Susan Hill
The Indelible Terror of the Cruelty of Children
Sixty years ago I was subjected to systematic verbal and physical abuse by a boy called Michael. I have never forgotten the fear I felt
Must Try Harder
The excitement of learning has been lost in our schools. It’s time to end the intellectual poverty of the national curriculum
Silence, Please
For our children’s sake, we should follow the Trappist monks and turn off everything, including ourselves, once in a while
A Novel Way to Treat a Writer
I have been inundated with emails from GCSE and A-level students who want me to spoonfeed answers on their set texts
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past