Same age (ish) here. I would have killed for the chance to read Larkin, or any 20th century poet, as part of the English syllabus. Instead I got to spend many, many hours grappling with Chaucer: A povre wydwe, somdeel stape in age, / Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage, / Biside a grove, stondynge in a dale ...
... I failed my English Literature O Level.