This course makes reference to the following texts, which you could borrow from your local library and/or purchase from your local independent bookshop or online from www.bookshop.org

• William Boyd Long Story Short, Bloomsbury, 2008
• Sonali Deraniyagala, Wave, 2003
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow wallpaper, 1892
• Mark Haddon The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time, Jonathan Cape, 2003
• Thomas Hardy Far From the Madding Crowd, 1874
• Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let Me Go, Faber, 2005
• David Lodge The Art Of Fiction, Penguin, 1992
• Jarred McGinnis The Coward, Canongate, 2021
• Toni Morrison Jazz, Chatto & Windus, 1992
• Vladimir Nabokov Lolita, 1959
• Sheena Patel I’m a Fan, Rough Trade Books, 2022
• Edgar Allen Poe The Tell-Tale Heart, 1843
• Nikesh Shukla Your Story Matters, Bluebird Books, 2022
• James Wood How Fiction Works, Vintage, 2009

Click the green 'complete and continue' button at the top or bottom of this page to move to the next chapter. By clicking this button, the site will automatically save your progress through the course.

Technical Queries

If at any point you encounter a technical difficulty on this course, please email [email protected]

To help us with our troubleshooting, we request that you always include the following details:

• Which device (PC/Mac/tablet/phone) you're using
• Which browser (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer etc) you're accessing the site from
• Any screenshots you can send really help to help us identify at what point you're encountering the problem, too.

To send a screenshot, hit the print screen button (on PC) and then paste this into the body of the email, click command-shift-3 (on a mac) and then attach the image to the email. Consult documentation for other devices.

We will respond to your query as soon as possible. Please note our usual office hours are 9am-5pm (GMT) Monday-Friday.