Eight GCSE English students attended a lecture Feminist Literary Theory after school on Thursday. ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous’: an exploration of threatening women in literature and film’ was delivered by Mrs McNally, as part of Urmston Grammar School’s community lecture series, designed to provide a super-curricular opportunity for students, so they could experience university level teaching with an expert in their field. The lecture itself was fascinating, covering characters from Shakespeare through to modern television’s Catherine Cawood in BBC’s ‘Happy Valley’; students were impressed by the depth and scope of the lecture, and just how intellectually stimulating literary criticism can be, of which we only get a taste at GCSE. A great advertisement for what a captivating thing literary study can be. All our students left with a lot to think about, especially the problematic presentation of powerful women on screen and on the page.