Mrs Butler's Blog 7
September 2005 Number 7
Helen Cresswell died on Monday. She was one of the best-known children’s writers of the last century. Her most famous books were stories about Lizzie Dripping but she also wrote lots of others: The Piemakers, The Bongleweed, Moondial and the fabulous Bagthorpe Saga which begins with Ordinary Jack. You’ll find these in the library. So I was really surprised when I read in her obituary in The Guardian that her reputation was confirmed by her TV adaptation of her novel The Demon Headmaster. Fantastic – except that she didn’t write The Demon Headmaster. Most of you will remember that Gillian Cross wrote it. (Year 9s went to see her at the Cheltenham Literary Festival) Yes, they are both women, they both write for children and their names both begin with Cr, anyone could make that mistake!
At some point in English lessons you will have to write an obituary. And the first thing you will do is some research into the life of your chosen person. In real life you only get one chance to write an obituary about someone - when they die - so I think you owe it to that person to get basic facts right. It seemed so sad that the journalist devoted a whole paragraph to a book Helen Cresswell didn’t write. I was so angry that I wrote to the newspaper, which is something I have never done before although I’ve often been tempted. If you, or anyone you know, appear in a local newspaper you can be sure that your name will be spelt wrong or your age will be wrong or they’ll muddle up something. (A few years ago I did a Harry Potter Marathon at school and The Citizen wrote a lot of rubbish although I’d written down the facts myself.) I don’t know why I expect national newspapers to get things right.
Helen Cresswell died on Monday. She was one of the best-known children’s writers of the last century. Her most famous books were stories about Lizzie Dripping but she also wrote lots of others: The Piemakers, The Bongleweed, Moondial and the fabulous Bagthorpe Saga which begins with Ordinary Jack. You’ll find these in the library. So I was really surprised when I read in her obituary in The Guardian that her reputation was confirmed by her TV adaptation of her novel The Demon Headmaster. Fantastic – except that she didn’t write The Demon Headmaster. Most of you will remember that Gillian Cross wrote it. (Year 9s went to see her at the Cheltenham Literary Festival) Yes, they are both women, they both write for children and their names both begin with Cr, anyone could make that mistake!
At some point in English lessons you will have to write an obituary. And the first thing you will do is some research into the life of your chosen person. In real life you only get one chance to write an obituary about someone - when they die - so I think you owe it to that person to get basic facts right. It seemed so sad that the journalist devoted a whole paragraph to a book Helen Cresswell didn’t write. I was so angry that I wrote to the newspaper, which is something I have never done before although I’ve often been tempted. If you, or anyone you know, appear in a local newspaper you can be sure that your name will be spelt wrong or your age will be wrong or they’ll muddle up something. (A few years ago I did a Harry Potter Marathon at school and The Citizen wrote a lot of rubbish although I’d written down the facts myself.) I don’t know why I expect national newspapers to get things right.
posted by Extreme Reading Group | 10:22 AM
1 Comments:
The Guardian printed an apology on Saturday AND they'd also muddled up two other children's books in their special book supplement
Post a Comment
<< Home