Sue Bailey

Once upon a time when I was doing my A’levels, it was the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, and Granada Television (I think it was) made a sumptuous version of A Tale Of Two Cities to celebrate. As I was doing both English and History (though neither Robespierre nor Dickens came into it), I was one of the students dragged along to the launch event, about which I remember nothing except that we were given the Penguin tie-in edition of the book, and Kenneth Baker came to give a speech.

Someone had the bright idea of giving a room full of Manchester teachers and students a Q&A session with the Education Secretary, and the first question up was (see, I still remember it 21 years later): “Mr Baker, does the fact that you’ve given us all a copy of A Tale of Two Cities mean that the government has reversed its policy and is actually going to supply schools with books?”

After the applause had died down and we had all resumed our seats, Mr Baker’s response was that the books had nothing to do with the government and were the generous gift of Granada TV and Penguin. Oh, how we larfed. I still have my copy of aToTC.

So I was a bit sad today to read that Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing to save millions of dollars from the Californian education budget by scrapping paper textbooks in favour of digital ones. It’s inevitable, I suppose, but I can’t help feeling a little loss for the physical object of the textbook. That wonderful moment when you find that your French grammar book was used last year by the very boy in the year ahead that you’ve had a crush on for two terms! Or better still, that your physics book was used by the science nerd and his notes are still in the back!

Facebook just doesn’t, somehow, seem the same.

---

BTW, if any restaurateurs are reading, I think Tempura Mutantur would be a superb name for a Japanese/Ancient Roman fusion establishment.