In the mid-90s, Edward Bond (Obituary, 5 March) and Elisabeth Pablé came to a production of The Tin Can People at the Harwich comprehensive school in Essex, where I was the headteacher. It was produced and directed by Alan Perks, a gifted teacher, and his students were motivated by his encouragement and the challenge of a demanding play. Bond went to the dressing room afterwards. He told the students their acting had inspired him and that the writer’s block he’d been suffering was bound to have been removed. They all achieved As in their A-level exams.
John McAleavy
Wivenhoe, Essex
• In 1989, I won the booby prize for a slogan for the private hospital group I was working for (against my principles, but to keep the wolf from the door), with my entry of “your money or your life”. Under this destructive “government”, I hate to say it, but I told you so (Private hospitals ‘cannibalising’ NHS in England by doing 10% of elective operations, 8 March).
Peter Milton
London
