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Friday 21 May 2010

Introducing Mister Pip and Martyn Pig

Having worked with English Language and Literature for many years and taught in HE, FE and briefly at key stage 3 as well, I have found it hugely rewarding to be working as the in-house Development Editor (DE) managing the final part of the journey from authoring to publication of NT’s new online GCSE Literature resources – all six of them! It has been busy, hectic at times, but as part of the process I reread Romeo and Juliet, An Inspector Calls, and Of Mice and Men, which I taught at GCSE level, Lord of the Flies, which I studied in the Danish translation when I was doing the equivalent of my GCSEs in Denmark, and An Inspector Calls, which was on my reading list at university (some years ago now). These are all really exciting texts to be reading, studying and teaching, and there have been days this year when work didn’t exactly feel like work because I was engaging with texts like these, primarily looking at them from the point of view of a DE, of course, but with the Teacher and Student peering over my shoulders (one at each) and commenting as I went along.

In the process, I also read Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks and Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Both are new additions to the reading list for AQA GCSE English Literature and both are compelling reading in their own right. Being very familiar with the other four texts, I have to admit that I did not have particularly high expectations of the ‘MPs’ (as we ended up referring to them in-house to avoid the curious new combinations of ‘Mister Pig’ and ‘Martyn Pip’), but my hesitation didn’t last long and I have been singing their praises at any given (and not so given) opportunity for the last couple of months, which may be why Emma has asked me to enthuse about the merits of these two titles as very worthy additions to students’ reading lists in their GCSE years.
Preamble over, Mister Pip and Martyn Pig are, in my humble opinion, great stories, controversial and challenging in many ways, but there is nothing in them that is beyond GCSE students at all. In fact, both deal with extremely topical issues and one of the advantages in comparison to Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men is that the MPs are both contemporary novels.

Martyn Pig relates the events of one week in the life of the first person narrator, Martyn Pig, a disaffected youth who lives with his drunken and abusive father on an estate somewhere in England. Into the mix Kevin Brooks brings an accident which may or may not be murder but which needs to be covered up, the significant sum of £30,000, a love interest in the form of Martyn’s friend and aspiring actress Alex, her boyfriend Dean (the archetypal antagonist and rival), an unsuspecting aunt Jean, and Detective Inspector Samuel Breece. The story is like a murder mystery in reverse. Contrary to traditional detective stories, Martyn Pig is not about solving the murder but about hiding the truth. At first glance the genre and subject matter of the novel might suggest that there would not be enough in there to challenge higher tier students, but I would have to disagree with this view and think the novel would work equally well with higher and foundation tier students. The first person narrative forces students to make a clear distinction between the narrator and the author. Complex literary concepts such as the reliable narrator and the suspension of disbelief are central to the story and would lend themselves more to higher tier students. There is plenty to delve into in terms of plot, structure, use of language and literary techniques. In addition there is ample scope for exploring the history and development of the genre, which in itself is not uninteresting, and the adaptation to film and television series. The novel is ripe with social and moral questions and dilemmas which could be explored in group or class discussions. Equally, foundation level students would not be lost with this novel. Brooks uses Martyn’s narrative voice and use of language to make this a very accessible read in many ways, but he manages to do this without losing sight of the more sophisticated aspects of language, genre, and plot which higher tier students can explore in more detail.

Like Martyn Pig, Mister Pip has a first person narrator but here the similarities end. Mister Pip is a completely different novel in terms of style and genre. The novel is set in Bougainville, a tropical island in the South Pacific, during the civil war which saw the islanders cut off from the main land Papua New Guinea and Australia. Matilda is a young girl who lives on the island with her mother. They were about to join her father in Australia when the embargo was put in place and instead of a happy family reunion, Matilda experiences the horrors of civil war. Her only source of knowledge and inspiration is the self-appointed teacher, Mr Watts, who is the only white person on the island. Mr Watts is not a real teacher and his method of teaching is unusual to say the least. He reads Dickens’ Great Expectations to his students and invites the adults in the community into the classroom to teach the children about the local history, folklore and myths of the island. It is a beautifully written novel, ‘poetic, heartbreaking, surprising’, as Isabel Allende has commented. The result is a novel that will work well with both foundation and higher level students. As with Martyn Pig, Matilda’s first person narrative voice and use of language makes the novel an accessible read, but this does not detract from the complexity of the creative and literary skill involved in creating this piece of work which will appeal more to higher tier students.

From a teaching point of view, I like the idea of working with novels that combine accessibility with a good degree of complexity. These novels would enable me to teach across the whole ability range which I have always thought was an exciting prospect, allowing for a greater degree of peer learning through listening to and communicating ideas at all levels, which I think is a great way to teach language and literature.

But don’t just take my word for it. Read the novels, explore the online resources on kerboodle!, and see for yourself.

~ Maggie

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