I have found myself returning to the classics this year encouraged by former colleague and friend from St Paul’s Girls’ School, Dr Sarah Wah. She is a nineteenth-century specialist and I am constantly texting her and ringing her mid-novel, shouting about a character or having a weep about an ending. Some of the books on Sarah’s reading list have included re-reads (The Mill on the Floss, Bleak House, Villette) and some have been entirely new experiences. It astounds me that de