You are Aunt Mary in Secrets. You have just discovered that your nephew has read your letters. Write your thoughts.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. Aunt Mary is an intriguing character.
2. In the first part of the story she is almost the ideal maiden aunt; she is detached but kindly, encourages her nephew's stamp collecting, answers his questions and generally has time for him.
3. We learn about the tragedy of her lost love through the letters he finds and from his point of view, so some imaginative engagement is required to empathise with her and the anger she unleashes on him when she discovers that he has read them.
4. It may well be that the violence of her response to this invasion of her privacy is perhaps a release of all her pent-up feelings at the loss of John – not to the war but to the church.
5. We should expect her to be reminiscing about John and their love and also on her feelings at the time as well as on her feelings towards the boy.
6. She dies without being reconciled to him, but perhaps there will be regret in that.