I admit I haven’t read Of Mice and Men or To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Zelig and Moby Dick, I guessed I’d get around to it eventually. Now that I’ve found that Michael Gove doesn’t think they should be on the GCSE English literature syllabus, I know I should get around to it sooner.

(Full disclosure: I failed English Literature at O-level. We studied the Scottish play, Oliver Twist and the collected works of Robert Frost- a mix Gove would approve of. I like to think I was rebelling against the course’s insistence on telling us what to think about the books, rather than teaching us how to evaluate them for ourselves. But it’s possible that something less melodramatic and over-wrought than Oliver Twist might have held my attention better.)