I once signed up for Friends reunited, and uploaded an old class picture from when I was 8 or 9. From Friends Re-united I found a picture of Mr Hopkins our English teacher from about aged 13 to 15. His comment on my first essay in his class was “5/10 : All very sad. Your story is too breathless to make much sense”.

The next one was “8/10: A lively imaginative piece of work.”

But a little later…”At present you are trying too hard for the unusual word and your writing is strained. However I expect you’ll come to terms with it.’