But still. Perhaps there is something in this.
In the balmy days of early summer, I went on a south-coast seaside safari. In a junk shop in Hastings, I found this:
It is the BBC Children's Annual 1959. It's a hell of a read. Look!
Informative!
Yet exciting!
Not to mention challenging! You would not expect a university-educated 36-year-old with an enquiring mind (that's me by the way. I know. I look younger) to struggle with a Picture Quiz in a children's book. But the one below is genuinely, to me, quite tricky. I could not answer any more than two of the questions below with unflinching confidence. Can you? [Click to make it big.] I can't help feeling – and call me one of the baying mob if you must – that picture quizzes in today's children's annuals are significantly easier than this.
(I like the way it non-specifies 'From a Programme for Deaf Children'. Can no one at the publishing house remember the title of the programme for deaf children? ['Oh, never mind. Someone will remember the proper name before we go to press. Just stick that in for now...'] Or is the programme actually called 'a Programme for Deaf Children', in which case a) there are some capital letters knocking about somewhere in search of employment, and b) those children deserve better.)
