What Should Teenagers Read?

The first in a series looking at vital books for the young

I have not yet seen Adolescence, and I’m not sure I entirely want to. For those of you who have not heard of it, it’s a drama by Jack Thorne in which a 13-year-old boy kills a girl; the idea is that he’s been prompted by the internet and incel culture.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the critical back and forth: almost as soon as Keir Starmer announced it should be shown in every school, many critics began to point out the program’s flaws - not least that little attention is shown to the victim or her family, nor that a child from an affluent and happy family is much less likely to become a killer than one from a more vulnerable section of society.

It all made me start thinking: what should all teenagers read? If I were Keir Starmer, what would I put in every classroom?

And so, welcome to Womack’s Kingdom, where this syllabus for children, from the age of 9 plus will be mandated in every school, thus leading to immense pleasure, stability and harmony. (If only).

I’ll be posting the essentials, that all children should read. Literature is nothing if not democratic: the abundance of books which we have today puts all other time periods to shame.

There is no excuse for children not to read. Libraries, second hand bookshops where books can be bought for £1, new books at £6.99-£9.99. They are cheap but they are eternal. And any child that is burying his or her nose in a book is immeasurably less likely to be buried in the internet.