Creative writing WordSmiths, a friendly and dynamic lunchtime creative writing society for pupils in the Lower School, meets once a week for workshops on poetry and fiction. the society on the overlapping intellectual hinterland of EM Forster and Ian McEwan.’ Harry, Year 13 ‘Membership of LitSoc has given me opportunities to develop my appreciation of drama and prose well beyond the coordinates of the A level course. Michael Pennington’s lecture on Shakespeare’s soliloquies reminded me of the musicality of the playwright’s works in a way which would be impossible in an ordinary classroom setting. Equally, I have been encouraged to develop my own tastes and ideas, and have had the privilege of addressing Recent LitSoc meetings have seen discussions on writers and topics such as George Orwell and Donald Trump, Charles Bukowski, Ian McEwan, the psychopath in literature, and the literary value of fantasy. In addition, English students and LitSoc members see a wide range of theatre: in the past year, shows have included the RSC production of Twelfth Night , Death of a Salesman at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and Measure for Measure at the Donmar Warehouse. and to pursue their own literary enthusiasms. Seminars, workshops and talks are given by pupils and staff as well as invited speakers – most recently the actor Michael Pennington on Hamlet and King Lear and academic Brian Murray on Dracula in London; a group of A level students also met OA and Booker prizewinner Michael Ondaatje when he came to the College to launch his latest novel Warlight .
English has a long and rich heritage at Dulwich. The College has produced not just well-known novelists such as PG Wodehouse, Raymond Chandler, Graham Swift
and Michael Ondaatje, but can also count poets, journalists, dramatists and screenwriters among its former pupils. Today, both within the classroom and beyond it, the kinds of literary talent identified by Wodehouse’s teachers over a century ago continue to be nurtured as we seek to inspire and develop the writers and readers of the future. “Continually he does badly in examinations from lack of the proper books; he is often forgetful; he finds difficulties in the most simple things and asks absurd questions… Notwithstanding, he has genuine interest in literature and can often talk with much enthusiasm and good sense about it.” School report for PG Wodehouse, July 1899
LitSoc LitSoc provides a space for students to deepen their understanding and indulge their passion for English
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