Storytelling is a fundamental human activity. Every day we exchange jokes and anecdotes, and the important events in our lives need to be told and retold many times over before they achieve the pattern and polish to become the ‘story of our lives’. We tell and read stories for pleasure and information, but we also read to gain a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us. The BA in English spans everything from Shakespeare to Zadie Smith, Emily Bronte to Eminem. Traditional modules run alongside more innovative options covering areas such as fairytales, postmodernism, popular literature, south Asian writing, women’s writing, experimental literatures and digital technologies. Our courses are designed to develop your ability to read texts in increasingly complex and diverse ways. We explore literature by looking at its structures and forms as well as the varying contexts in which it is produced and read. We examine the relations between writer, text and reader and interrogate the ways in which contexts shape and affect interpretation of varieties of texts. You will have the opportunity to specialise by selecting from a wide range of options according to your own particular tastes and interests, be they in contemporary poetry, drama, fiction, literatures of the past or literatures from cultures remote from our own.

These statistics relate to graduates who studied English as well as those who combined English with Creative Writing, Film and Television Studies and Music. Careers in publishing, journalism, marketing, advertising, events management and public relations are traditionally linked to a degree in English and the strong communication and analytical skills developed through this degree discipline are relevant and marketable in most career areas. With around 60% of graduate positions open to graduates from all disciplines, English graduates enter a broad range of careers.