Members who had braved the wintry January conditions were rewarded by an amusing talk by fellow member, Patricia Atkinson, on the theme of Schooldays. She spoke of her own education during the 1950’s followed by a long career as a teacher with a focus on how children were taught to read and develop their vocabulary..
Illustrated by books from different periods, including Janet & John, Ladybird and Enid Blyton, she described how children’s reading books had changed and what that told us about changes in wider society. More recently, she had many examples of how publishers were now using the style of writing for reading books in earlier periods for humorous books about contemporary events and how popular this had now become.
Geoff Barnes, Vice-chair and Publishing Officer.