The natural literacy scheme quite rightly, refers to the need for capital letters to start proper nouns. Indeed, I’d be sitting pretty if I had a pound for every time I have written “Caps for names” in the margins of children’s books.
I therefore find it infuriating that publishers and TV companies so often fail to follow our lead. Jamie Oliver’s jamie’s italy is a case in point.
While I welcome Mr Oliver’s “Feed Me Better” campaign, I can’t say the same for his publisher’s lower-case fixation.
Most of our children will visit supermarkets in the run-up to Christmas, just as their check-outs are frantically promoting Jamie’s latest.
“If it’s good enough for Jamie,” they will think, “then it’s good enough for me.”
Mike Price
Plumstead
London
