Being Emily Read Online Free Page B

course the sixth year werenae likely to gie teachers up cheek but some of them could be stroppy in their ain way. And I’d seen her in action in the corridors, gliding through a tumultuous sea of second year, effortlessly calming them with a word.
    Naebody said anything. Terrified if we looked up we’d be asked to start, everybody stared at their folder. Ms Harris had gied them out last week at the first meeting of the class; unlike the usual thin school cardboard ones, they were dead fancy, with spaces for lined paper, a pouch for books, plastic pockets for putting pictures and stuff in.
    I want you to see this as a very organic process, sixth year, different from the way you’ve worked before. Don’t feel you have to limit your research to critical books or biographies. Maybe a found object, a photograph or poem is what you need to carry around, focus on .
    I’d felt excited when she talked like that, imagined mysel piecing thegether a portrait of Emily with all kinds of things I associated with her – heather fae the moors, sketches of her dog – but the day, my bum already numb fae the uncomfortable seat, Kevin next tae me scratching hissel as if he had fleas, I just felt stupid.
    Jaswinder, can you start us off?
    Jas nodded. I’m gonnae write about Shelley. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792–1822, was everything. One of the greatest poets who ever lived – in my opinion, the greatest – he was a philosopher, a traveller, friend of Byron and other important poets, had several lovers and many children as well as being married to the woman who wrote Frankenstein – and he was a political and a radical thinker .
    That sounds really interesting, Jaswinder. But your dissertation must be no longer than 3000 words so you’ll need to focus on one or two aspects of Shelley .
    That’s the problem – to do that is to limit him, and he never limited himself, he thought these barriers were artificial. ‘Hail to thee blythe spirit, bird thou never wert .’
    Thanks, Jaswinder. Let’s move on. Kevin?
    I’m gonna write about three lyrics of the Manic Street Preachers .
    Ms Harris touched the bridge of her specs with one perfectly manicured finger. I can safely say that this will present a different set of challenges from writing about Shelley. Only three lyrics?
    Well you said we had tae focus .
    True. Do you think the Manic Street Preachers will provide sufficient weight, though? I want to encourage you not to limit yourself to the conventional literary canon, but you must ensure that your choice of text falls within the parameters of the Exam Board .
    Eh?
    Alice dunted Kevin in the elbow. She means the Manics are crap writers .
    That’s …
    Which they are .
    Ms Harris said coolly, I don’t actually know enough about them to express an opinion. Perhaps you’d better leave the lyrics with me, Kevin, and I’ll get back to you .
    We plodded on round the group. Alice wanted to compare the portrayal of women in the novels of Toni Morrison and Janice Galloway, while Sana was obsessed with Chuck Palah niuk. Danny, Lee and Katie all planned to dae Lord of the Rings . I could sense a slight tightening of Ms Harris’s lip but her only comment wasthat choosing popular texts meant you had to work harder to find an original take on them. Two other folk wanted to dae George Orwell and Steinbeck. Then it was my turn.
    Emily Brontë .
    Ms Harris looked slightly more animated. Why Emily Brontë, Fiona?
    I’ve just always loved everything she wrote, the poems and ‘Wuthering Heights’ .
    Have you a specific aspect of her work in mind?
    I thought either a sense of place or mibbe her family .
    Sounds promising. Can you tell some of the others, who may not be so au fait with the Brontës, what that means?
    Well, Emily lived in this remote Yorkshire village – she was the parson’s daughter and her mother died when she was really young. She had a brother and sisters and they all wrote and made up stories and plays thegether. The sisters