and events are being devoted to preparing for the novel's conclusion and wrapping up story lines. Fundamentally this series represents a commitment and whilst the payoff for this commitment is high, it nonetheless requires a great deal of time and effort to get to.

Play of the Week

The RNT's recent production of Hamlet will be streaming in cinemas across the country from tomorrow onwards. For anyone planning to watch it, here are some thoughts from Theo Katzenellenbogen, who played Claudius in the recent SPS production of Shakespeare's tragedy.  

Book of the Week

Fortunata and Jacinta by Benito Perez Galdos
Recommended by Mr Hager

Set in late 19th Century Madrid, this 1887 novel follows the lives of two extraordinary women of different classes, both linked by their love for the same man, the spoiled and self-indulgent Juanito Santa Cruz.

Jacinta is Juanito’s husband (and cousin) and their seemingly idealistic marriage is soon complicated by Jacinta’s discovery that Juanito had a pre-marital dalliance with the impossibly beautiful Fortunata, before growing bored of her, leaving her pregnant and destitute.  The shadow of Fortunata looms over Jacinta as she becomes increasingly desperate for a child herself, prompting her to take drastic action that will see her becoming involved with the poorer echelons of Madrilenian society, thrusting her into Jacinta’s orbit.

The life of mercantile Madrid is wryly catalogued in this realist novel which is regarded as Galdos’ masterpiece, and which rivals War and Peace in length.  He is spoken of in the same breath as Dickens (whose Pickwick Papers he translated in 1868), Balzac and Tolstoy.  If you enjoy novels that range across the social spectrum and which consider the lives of an enormous and memorable cast of characters, then this is the book for you.

Book of the Week

Welcome back, and Happy New Year! We hope you've all enjoyed a relaxing Christmas break, with plenty of reading. New Year is often a time for resolutions, and today's book of the week is sometimes viewed as a classic of the self-help genre.  But does its reputation do it justice? Read on and find out.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Recommended by Mr Preece-Smith

This book has been around for generations — it was already well-established when I was at school — but for years I avoided it. The title suggested something slightly sinister, as if it were a handbook in social manipulation. Who would want to be spotted reading what looked like 'The Beginner’s Guide to Gaslighting'?