THE new head of English at Wellington School, Kate Hodson, has been busy reviewing books for the BBC.

She said she was shocked in October last year when she was contacted to see if she would like to review Landfalls by Naomi J Williams. Kate said it turned out to be an engaging novel and wrote a review which Simon Mayo read out on air.

“Since then I have reviewed One Child, a book about the effect of China’s one child policy, for the Claudia Winkleman Arts Show, and The Secret Poisoner, a history of poisoning, for the Jonathan Ross Arts Show,” she added.

She was then offered the chance to review Chris Cleave’s Everyone Brave is Forgiven for Simon Mayo. “I had read Cleave’s other books and knew I was going to be in for at worst a good plot, at best something special,” she said. “The book turned out to be brilliant – so funny and yet so poignant. It painted a picture of London in the Second World War I had never considered before.

“I recorded the review on Monday morning, which was an extremely anxious experience, but Chris Cleave responded very positively to my review on the show. The review was aired on Simon Mayo’s Drive Time Book Club.

“After the show, I spoke with him on Twitter and he expressed how grateful he was and how he had blushed in the studio when hearing my thoughts. He also said how overwhelming it was to have such positive thoughts heard by six million people. The thought of having an audience that size is rather daunting – I hadn’t quite computed that!”

Kate also discussed whether he visited schools and he said he would be honoured to visit Wellington School. “I hope this is something we can arrange in the future,” Kate added. “He is a significantly accomplished writer and I know our pupils will learn much from him.”

Kate is looking forward to taking up her role in September.