SCRIBBLE
Questions with
Mrs Lingen
Welcome to another exclusive interview conducted by Scribble to find out yet again about another member of staff’s love of literature. Sadly, this is my final Scribble interview, and this time I had the opportunity to interview Mrs Lingen, a new English teacher who joined the school in September 2019. It is great to see how well Mrs Lingen has settled as a new member of staff at Shrewsbury High School! She already has a great presence throughout the school and it is really evident that she has the potential to make a real impact within our school community. In this interview, Mrs Lingen is the third teacher who has been quizzed on what she really loves about literature as well as offering her useful advice for those taking their GCSEs or A-Levels in the near future. From the recurring motif of the literary legend Margret Attwood to her favourite genre of thrillers, this interview is well worth a read as we explore what makes Mrs Lingen enjoy literature!
Q1
What is your favourite book and why?
Q2
Did you enjoy studying English literature at school
My favourite book, if I had to name just one, would of course be Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’, one of Woolf’s most famous novels. Published in 1925, it details the life of a fictional Clarissa Dalloway, a woman living in high-society post WW1 England. I think the female author in particular being Virginia Woolf as well as it being a classic from the modernist period are definitely reasons why I have to say this is my favourite book. However, it was also one of the first stream of consciousness books I read, it was ground-breaking in its time, and the morals are still so present in the society we live in today.
Yes, absolutely! I really enjoyed it! The world renowned complete works of William Shakespeare made English naturally so interesting to study. It just really made sense to me and the captivating nature of the wonderful array of material he wrote greatly promotes English literature in schools. It is fantastic that it can resonate on so many different levels and has the potential to appeal to a wide range of audiences. The varying themes he wrote throughout his life really exemplify why he is still studied today by pupils across the country in their education. Shakespeare really amplified English as a subject for me. It just clicked!
Q3
What is your favourite genre? Thriller is definitely my favourite genre at the moment; the excitement a reader can consume from a thriller novel really is enthralling! They are always hard to put down! I have been reading lots of novels from this genre recently and even though they are all encompassed under one genre they are all distinctively different. Thrillers being known for ‘the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety’. Their array of emotions and their captivating nature highlights the potential thrillers have to offer any reader! 20
