It’s a great book, fantastically written. Almost made me wish I were still a teacher so I could introduce teenagers to it.

Middlemarch was an absolute revelation when I first read it. Recently, the book I think about the most is War and Peace (and I’m shy to admit it because it sounds like a flex, but it speaks to the moment in so many ways).

I was lucky that my first Shakespeare encounter was the Animated Tales from the 90s - a heavily truncated text, but a lot of the poetry remained and I just loved the sounds of it all.

Have been thinking about W&P a lot recently and wondering whether it’s too early to revisit after only three years?

Hasn’t the poor man suffered enough?