I come from a family which valued academic knowledge and education. My mother and aunt were primary school teachers; my parents paid for me to go to a private school from the ages of eleven to eighteen. I was academically intelligent and won a place to Keble College,...

I love reading the 'Hairy Maclary' series of books to my grandchildren. The illustrations of dogs and cats in these books are beautifully detailed, but it is the language which captivates. Written in rhyme, the stories use repetition, alliteration and metre to carry...

Apprenticeship - a period of time when a person learns an art, trade or job under the supervision of a skilled worker in that field - seems to me to be one of the best ways to learn. It also seems to be the Biblical way of training leaders. Joshua was Moses's...