THIS morning I woke to the sad news of the death of Babette Cole, the author and illustrator of Princess Smartypants and over 70 other children’s books.

Her anarchic characters reflected her flamboyant and exuberant life (she narrowly escaped death after being trampled by a herd of cows!). Her TV credits include The Clangers, Basil Brush and Bagpuss. Creativity, imagination, flair and fun: children’s literature at its best.

What a sad and sorry contrast to the way that English is now being taught in our schools. I sat and almost wept at a recent school governors meeting where the head tried to explain the latest English curriculum.

Primary school English has become a three letter acronym: GPS – grammar, punctuation and spelling. Gone is any sense of wonder, joy, creativity and imagination. Instead, children as young as five are taught to break down sentences into constituent parts and are tested on their knowledge of adverbial phrases, modal verbs, subordinate clauses and past and present progressive verbs.

I’m not a great wine drinker, but I know the wines that I like and the pleasure I get from drinking them (Rioja in case anyone is buying...). But the thought that any one can develop an appreciation of wine by analysing its chemical components rather than tasting it beggars belief.

Yet that is exactly what is happening with our language.

If another Babette Cole were to emerge it will be in spite of, rather than because of, the way that English is being taught in our schools. It’s all part of a pattern. English has been reduced to rubble; art and music are excluded from the core curriculum.

“If you don’t give a child food, the damage quickly becomes visible. If you don’t let a child have fresh air and play, the damage is also visible, but not so quickly,” writes author Philip Pullman.

“If you don’t give a child love, the damage might not be seen for some years, but it’s permanent. But if you don’t give a child art and stories and poems and music, the damage is not so easy to see. It’s there, though.”

He goes on to say that just as every child has a right to food and shelter, to education, to medical treatment, they also have a right to the experience of culture. “Without stories and poems and pictures and music, children will starve.”

In Salisbury we are truly blessed; our children need not starve. We have a fabulous producing theatre with a strong children’s programme; activities for children at the arts centre and cathedral, an international arts festival that takes place in half-term and despite government cuts, children can still be heard chuckling at Babette’s books in our public library.

The flame of imagination and creativity burns in Salisbury in spite of government attempts to snuff it out.