Letters: When Britain held out hope to a boy who failed at school

Sir: Where was Peter Popham, in the 1950s? I was aged seven when the decade began and 17 when it ended so I can tell him why I was fortunate to grow up in the Fifties. Quite apart from interests that would be meaningless to today's children - steam railway engines, Hancock's Half Hour, Dan Dare and the Mekon - we had freedom to play outside, and walk to school with our friends without fear of death or mutilation by road traffic or abductors. Today's children are sadly deprived in comparison.

Dr R A SPARKS

Cardiff