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It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers Even when their own child is the ine, they still think that he or she is wonderful

Soo further They becoe to convince theenius

Well, there is nothing very wrong with all this It's the way of the world It is only when the parents begin telling us about the brilliance of their own revolting offspring, that we start shouting, 'Bring us a basin! We're going to be sick!'

School teachers suffer a good deal fro to listen to this sort of twaddle froet their own back when the time comes to write the end-of-term reports If I were a teacher I would cook up so parents 'Your son Maximilian,' I would write, 'is a total wash-out I hope you have a family business you can push hiet a job anywh

ere else' Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I rasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdo by what she's learnt this terans at all'

I ht even delve deeper into natural history and say, 'The periodical cicada spends six years as a grub underground, and no ht and air Your son Wilfred has spent six years as a grub in this school and we are still waiting for hie froht sting lacial beauty as an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface,' I think Iend-of-terh of that We have to get on

Occasionally one comes across parents who take the opposite line, who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones Mr and Mrs Wormere two such parents They had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, and the parents looked upon Matilda in particular as nothingyou have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away Mr and Mrs Wormwood looked forward enorhter off and flick her away, preferably into the next county or even further than that

It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extra- ordinary, and by that I s, but above all she was brilliant Her mind was so nimble and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of parents But Mr and Mrs Worormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter To tell the truth, I doubt they would have noticed had she crawled into the house with a broken leg

Matilda's brother Michael was a perfectly nor to e of one and a half her speech was perfect and she knew as rown-ups The parents, instead of applauding her, called her a noisy chatterbox and told her sharply that sirls should be seen and not heard

By the tiht herself to read by studying newspapers and e of four, she could read fast and well and she naturally began hankering after books The only book in the whole of this enlightened household was so to her mother, and when she had read this from cover to cover and had learnt all the recipes by heart, she decided she wanted so

'Daddy,' she said, 'do you think you could buy me a book?'

'A book?' he said 'What d'you want a fla book for?'

'To read, Daddy'

'What's wrong with the telly, for heaven's sake? We've got a lovely telly with a twelve-inch screen and now you coirl!'

Nearly every weekday afternoon Matilda was left alone in the house Her brother (five years older than her) went to school Her father went to work and her ht o and played it five afternoons a week On the afternoon of the day when her father had refused to buy her a book, Matilda set out all by herself to walk to the public library in the village When she arrived, she introduced herself to the librarian, Mrs Phelps She asked if she htly taken aback at the arrival of such a tiny girl unaccompanied by a parent, nevertheless told her she was very welcome

'Where are the children's books please?' Matilda asked

'They're over there on those lower shelves,' Mrs Phelps told her 'Would you like me to help you find a nice one with lots of pictures in it?'

'No, thank you,' Matilda said 'I'e'

From then on, every afternoon, as soon as her o, Matilda would toddle down to the library The walk took only tenquietly by herself in a cosy corner devouring one book after another When she had read every single children's book in the place, she started wandering round in search of so else

Mrs Phelps, who had been watching her with fascination for the past feeeks, now got up from her desk and went over to her 'Can I help you, Matilda?' she asked

'I' what to read next,' Matilda said 'I've finished all the children's books'

'You mean you've looked at the pictures?'

'Yes, but I've read the books as well'

Mrs Phelps looked down at Matilda froht back up at her