It saddened me that Nell Frizzell and those who commented on her article did not appear to read any books by writers of colour at school (Want to feel like a teenager again? Just dig out the books you were forced to read at school, 28 August). The 2019 Lit in Colour report by Penguin Books and the Runnymede Trust found that 0.7% of students study a book by a writer of colour at GCSE and 0.1% study a book by a woman of colour. At most, 7% of students in England study a book by a woman at GCSE.
Some exam boards have started to take steps to improve this by including at least one writer of colour on set text lists at GCSE and A-level, but take-up by schools is slow and there is little appetite or incentive for change.
