Referring to York Notes, Hugh David of
The Times Educational Supplement wrote in 1985, "it is still unfortunately possible to find one or two hack-works cobbled together apparently with no higher motive than to plug a hole in the list". He criticised the
York Notes on the Selected Poems of W. H. Auden for having "a vague, prissy and rather misleading biographical introduction" and for barely addressing Auden's final 25 years. David thought
Selected Poems of Byron was "better on content" but criticised it for discussing
Ludwig van Beethoven and
Mrs Malaprop. He praised the York Handbook
Studying Shakespeare for being "a stimulating introduction". The
Financial Times writer Alan Forrest said in 1988 that the educator considered York Notes to be "eminently suitable" for preparing for the
GCSE even though the guides were not directly targeted at GCSE candidates. ==See also==