I’ve just finished my prime and additional marking: 711 scripts, more than ever at this stage. With sampling, that’s around 800, so 1600 essays. And as I have said many times before, it has been a joy, and a pleasure. Give or take an essay all about a writer’s use of the hyphen. But for those I blame the teachers….

There will be more to mark this year, but this is that key moment when your main marking is completed before Review. And this is the last time ever on this Spec., and quite likely the last time for me after 30 years of being a GCSE English Literature examiner.

The yellowed newspaper is my writing/marking pad: my tradition is to use one that lasts the duration. Not a superstition, just a familiar routine. So virtually every day since the end of May to today, and usually at 7.40am, I was outside marking, a morning cup of coffee, sun rising in the east and onto the patio where I am seated, my traditional paper weights used if there was an early morning breeze making waves of the scripts.