My grandfather, who worked down the mines, on retirement, decided to take an Open University degree in English literature. For him, the prospect of Milton’s Paradise Lost proved no barrier because he was so well versed in the knotty, sinuous language of the King James Bible, which he had studied every Sunday since he was a boy.

There is, of course, the argument that some kids will never turn on to Shakespeare – just as some will never get on with algebra or chemical equations. But I don’t think that means that the quest is fruitless. It’s quite possible that Shakespeare will inspire a child in ways that are unacademic – that they will be inspired to create a set or costumes. We should never underestimate the power of something academic to inspire in other ways.

Certainly, it is better to attempt some sort of understanding of Shakespeare than to merely jettison him (or indeed other classic writers) from the curriculum. This is a subject that rears its head on a regular basis, with some saying that it is wrong for there to be a narrow, government-approved list of books to study, and that students should be allowed to study things such as young adult fiction and other books they are more likely to “engage” with.

This, of course, is ludicrous. For a start, someone has to set the guidelines; yes, literature is, to a degree, subjective, but there is a necessity for the boundary between good and bad art to be established. And anyway, who is to say that a child will not get drawn into a story simply because it is outside their own experience. Might not a GCSE student get immersed into the living nightmare of Winston Smith, or the Thane of Cawdor, even though (one would hope), these characters’ experiences feel alien? A great writer can make you connect, no matter how strange the story.