Chris McGovern deserves full marks for tenacity if nothing else in still arguing that what children want from history is more stories (TES Letters Feb 22).

The problem is that gripping yarns are the property of the English not the history department. By contrast school history needs to be interesting and relevant. That could mean facts, it could mean stories and it could mean history which doesn’t have much to say about kings and queens or dates at all. What is certain is that McGovern’s prescription for school history remains too simplistic for the modern era.

Keith Flett
London Socialist Historians Group
Londonnbsp; N17 9HG