FFS don't believe everything you read in the Daily Mail!
Here's the document that you are supposedly;y commenting on:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254498/GCSE_English_literature.pdf
No mention at all of only 'English' authors.
Frankly Mockingbird,Crucible,Mice and Men + the ubiquitous Lord of the Flies have been clogging up the curriculum for decades and whilst it's great that English teachers have not had to change their lesson plans and still have the 'vijos' for those too lazy to even read the book it's about time the set books were changed.
As for the 'Classics' it's literature we are talking about.
Just as I would expect the study of German literature to cover Goethe/Hesse/Grass/Mann etc or French literature to cover Dumas/Zola/Flaubert etc I do not think anyone can claim to have a knowledge of English Literature (as opposed to english writing) who has not read/studied Shakespeare/Dickens etc.
