An English teacher marking the exam that Black Sheep appeared in came by and left the official questions:

Dear Mr Peek,
I’m an English teacher correcting the exams on your book at the moment.

The exact questions were:

1. Outline the protagonist’s situation, his crime and the consequences as presented in the extract from the novel.

2. Analyse the way the totalitarian state is portrayed in this excerpt from the novel Black Sheep. Consider narrative perpsective, atmosphere, interaction and language.

3.1 In this future state “Multiculturalism [is seen as] a most heinous crime” (l. 13). Against the background of this view discuss the problems and chances of multiculturalism. Refer to your knowledge of multicultural societies today and to the film “East is East”.

or

3.2 A publishing house is planning an anthology of dystopian literature. Write a letter to the person in charge in which you recommend this extract as an excellent example of a dystopian text. Support your views with your knowledge of dystopian literature and current events.

Text: Ben Peek, Black Sheep, London: Prime Books, 2007, p. 9-11

All the best
C

I told a couple of people about this on the weekend, and the first thing I was asked by everyone was, ‘Did you get paid for that?’

In other news, it seems that I’m going to be the guest of honour at a dinner in a couple of weeks. It’s happening out at UNSW, which is where I picked up my PhD, and I’m fairly sure I’m a last minute replacement, but I’ve never actually been a guest of honour before, and it ought to be good for a laugh. Apparently I have to give a speech, and I was thinking that maybe I’d just talk for a while about the fact that I paid seventeen fifty for a film last week and that I’m thinking of starting a campaign wherein I write to movie stars and demand my cash back. Or, maybe I’ll come up with something different. Either way I have a bit of time to come up with something to say to a room full of people who won’t know who I am. Perhaps I’ll pretend to be an astronaut.

Or perhaps I’ll write an apology to German students who got stuck with questions about Black Sheep.