Post 458. LIFE WAS MY UNIVERSITY'.

I ENVY THOSE YOUNG PEOPLE SCHOOLED

BY EITHER OF THESE GIFTED ACADEMICS.
Mary Beard interviewing Philip Pullman on Front Row Late (pictured) was one of those amiable treats that makes BBC Four a must, even for a practising plebeian like me.
I envy those who had the good fortune to avoid the often bullying, strictly regimented, corporal punishment driven, elementary education afforded in the days of my youth: I do remember with gratitude those teachers whose dedication outweighed their resentment at being called from retirement to replace younger men conscripted for war service, but I also remember the sarcasm, negativity, casual violence, of the many who inwardly railed against the hopelessness of their lot. 

So yes, I do envy those young people schooled by Mary Beard, by Philip Pullman, or, at Oxford and here, by our daughter, Jacqueline.
Teachers should be better paid even if, as a consequence, they do not become authors.
A university education should still be free to those born in Britain.

Politicians should stop interfering and trying to run everything like a two-bit business.  

BBC Four must not be commercialized and littered with adverts. Last night I saw Mark Lawson talking to Stephen King, who would rather be thought of as a novelist than as a writer of horror stories. The author's candid musings, including the revelation that his mother considered, when it came to taste, all his taste was in his mouth, were dry and compelling. Liked him.

I am keeping this short. Now I am away to read Philip Pullman's DAEMON VOICES on Stories and Storytelling. It will be good. He mentioned it on Front Row Late.
Well you don't appear on a television chat show if you've nothing to sell, do you? 

And he sold it to me without a single advert in view..
Where BBC Four is concerned, let's keep it that way.
CHEERS, FRIENDS

HAPPY NEW YEAR