Congratulations on the article suggesting Dorothy Hodgkin, the Nobel prizewinner, as a role model for girls (“A woman of substance”, TES Friday, November 27).
I took advantage of an acquaintance with her husband to invite her to one of my speech nights at Willesden high school, a working-class comprehensive, in the 1970s. Her speech, entirely off the beaten track for such occasions, held the audience of parents and children spellbound with a detailed account of how a scientist did her daily work. She told the pupils that comprehensives were the best way of providing a pathway for all children to such careers as her own.
Max Morris. 44 Coolhurst Road. London N8
